We awoke to cloudy skies and before long some
light rain was falling. We had breakfast at 7:30am accompanied by Deborah, Mel
and Gwen and later joined by Mel and John. Having packed and paid our bill I
ventured outside to find the rain had stopped but within minutes of me deciding
I did not need my rain gear it started again!! All clothed up it was time for
photos and good byes before Judith very kindly accompanied us to the end of
the farmyard to point us in the right direction. It was 9:03am. We set off
across the fields thus avoiding the drop down to Littlebeck and the climb up
again to the moors. Almost immediately after we reached the Coat to Coast path
we met the first Coat to Coaster of the day who had already walked from
Grosmont. Once on the moor we were almost immediately glad of the GPS as the
track split. The obvious path to the left was not the one we needed. This was
another example of where going east to west makes route finding just that little
bit more difficult. We passed several more Coast to Coasters who had come
mainly from Grosmont with one having come form Egton Bridge. The last one we saw
was at around 11:00am just as we were descending into Grosmont. All were aiming
for completion on that day. Although the weather brightened on and off it
continued to drizzle occasionally. As we approached the station the
crossing gates closed but instead of a steam train an old diesel appeared
pulling a large number of coaches. We did some shopping in the Co-op and then
crossed over and sat on the platform and drank a cup of coffee from the station
cafe. We continued 50 minutes later at 11;08am. The walk to Egton was pleasant
and as we climbed up out of the village there was a rather inviting roadside
seat sheltered from the showers of rain and wind by the trees. As it was now
13:15pm we stopped for lunch including a mug of hot soup. We sat there for
over an hour before we set off again. East Arncliff Wood which I had
remembered as being quite wet had benefitted from the last 5 days of dry weather
and was quite good going. I thought that by now we would be meeting Coast to
Coasters heading for a night in Grosmont but only one pleasant man had
materialised. We took the back streets through Glaisdale and the strenuous pull
up the hill was quite a shock! We headed out onto Glaisdale Rigg and After
about 1.5 miles we met 4 Australians going the other way. They stopped and asked
where we were headed so late in the day and we replied: 'Hollins Farm' which was
about half a mile away. They were somewhat surprised at this as they were also
booked in to Hollins Farm but had believed it to be near the centre of
Glaisdale!! We carefully checked maps and ordnance survey references and
concluded it must lie somewhere below us. After 20 minutes and some fighting
through bracken we arrived together at our accommodation for the night. We
washed and changed as at 18:00pm the chef from the pub arrived in a
minibus to transport us there for a meal. The Australians were intending to
complete the walk tomorrow and now with an extra two miles to complete they were
keen for an early night. We were back at the farm before 21:00pm and Gemma
was asleep by 22:00pm. I wrote my journal and slept about an hour later. The
weather had been cooler and wetter than the first day but we never really
got wet and the walking had been very pleasant.
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