Distance Walked: 18.5km, Time Taken: 5h 14m, # Beers: 1/2 pint Theakston Old Peculiar
Today was definitely a Type 2 fun day, so we just motored along. Admittedly the weather wasn't as bad as we had feared. Instead of heavy rain and northerly winds, i.e. into our faces, we had moderate rain and a moderate south-westerly breeze. Once we got to the top of the initial climb, most of our route was along the track of an old disused railway line so the gradients were very gentle (the yellow bits on the plot). Paul, our guide, kept asking us if we wanted to stop for a rest or a snack, but we just wanted to arrive at our destination as soon as possible and get out of the cold and the wet. It was a shame about the weather as, when the mist lifted, you could tell there would have been fabulous views. However, most of the time you couldn't see much at all. In fact, sometimes you could only see about 50m in any direction.
Walking today was particularly difficult for me as I've developed a cold. A had a sore throat on Saturday but I tried to convince myself it was nothing and would pass. It wasn't and it hasn't. I have full on cold. Sore throat, cough, congested sinuses and runny nose. How the last two things can be true at the same time always baffles me. Today, instead of being one of the fastest walkers, I was one of the slowest. Being able to breathe easily is important for hiking, particularly uphill. Who knew?
The interesting catering at last night's hotel continued this morning at breakfast. Our waitress specialised in dry humour. It was a bit much first thing in the morning before coffee but quite amusing all the same. However, if I was married to her I have a suspect I would strangle her. Since we knew it was going to be a cold, wet day I decided to have particularly big breakfast so I wouldn't have to open my pack to get out any snacks for second breakfast. I ordered porridge followed by eggs royale - eggs benedict but with smoked salmon rather than ham. I got the eggs first and then halfway through that, the porridge came. The muffins had been so well toasted you could have used them as a hockey puck. The poached eggs could have doubled as hard-boiled eggs. The porridge was lumpy.
Then we collected our packed lunches. We ordered the full packed lunch. This isn't just sandwiches but also includes a packet of crisps, a chocolate bar, a drink and piece of fruit. We just got sandwiches. After complaints were made a handful of chocolate bars and a few packets of crisps appeared. When we finally got to eat lunch my roast beef with horseradish sandwiches turned out to be ham and mustard. At least they were on brown bread as I'd requested. Aaron dislikes brown bread and always orders his sandwiches on white bread. They almost always come on brown bread, including today.
We made such good time we got to the Lion Inn at Blakely Ridge at about 12:30pm. This is an old 16th century inn that has served a variety of different sorts of customers over the years. I'm amazed it has continued as it is out in the middle of nowhere. It is a fabulous building with lots of nooks and crannies, low ceilings and exposed beams. I didn't get a photo of it but here is a drawing of it.
These days it is very popular with hikers. In fact, it was crowded not just with us but about a dozen other people we've seen on our travels. It is the only spot actually on the C2C trail for miles in either direction. When we arrived there was a man from the SherpaVan luggage moving service collecting bags from hikers who stayed there last night and dropping of new bags for the latest crop. This included four American women we've seen often who got to the inn shortly after us. They are stopping there for the night. We went on a further 4km (after lunch) and got picked up by Richie, the Head Badger van man, who drove us to our hotel for tonight. We are all headed for Grosmont tomorrow, but we will have a slightly easier time of it given the extra distance we walked today. Still, I'm sorry we didn't get to stay at the Lion Inn. Our hotel here is pleasant but doesn't have anything like as much character.
It is chef's night off tonight here so we drove to another pub in town for dinner. It was about a 10m walk away but it is still raining so walking was not even considered. I had a "small" piece of steak & ale pie which You Could Eat followed by their tiramisu. For a non-Italian restaurant tiramisu it was surprisingly decent. It had traces of marsala as well as coffee (I'd have used a good deal more of both) and was properly made with savoiardi biscuits. The biscuit to cream ratio was almost spot on. A solid 7 out of 10. Paul was very disappointed to discover none of the desserts were served with custard. He is having withdrawal symptoms. Mark said Paul was dis-custarded by it. Mark has started to display a distressing inclination for making puns.
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