Well - first of a big thanks to all who answered my various questions over
the last few months on god knows how many different subjects!
After what seems like months of thinking about it and planning time off work
and all that I have finally completed the Cleveland Way in 8 days - but I
believe that I could have comfortably done it in 5 maybe six days. (Oh, and
I as the first this year to sign the completion book for the Cleveland Way
in the Cafe at Filey Brigg - quite proud of that actually!)
Left home early Sunday morning (20th) to catch the 0726 train from Dewsbury
to York so I could catch the Moorsbus from York to Helmsley - perhaps not
the best of ideas as I had nearly an hour to sit in York Station doing
absolutely nothing at 8am on a lovely Sunday morning! Ah well - all part of
the fun! Having been able to luckily leave my stuff at the youth hostel I
spent the rest of the day wandering around doing not a lot - had a look at
the castle (without going in) and had quite a walk around the village -
sampling a few of the ales on offer in 2 of the pubs before going back to
the YH for an evening meal and an early night - have to say that the YH
staff were very friendly and the food was excellent.
Monday morning brought some good weather so I was up an out, ready to set
off - ok maybe not so early, but I was up and walking for about 0930, which
for me was quite early! Nice walk through to Hambleton in what at times was
quite sunny and hot weather. Arrived in Hambleton after a not very eventful
walk at about 2pm to find that the Pub I had intended to eat at and pitch in
the garden was shut and not serving food that evening either - ah well -
quick walk to the visitor centre to get the passport stamped and asked about
somewhere to pitch. In the end I found myself pitched in the back of Cote
Faw (or something like that) B&B for the night. spent the evening wandering
around the area - hoping to get a view of the white horse, but the mist had
formed a bit so wasn't really able to see anything.
Tuesday wasn't such a good day - it rained through the night and most of the
day while walking - not impressed at having to put a wet tent away, but
wasn't too bad. The walk over the Hambleton hills to Osmotherley wasn't
particularly interesting - horses has obviously been using the path quite
recently and with it being so wet and muddy the path was churned up somewhat
making progress a bit difficult - having my newly purchased trekking pole
thingumy saved quite a few slips and trips! Visibility on the walk was
shocking for most of the morning - it was lucky if I could see more than
100ft or so in front of me at times. The going got rather easier when I got
onto Hambleton Road/Hambleton street with the path being more identifiable
and a lot easier to walk, although it did seem to be rather a boring stretch
with little variation in views (well it varied between 20ft to about 200ft
of visibility!). ended up in my own little world strolling along - only to
be rudely awoken as it were by a cyclist's cheery hello as he zoomed past
me! Only interest from the day was me slipping most of the way down a pretty
steep hill in a farmers field - the path had been diverted so it was just
going over grassland down the hill that was rather wet and slippy - manages
to stop one or two falls, but still ended up sliding down the hill on my
a**e - wasn't impressed as I was only about 2 miles away from the end! Spent
the night in the YH at Osmotherley - great Youth Hostel, with yet again
friendly staff and great food. The drying room was a blessing as well -
meant I could start the next day with dry kit - which is always so much
nicer than putting wet kit on.
Wednesday brought much nicer weather than the day before so I was off early
to make the most of it - was out walking by about 0900 for the ascent up and
out of Osmotherley for the open moor of Scarth Wood Moor before going back
into the shade of the trees in Clain Wood. Was suppressed at how much ground
I was covering in such a short time compared to the previous days. Found one
of the Geocaches that I had planned to look for (Riser) and stopped to
admire the views for a while before heading back to the hill fest of the
day. coming down off Carlton Moor I had seen people disappear into what
looked like a wooded area and not reappear which was a bit strange. Looking
at the map showed it be to a picnic spot - but I hadn't planned on stopping
for lunch till I got to the view point on Cringle moor. seeing that there
was a cafe at the picnic spot swayed my decision a bit though (or was that
the John Smiths Smooth at pound a pint? ). Also gave me a chance to top up
my water supplies (which I was glad I did!). After lunch the walk carried on
up to the top of cringle moor - stopping on the way up to talk to various
'nice day walkers'! Attempted to find the geocache (over the edge) on the
way across Kirby Bank but gave up after a bit as there were too many people
around and I wanted to push on. Was quite supprised to get to where I had
planned on staying the night so early on in the afternoon - found myself at
the Wainstones at 1330 - so decided to keep walking and see how far I got by
the time it got dark. I hadn't reckoned on there being so many hills that
needed to be climbed only to descent them on the other side to go up and
over another hill - that slowed the going down a bit, but once the summit of
Round Hill was reached (another Marilyn to tick off!) it was just monotonous
mile munching for the rest of the day. By 1800 I was more or less at Kildale
so decided that even if it started to get dark I might as well walk to the
camping barn at Kildale - which I was glad I did!
