Day 10

Reeth to Richmond and beyond

Well we intended to knock off a few miles today and we succeeded; 17.5 miles with over 1,000’ of total climb and about 1,500’ of descent.

Colin decided to walk but left later and at a slower pace; when he got to Richmond (10.5mi) he still felt OK so did another 2 miles for the hell of it. We expect he will join us for tomorrows 16mi (flat) slog.

Started off from Reeth at 8.30 under a cloudless sky and soon reached Marrick Priory

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Where we spent a delightful 5 minutes watching a shepherd and his dog work the sheep.

Climbed up the “nun’s steps” and realized that the reason they wear long habits is to protect themselves from stinging nettles.

On reaching the top we had our first view of the Mowbray Plain (tomorrows walk) and the Cleveland Hills (the day after).

Don stopped around here to round up some cows (if you don’t like cows don’t do the C2C)

And then it was across the fields to Marske, a walk through this picturesque village and down across more fields to a stream where Cathy and I had had lunch 8 years ago.

A steep climb up to a cross trail

And then a fairly level walk past the 4 Applegarth farms

And a long descent into Richmond where I got a bit excited and tried to kick the sign over

We stopped to check into our hotel and but the makings for lunch (pork pie and Scotch egg) and then through the square

And onwards to the converted station where I washed lunch down with an ice cream. We then took an alternative to the accepted trail by using the old railway line for a mile

Before joining C2C at the sewerage works!

 Maybe it was the smell but we went a bit wrong here and I had to ask a military guy (from Catterick Barracks) who was out with his Alsatian (smile at the doggie Geof) who put us right. In all three of my C2Cs I have made a small error here, even with GPS and two books and one map. Actually we made another mistake later on as we approached the A1 where we circumnavigated a large field by mistake.

We finally got to Bolton on Swale – the last we will see of this beautiful river – found a nearby service station, rang a taxi, and was back at our pub in Richmond by 5 p.m., Colin got in about an hour later.