The Walk - Stage 10 - Reeth to Richmond

 

First thing: let me say Happy Birthday Sawyer! Hope you have an amazing day!

Before I start on today, I guess I was too tired to post our dinner pics from last night. 

When we arrived at the hotel, we were asked if we wanted a table for dinner. We said of course. We could have 6:00 or 7:30. We picked 6 as by 7:30 we are typically tucked in bed blogging and plotting the next days route (Jo Anne’s job 😁). 

Sundays are roast days in this part of the world so the special of the day is roast beef or roast chicken. Jo Anne chose the beef and I opted for chicken. You have to walk up to the bar to order and it’s quite chaotic, push and shove chaotic. We finally managed to work our way up to the till and place our order. The staff was quite rude all round. After a good wait, the food arrived. Roast was not cooked to tender and the chicken was over cooked, dry and tough. We didn’t eat much of it before removing ourselves from the loud bar atmosphere and heading up up up the stairs again. Hmmm, maybe that’s why I didn’t post all that last night. 

We awake to a beautiful morning with light rain forecast off and on throughout the day. The sound of hunters mars the peaceful setting. I think I mentioned that it is grouse season.

Our window view. I tried to get a photo not littered with cars and humans beings. Wasn’t so successful. 

Since we were last to checkin yesterday the earliest we can have breakfast this morning is 8:35. 🤷‍♀️

Porridge and toast with the option of a full English. We had the porridge, which has been instant everywhere except the Glara Mara Hotel.

Bags are returned to the pickup area for the Sherpa, backpacks are stuffed with rain gear and snacks. We didn’t order a sandwich to go this morning since there was only one person working and he was flustered and a bit grumpy. May check with the market next door before taking off.  

Church on the green

Arkle Beck (stream)

In Texas we call these rivers. 

Click and zoom in to see the grouse in the middle of the photo. He was not the least bit concerned about us or the hunters. Guess he knew he was in a safe zone, but the sound of hunting follows us.

Signpost showing us direction and distance. Love seeing these. 

Grinton church. 

Notably missing from Reeth is the parish church. The cathedral of Swaledale is located one mile away in Grinton. 

Reeth is an archetypal Yorkshire dales village. It is the capital of Swaledale and holds a market on the village green every Friday. It was formerly a robust mining village in the 1800s, and was the location for filming of the TV show called "All Creatures Great and Small", based on James Herriot's books about a local veterinarian in Yorkshire.

Common Alder

Back to the river Swale 

Grassy trail - unlike this one, some of the trail heading up to Marrick Priory was a bit obscure. 

Leaving the valley behind

Marrick Priory - a 12th century Benedictine priory, occupied by nuns from 1154 until Henry VIII had his way with it, after which it became a ruin, with only the tower remaining. Later, it became the parish church and a separate farm, and is now an outdoor education and residential center.

Leaving the farm road in favor of a grass path leading up to a wicket-gate leading into a wood. 

AW says this path through the wood, known as Nunnery Steps is reputed to have 375 steps, but they are insignificant. 😂 

After first 100, breathe!

After second 100. Gasping for breath and legs burn. 

After third 100, sucking in air, legs on fire. 

After last bit, oxygen deprived and legs are like jello. 

But the climb isn’t over yet.

I finally make it to the top. Ah wainwright, you are such the jokester. Insignificant? Hardly!

The view over the valley is quite nice. 

And yes, there’s Jo Anne making the last little climb.

The old chapel is in ruins, and the village post office, school, inn and smithy have all been converted into houses. 

The church is now St Andrew’s Mission. 

This defibrillator is conveniently located at the top of the hill after the nunnery steps. 

Fresh farm eggs anyone? Just leave your money in the jar. 

I can’t go past one of these post boxes without remembering that Kathy and I used to write letters to each other every week (yes, actual letters on paper). I still have the letter she wrote to me when she heard I was in labor with Juniper. She said, "just think, here I sit sewing maternity clothes and you're having a baby!" She was 4 months pregnant with Jennifer at the time. One of the many things we shared.

