Of course whilst we had been away walking… other things had been happening. Nikki and Ellie had been in Morocco, when Ellie was back she was at school prize giving where she picked up a couple of awards. Sadly though, Nikki also had to deal with one of her horses, Murphy, being put down. His arthritis had reached a point where the vet advised that he needed to be allowed to leave the world. Sad day.

On Friday 20th, Tricia and Ellie took Isobel to ‘fairies and dragons’ at Woburn for a birthday treat. On Sunday 22nd we had a family dinner, bbq’d chicken and salad. Gran and Gramps, Nikki and Matt, Robbie and Amy came over. Clive, who was on his own as Pat was down in Bournemouth and Alex away came and joined us. Thursday 26th Tricia had a funeral in the morning. One of the ladies in her art class had unexpectedly passed away whilst we were doing the coast to coast. Then in the afternoon she had to take her Dad to Amersham hospital for a minor op. Friday 27th we hosted curry night – we had hoped to sit outside, but after weeks of dry weather, it rained…

Thursday 2nd August…. not a day Tricia was looking forward to, as she had to have oral surgery for the infection that had been bothering her for a month or so.  The surgery went well, but she will be on antibiotics for a while, and limited on what she can eat. Friday 3rd I dropped Robbie and Amy off at Heathrow as they went off on their Munich holiday. During the trip Robbie proposed to Amy… and she said yes!

Sunday 12th we had a family lunch again… Nikki was over, but no Matt as he was away in Cumbria. Amy and Robbie were away for the weekend, but Ellie had her boyfriend Matt over.

This last week had plenty happening…. the shower pump failed, we got Stephen Gurney  in to put in a replacement. Roy was in resealing the bath after a leak, and repairing the dining room ceiling… and he fixed a fence panel for us. Tricia had her bank accounts hacked, but fortunately TSB sorted out within 24 hours.

Ellie had her A level results this week, she did ok, and is off to Lincoln Uni. It was also our 32nd wedding anniversary :-). Tricia and I went for a meal at the Pilgrim to celebrate.

Saturday 14th…. the weather was beautiful. After a few cooler days, the thermostat was back up. We started with a decent breakfast, followed by a walk down to the bay again… and I purchased a ‘coast to coast’ polo shirt. Back up the hill, and all into Clive’s car. Clive driving, Tricia navigating, me in the back with Pat, and off to Whitby.

We parked up at Whitby Abbey, and looked at the old ruin… feel familiar I asked Pat. Whack. Ouch. A nice coffee and piece of gluten free cake, and we walked to a nearby church… St Mary’s, that overlooked the bay. The church graveyard was apparently used as a setting in the novel Dracula… I made a comment about the living dead, looked at Pat, Whack. Ouch. Feeling battered we walked the 199 steps down into Whitby and the old town… lovely shops but every other one seemed to sell Jet.

Having finished in Whitby we then went out to Grosmont to look at the trains, before returning to Robin Hoods Bay… we dined at the Victoria Hotel. A pleasant day.

Sunday was a slowish start, breakfast, packing and then a reluctant getting into the car and a steady trip back. We stopped for lunch at Belton House near Grantham. We walked the grounds in the baking sun… Then back in the car for the last part of the journey, and home for around 6pm. Ellie had done tea for us. Good girl.

Friday the 13th, and the final day for walking. A nice breakfast, we set off on our final day… 19 miles scheduled for today. We walked down through Graisdale, stopping off at the Beggars Bridge. Apparently built by a Thomas Ferris in 1619. Ferris was a poor man who wanted to wed the daughter of a wealthy local squire. In order to win her hand, he planned to set sail from Whitby to make his fortune. On the night that he left, the river was high after rain, and he was unable to make a last visit to his intended. He eventually returned from his travels a rich man and, after marrying the squire’s daughter, built Beggar’s Bridge so that no other lovers would be separated as they were. Well done Thomas.

Up through some woods we headed towards Egton Bridge, passing the inn the Swiss Ladies stayed at the night before. It was then onto Grosmont… Grosmont has the North Yorks Moor steam railway running through it, and as luck would have it, there were a couple of trains in station. Brilliant. We stopped and watched. Then it was the long steep climb out of Grosmont. We had heard a few walkers talk of the climb out of Grosmont with some trepidation… but after starting this walk in the Lake District, this was no problem for me and Tricia, we were walking fit and we just marched up :-).

We carried on through Littlebeck, and down toward ‘Falling Foss’ … we stopped and had lunch here. A pleasant stop… but I was starting to weary of walking and just wanted to finish the walk now. Up and out across Sneaton Moor, it was a long drag, heading towards Hawsker, but never really seeming to get nearer. Eventually we reached the coast… hoorah, and circled south along the coast towards Robin Hoods Bay. We arrived around 5pm’ish, and walked down to the front where we were greeted by Pat and Clive who had driven all the way up to meet us at the end. Prosecco followed. 🙂

We walked back up and found the guest house. After showers it was off for a meal at the Wayfarer. A wonderful meal with Pat & Clive, and we were joined at the end by Sybille and Cornelia. We bid our farewells, they were both off early in the morning.

We had done it… 192 miles plus all the detours and off C2C trail walking… I was tired and footsore :-).

Well it turned out Dave wasn’t an axe murderer. We woke up next morning, all in one piece and still alive. It was an odd breakfast…. the man’s ‘touch’ was evident in the way the places were laid out. Anyone want to eat their breakfast cereal with a serving spoon? No gluten free bread today :-(. Dave, the Neil Young, aged rocker wannabe, drove us back out to where we finished the previous night… and we started out again.

It was a bit cooler and overcast, but that was quite a relief. We started up.. as we always seemed to do, and were quickly joined by our Swiss Lady companions. They offered commiserations on the football… I just tried to keep pace with the fleet footed Sybille. I am sure there is some mountain goat in her DNA. We reached the top, and I tried to pretend I was ok and that I wasn’t just about to have a heart attack. We walked Carr Ridge, the Ladies then moved on and Tricia and I carried on at our own pace. Across Farndale moor and then High Blakey Moor, we arrived at our lunch destination, the Lion Inn. The Swiss Ladies were there, already one pint down, we sat in a  group with them, two men doing the C2C, and Stefan and Ilona from Stuttgart. We had some lunch, which was basically an under cooked baked potato… mine was with tuna and salad. I made the mistake of not eating my salad, and got lectured by Sybille, so ended up eating the salad.

We then ventured out, up the road to ‘Fat Betty’, a stone just off the path, where tradition states you can leave some food and pick some up… odd. Anyway, sweets were placed of Fat Betty. The two ladies had their sandwiches here, Tricia and I moved on, knowing they would catch us up at some point. Which they did as we walked Glaisdale Rigg… we walked at pace (of course) with them, and came down into Glaisdale just after 4pm. Just over 18 miles in the day.

We stayed at ‘Greenhowe B&B’ and didn’t venture out again. A lovely room at the top of the house, our evening meal was in the B&B, a relaxing evening.