Maybe it’s a Microsoft trait; never let any uncertainty stop you from charging ahead with tremendous confidence. And when all else fails just convince everyone that you’re right. So it was not surprising that we found ourselves lost for the second time in two days! Pwned.
But first some lead-in….
Had a nice dinner at this great B+B, the owners had three daughters and everything they owned still seemed to be in the house. The bathroom was filled with different creams, shampoos, deodorants, bath salts, etc. Ethan would have been in heaven.
Cold, rainy and extremely windy night. Big storm was coming down from Scotland. We awoke to a light rain. I had the big English breakfast (eggs, bacon, sausage, tomatoes, mushrooms, beans), April just had porridge and tomatoes and beans.
We head out in light rains. Crossed a few fields, one with a bull in it, then hooked up with the ‘official” trail. We had our umbrellas out and were feeling kind of smug cause they were working so nicely. Then we headed higher in the moors and the wind and rain started blowing like hell; 25-30 mph constantly with gusts to 40-50. So we had to stash the umbrellas and put on our rain suits. Had to walk a short distance on a busy road, cars/trucks blasting us with noise/spray. Yikes. Crossed into a heather field then dropped a few miles down to the delightful little town of Grosmont. They had an old train station and an old steam train. The ladies waiting room for their bathroom had a nice fire going in the fireplace. It’s the same train and area they used to film the first Harry Potter movie (when he heads off to school).
Then we followed a nice path along the Esk River to supposedly one of the prettiest towns on the walk, Egton. William the Conqueror gave this land/village to his blacksmith in year 1070. Another nice British anecdote for this area: Nicholas Postgate was hung, drawn and quartered in 1679 for secretly baptizing someone as a Catholic. That’s religion for you.
Anyway we stopped at a great inn for a cup of tea, but the menu was so good we decided to eat lunch. April couldn’t resist the split pea/ham soup, and likewise I had to have the baguette with pot roast steak in it and lots of gravy. It was awesome. Turns out we couldn’t cross the river over to the village because it’s been raining so hard the stepping stones were underwater (another bridge was too far away).
After lunch we were feeling great, we thought we only had an hour left (3 miles), feet were good, it wasn’t too rainy and away we charged up the hill with Pete confidently leading the way. I was really getting the hang of this hike and area. It was only supposed to be about a mile up the hill; because it was a road portion I hadn’t looked at the map much. But yes just like map indicated a road came in from the left after a little way in, then another road off to the left, so our trail should be to the right. And sure enough there was a sign, but it seemed a little long to get here. And by now it was pissing rain and windy as hell again. There was a woman with a good map right there waiting for some kids from the other direction, and she showed us a better route about ¼ mile ahead. Sure, why not.
We go walking in amongst the beautiful purple heather. The trail is good. But after awhile it seemed to be heading away from where we want to go. So I start questioning this woman’s map reading skills. April was sure the women had been on this trial. We decide to bushwhack over to the real trail. I’m reading the map and explaining how everything will play out. How we need to drop down to the confluence of two rivers. We climb over some rocks walls topped with barbed wire. Then we realize we’re walking towards some farm that shouldn’t be there. Finally we realize we’re fucked. We have no idea where we are. We scramble over another rock/barbed wire fence, I have to give April a fireman’s carry to get her over the last bit of barbed wire. We’re sort of laughing and mad all at the same time. So we decide to head back towards the road, we come across a trail, we finally hit the road again at the same exact spot we almost first went in at. What the hell?! Maybe we were on the trail after all? But we had just done about a 1-2 mile triangle in the heather fields. Then we look at the map more carefully and it finally hits us that we weren’t even on the right freaking road! So none of these trails into the heather were correct. We had to walk all the way back down the hill to our lunch spot. And you can be sure I heard about it every freaking step back to the inn. And of course it was still pissing rain and windy. Sigh, we lost about 2 hours and walked an extra 3-4 miles. Like I said, pwned.
The correct road was right there by the inn, as the book and map described, it followed the river, then thru some woods. Easy and nice hike as compared to our foolishness up on the hillside. By now April’s feet started really hurting. To top it all off, I lost my hat on this woods walk. It was stashed in my coat above my hip belt, but I undid my hip belt for a change of pace and it must have fallen out. Finally after an hour we hit our town but the B+B was way up a damn hill.
However a nice spot of tea, some hot showers and a little rest made everything better again. April wanted to skip dinner cause it was a 15 minute walk to the pub. But I convinced her to go, we had burgers/beer. So much for losing weight.
The beers are great here, hand-pulled, very little carbonation. We saw our first wooden house today, all the houses are made of stone, very solid in the face of all this wind/rain. It’s incredibly green for end of summer, again beautiful bucolic countryside, Sheep and cows everywhere.
Almost all the walkers are going west-east. We’re the only one’s going east-west. So we get to say hi to lots of people. We figured we would be able to ask them directions. Obviously that part of the plan isn’t working out too well.The first day we did 11 miles. Plus 1 mile lost. Today we did 8 miles plus about 4 being lost. Tomorrow we have an 18 mile day. And we have our eye on a nice shortcut to start the day!
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