We walk through field after field of sheep

Squeezing ourselves through stile after stile. Yes Kody, we are not only stiling, we have become pro-stilers. 

The wind is blowing 20+ mph and the wind chill is in the 40’s, but it’s not raining so we aren’t complaining. The grass in this field is almost laying flat on the ground because of the wind. 

Walking down a steep hill, using the power poles in the distance as a landmark. 

Says we will pass a barn. Hoping this is it. 

Yay! A coast to coast sign!

Seriously? 

And another sheep field to cross. Jo Anne said, Carol you’ve got some major stuff on the bottom of your boot. Really? 

Well it’s not at a waterfall or by the river, but it’s out of the wind and warmed by the sun, so it makes a decent place to stop for our lunch of an apple and crisps. 

More card fodder

Grove of sycamore trees, known as the sycamore maple in the British isles and the maple in America. 

Posing for me. I really think she just wanted my apple. 

So glad to know there’s another stile 650 meters that way. 

Marske village - is a quiet little place, likely only disturbed by the tread of C2C walkers' boots as we plod through.

English yew trees

Church of "St Edmund the Martyr"

Hmmmm 

St Edmund was a Saxon king who was killed in 870 by the Danes, who demanded that he renounce his faith. When he refused, they beat him, pierced him with arrows, and severed his head (according to legend). This was during the great struggle between the Norse/Danish/Viking pagans and the Christian Saxons and Alfred the Great - even before it was called England. 

We thought these might be blueberries but they puckered the jaw like sour lemons. Found out they were blackthorn or sloe, used to make sloe gin. 

Applegarth Scar and yes, we’re going over it. 

Going up then down, up then down. 

And down to Paddy’s bridge.

From the bridge, we climb

And climb 

And climb 

And climb

And finally reach the top. If you can look beyond the Donald Trump hairdo (a freak happenstance of wind and sunlight) to the valley far, far, far in the distance, that is from whence we have come. I wasn’t going to post this pic but we laughed so hard about it that Jo Anne said I had to. 

Applegarth Farm

Stile and C2C sign

We walk 

And walk

And walk some more 

Whitcliffe Wood is a popular local walk (dark, cool, lush, green and lovely), and gives us a chance to 'wind down' as we approach Richmond. It is also along this route that we leave the Yorkshire Dales National Park (the second of the three national parks we will cross, and where we've been walking since leaving Shap). 😢

Even after arriving at the Richmond sign, we still have over a mile to go. 

This sign has a quote from AW and the mileage from St Bees (113.5 miles) and to Robin Hood’s Bay (76.5) from this point.

However, we have actually walked 159.9 miles already because we have walked on our rest days and we always walk around the towns where we’re staying.

There are beautiful, brightly colored rose hips everywhere. 

The clouds are ominous and the wind is blowing them toward us. It begins to rain lightly so we don our rain coats and pack covers. 

It didn’t last long. 

I thought these two vehicles were photo worthy. 

Sending some fall pics your way. 

The bustle of Richmond contrasts sharply with the tranquility of our journey.

Our lodging for the next two nights, The Buck Hotel, is located in the heart of Richmond, ideally situated for exploring the beautiful scenery and features of this, the largest of the towns on our C2C journey. Tomorrow is a rest day, so we will do laundry and explore.

It was difficult to find a place open to eat at 4 in the afternoon so we just popped into the local fish and chippy. The fish was good but the chips were old and we didn’t eat them. 

Since we hadn’t had much breakfast or lunch we decided we could have an ice cream. 😁

Todays stats:

32,286 steps

14.8 miles

59 floors

The wind was cold as we walked back to the hotel and it started to rain again. 

"He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses."

Psalm 135:7

It came a downpour shortly after we had our showers and were tucked nicely in bed, blogging and planning. We’ve been so blessed with amazingly gorgeous weather having only one very rainy day so far. 

“Now the very blustery night turned into a very rainy night. And Pooh kept his lonely vigil hour after hour, until at last Pooh fell asleep – and he began to dream…” (Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day)