Thursday 2 June 2011

Day 9 Colburn to Ingleby Cross 22 miles



We awoke in our tent pretty early, I was up and about for around 6:30 and made us a cup of tea, and this was also a chance for me to test my toaster attachment to the stove Sarah bought as we’d picked up some muffins in Richmond yesterday, so it was ham tosties for breakfast. Then we packed up and headed for Ingleby Cross.

elevation profile

The weather started overcast but once again cleared to be a nice morning, it wasn’t long before we met up with Martin who was walking with Paul today as Sharon had damaged her ankles the day before and had swapped roles for the day. The first part of the day we continued to follow the river Swale before heading off across the very flat grounds of the Vale of Mowbray, as Wainwright states in his book, “those who believe the world is flat are mightily encouraged by this stage of the walk” or a little dull is another way of putting it. But it was a good chance to tick of some miles and plod on we did, through field, after field after road……..it may be flat but it’s the longest section on the whole coast to coast route and felt like it.

Honesty Shop




We passed an honesty shop some kind folk had set up out front of their farm, offering chocolate, cake and drinks! So we all treated ourselves and left payment in the bucket of course.









We all plodded on trying to ignore the black clouds, rumbles of thunder and flashes of lightening creeping up behind us as we passed through the village of Streetlam. However we couldn’t ignore it any longer and along came the pretty heavy and relentless rain which stuck with us for the rest of the day.






I have to say this day seemed to go on forever and the driving rain did not help, the fields were now becoming very muddy and my gamble of wearing walking trainers instead of my boots today had well and truly backfired and my feet were soaked.














As we approached Ingleby Cross we were all getting a little down and damp and were suddenly faced with the challenge of crossing the A19, which looked pretty much like a motorway to me. After over 20miles walking behind us we just didn’t feel like we had a turn of pace in our locker to get across this road, but we managed to dig deep and ran across to safety….phew!!

We arrived at the Blue Bell in where we were camping for the night and set the tent up wet, got in wet, and so set for a wet evening. But at least they had a warm shower which was something I was really looking forward to.

chillin out
After freshening up we had our tea in the Blue Bell Inn, and a few drinks with Kerry, Sharon, Martin & Paul, tea was ok but not the best we’d had. Joyce and John were also in the pub so it was nice to catch up with them also.

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