We were up early and
knocking on the door of the Blue Bell for our Breakfast at 7:30am, the weather
was again blue skies and sunshine. As we were having breakfast the landlord
(serving breakfast) said what a long day today was, we knew this however, and
we were mentally prepping ourselves as we ate the largest bowels of porridge
we’d ever seen. The forecast for today was “hottest day of the year so far”
whilst the walking was the “hardest on the C2C so far”, making for an interesting
day I thought.
It was shorts,
t-shirts and sun cream from the off as we checked out and left the Blue Bell
Inn, destination the Lion Inn on Blakey Ridge. The climb up toward the moor
tops and Beacon Hill certainly got us warmed up, and once at the top the views
were amazing looking back across the Vale of Mowbray with the Pennines rising
and visible beyond, looking equally as far away as the Hills where we now stood
did two days ago, contextualising how far we’d walked yesterday. It felt fantastic
to be up high and in the fells again after the flat road walk of yesterday,
with beautiful weather we were really enjoying the walk this morning. The hot
sunshine of the past couple of days had dried up a lot of the mud also, so the
going underfoot had now greatly improved.
Whilst the climbs up
and over the Cleveland hills were tough, they were very rewarding with
excellent views continuing, we soon seemed to move along the undulating hills
of Live Moor & Carlton moor.
We arrived at Lord
Stones Cafe at about 11:30am, this place has really changed since our last C2C,
in 2011 it was a lovely walker friendly cafe, serving tea’s, cakes, and even
beer! On a cold and wet day 2012 it was all boarded up and redundant offering
nothing but a doorway to shelter for lunch. Whilst now was a very “up market”
restaurant, which was more canapés & lattes then tea and cake. Still we
decided to go in for a coffee and tea all the same, taking our boots off and
being shown to our “table for two sir”.
Funnily enough
Astrix and Martin were just finishing their lunch on the table next to us,
after a short chat with them we ordered our tea and coffee, it was actually
nice to get out of the sun for a while which was now beating down and very hot
today.
After our drinks we
“asked for the bill”...really....and got back on the trail, setting off at the
same time as the Australian who’d also stopped for some refreshments, he
was still enjoying the walk and his
boots bought back in Grasmere, which seemed a long time ago now, were well and
truly broken in. He had a relatively short day today stopping in Great
Broughton tonight, whilst we still had at least another 12 miles to tick off
before our destination of Blakey Ridge.
We climbed once
again over the undulating tops, and over the ever impressive Wainstones before
climbing up to Urra moor for the 3 ½ mile trek to the desolate Blow Worth
crossing, it felt like a scene from a film walking across the dry dusty moor
tops with the sun beating down.
We arrived at the
crossing and double checked the maps (a common navigational black spot) and
continued to follow the disused rail track for the final 6 mile push to Blakey
Ridge, this section of the walk seems to go on forever, and is perhaps a bit of
an anti climax after the dramatic hills of Cleveland. We did however have some
fine views on a clear day like today, whilst also seeing a group of baby grouse
crossing the track in front of us, as well as a dear which skipped across the
heather moor with incredible speed.
We could just make
out the familiar figures as Astrix and Martin in the distance further along the
track as we decided to stop for a flapjack and some water, (too hot for tea or
coffee), the bottom of our feet was hurting again which was probably the road
walking from yesterday combined with this long rail track taking its toll.
We packed up and dug
in to tick off the last 3 miles, as we did someone had written “Pub this way”
in the gravel track, followed by another stating “Beer” half a mile later,
whilst we knew this it did cheer us on a little as we plodded the remote rail
track. The Lion Inn eventually came in to view on the horizon, which offered
another bout of encouragement on this ever long day. Just at the bottom of the
hill outside the pub another message in the gravel said “pub closed, next pub
200 miles”
Very funny we
thought....not, we walked in to the very busy Lion Inn, which on a day like
this was packed with bikers, classic car enthusiasts, people out for evening
meals and of course other walkers, we found a seat near the bar and ordered a
pint of Wainwright Ale and a baileys for Sarah, along with a nice bag of dry
roasted nuts.
Astrix and Martin
were already enjoying a beer, after a short chat with them we headed up to get
showered and changed, today is a one of the toughest days on C2C, so the shower
felt amazing, although I soon noticed a few little bits of sun burn in the
shower I’d again missed with the cream.
After getting
refreshed and washing some clothes in the sink we headed down for dinner, it
was still quite busy in the bar, however Astrix and Martin were still there and
had now claimed a bigger table, so it was nice to sit and chat with them. We
had a really nice night that evening chatting between the four of us, great
food and beer at the lion Inn, if you’ve never been make sure you do one day.
And at the end of a long day, great food, beer and nice company of friends we’d
met on the trail made for a pleasant evening. Astrix and Martin were camping
tonight, not too far from the pub as they were returning for breakfast, so as
they headed off to pitch up, I ordered another beer and we headed up to the
room and put the telly on. We we’re both starting to reflect on what had been a
fantastic walk so far, and becoming slightly concerned we only had a few days
left. After my beer we had a cup of tea watching the weather, which had now
become my favourite programme, hot clear and sunny was tomorrows forecast
again, and we turned in for the night. It’s essentially all downhill from here;
this was perhaps our last long and tough day. We fell asleep to the sound of
grouse making that weird noise they do, whilst contemplating what day 11 will
bring.
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