Misty North York Moors!
For the rest of the morning it constantly changed between heavy rain and drizzle although it didn't dampen our progress. In fact our spirits were fairly high as we were making good progress over the hilly terrain and navigation was made easy as we were following the waymarked Cleveland Way. We reached Clay Bank Top (152.25 miles, 12.25 for the day) in around 3.5hrs which was very good progress considering there were about half a dozen or so 400m+ climbs in short succession. My feet were feeling pretty good for a change due to the up and down nature of the terrain and we ran some of the rocky downhill sections at a fair pace.
The next 18 miles to Glaisdale (our original target for the night) was over much of the same but the moors (from what little we could see) were a bit more undulating with a peaks of 450m. We began the long climb up from Clay Bank and continued along the Cleveland Way until we reached an old dismantled railway which we were to follow until our scheduled rest stop at the Lion Inn, probably another 6 miles away or so. To begin with the railway was fairly flat so we began running it at a fair pace, but it continued to stay flat so we ran some more and more and in no time at all we had reached the Lion Inn! This undoubtedly was our best progress of the whole trip - something like 10 miles in 1hr 50 mins which included a long steep climb at the beginning.
Along the railway line we passed loads of other C2C walkers - strangely most of which were American. In fact I would go as far to so that over the course of the whole trip about 70% were American, 10% other nationalities and 20% British. We were definitely in the minority - I'm sure there is a story there somewhere.
As our progress was so rapid we got to the pub at 11.30am when we expected to reach it at around 2pm. As a result we had to wait 30 mins before they started to serve food. I had a jacket potato with cheese and more lemonade and tea! I was really conscious there how much we were stinking and started to feel a bit embarrassed. We left the pub at about 1pm with just 10 miles or so to Glaisdale so we could afford to take it easy as our work was done for the day. When we stepped outside the weather had completely changed and was again sunny! More sunburn!
Although we walked the first road section we decided to run the next bit over the moors and again we made excellent progress - it was even starting to become enjoyable! Not only did we run the downhill bits, but also the flat sections and the uphill bits too; we were flying! Not far from Glaisdale we had only 20 more miles to do (170 miles completed) of the whole C2C I just said to Steve 'I'm harbouring thoughts'. He knew what I was on about - it suddenly became possible that we could finish the C2C that evening. It would mean a very late finish, perhaps 8.30pm before having to walk a fair bit to a campsite, but none the less it was still doable.
In the end we decided against it, not because we didn't think it was possible but because we wanted to savour the moment we reached Robin Hoods Bay, not virtually collapse when we got there. We reached Glaisdale at about 3.15pm and decided that it was too early to camp so we agreed to do another 4 miles that afternoon and stop at Grosmont. Those last five miles was surprisingly up some little sharp ascent and descents, but we took our time as we were in no rush. My feet were bad again over the last few miles but this time it didn't concern me so much.
We reached Grosmont just gone 5pm and literally just a few metres from the route we made camp and cooked our last evening meal of the trip. 175 miles completed, 35 for the day - just 15 left of the journey). The campsite didn't have a shower so we had to stink even more in our sweaty clothes.
Campsite at Grosmont
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