Thursday was yet again another warm and pretty sunny day - although the mist
had come in again so the views were not overly spectacular. As I had covered
most of the planned walk for today the previous day I decided that I might
as well have another long day so that I was a day ahead of myself (proved
rather useful in Whitby!). Bit annoyed at Kildale as the stamping place for
the Passport scheme was only open 11am to 5pm so I couldn't stamp the
passport 🙁. Long climb out of Kildale found me at the Captain Cook monument
for about 0930 - and another Geocache Find! (Cleveland's famous seafarer
(Co. Cleveland)). Spent quite a while sheltering from the wind at the
monument sorting out my feet - somehow I had managed to acquire a blister
where the toes meet the foot on my left foot (grr!). Hadn't realised until I
properly studied the map that ascent and decent of Roseberry Topping was
part of the walk. I couldn't see the point of hauling my pack up and down
the hill so dumped it at the bottom while I went up and down it! The walk
through Guisborough Woods proved quite interesting as they are doing quite a
lot of forestry work in there at the moment - I wouldn't go as far to say I
got lost but I did end up taking the wrong path through the woods so instead
of going straight through the woods I ended up taking a big arc away from
the path to rejoin it more or less where the path leaves the woods. taking
the wrong path probably explains why the path I was on was constantly
blocked by trees and resembled something from the trenches of WW1 than a
national long distance path! It was nice to see later in the day that a new
housing development has sprung up on Skelton - and yes - the path does go
right through the middle of it, managed to get quite a few strange looks
walking through there covered in mud up to my thighs almost! Home for the
night came in the shape of the nature reserve (called Valley gardens) marked
on the map just outside of Saltburn by the sea (somewhere around NZ 66573
20852). was a great place to stay - toilets and pretty flat grass to pitch
on. No comments from passing dog walkers either so it's probably something
that happens frequently, in fact I thing there were a few other people
camped within the nature reserve that night.
Friday started with a quick shop for more food at a local shop in Saltburn
followed by waiting for the TIC to open for me to get the Passport stamped -
so I was off and walking for just after 0900. Another great day weather wise
again so the going was quite nice with some great views out to sea and along
the coast. Heading down towards skinningrove was a nice stretch - even if
Skinningrove itself was a bit of a dive!). Met a group of people out walking
in practice for their own walk of the Cleveland way. They are doing the walk
in May over 5 days for charity - not carrying their own stuff though. They
were a bit surprised (as I was when I found out) about going up Roseberry
Topping to come back down it the same way! Planned stop for today was to be
the campsite just off the way at Hinderwell, but as the weather was so good
I ended up walking all the way through to Runswick Bay - not much further
than planned but meant I was now more than a day ahead of myself. Stayed for
the night at the caravan park there, nice site. Woke up in the middle of the
night thinking it was morning - the moon was so light and it was a cloudless
night!
Saturday morning proved to be a miserable one - didn't want to get out of
the tent - well the official excuse is that I thought the weather might
brighten up a bit so I wouldn't have to put a wet tent away - but alas it
never did, so yet again had to put a wet tent away. This meant a late start
today - didn't get walking till about 1015, which wasn't too bad as I only
had about 9 mile to cover to get to Whitby. Managed to loose the path on the
beach at Runswick Sands - I hadn't expected it to follow up a gully and was
quite surprised to see that the gully wasn't that clearly marked as to which
one it was - that was until you actually got a bit into it and the path
could be seen clearly about 4 or 5ft above the ground - proved quite
interesting climbing up that with full kit! Bit of a miserable day today as
there wasn't a lot of view with the mist coming in dropping visibility to
only 10ft or so at times. Once in Whitby the mist cleared up quite a lot -
still no sun though! Managed to find the Virtual Cache in Whitby (Bram
Stokers Whitby Cache) before sorting myself out and stowing various things
in bag before continuing on through Whitby - I'd forgotten it was Bank
Holiday weekend and was quite suppressed at how many people were around!
Spent the night at the YH in Whitby - although they aren't serving evening
meals at the moment until they move to their new premises in time for 2006.
Was a bit surprised that the stamp for the Cleveland Way Passport was at the
car park enterance to the Abbey (which is miles away from the path) rather
than at the visitor centre (which is on the path almost!) - ah well,
something to write to them about - that and suggesting they get another
place to stamp in Kildale (the Post office for example) that is open more
suitable hours for walkers.
Sunday - well the weather was just awful so being a day ahead of myself I
decided it would be a good idea to have a rest day - pretty glad I did
really because it didn't stop raining all day and I would have been soaked
before spending a night in the tent - not good! So just spent the day
wandering round Whitby and went on a boat tour (getting soaked in the
process - never mind!)
Monday was better than Sunday in that it wasn't raining but visibility was
still shocking. Decided to take the advice of some of the signs around Robin
Hoods bay and walked along the beach between Robin Hoods Bay and Stoupe Beck
Sands - saving quite a bit of time I think. The last time I did this stretch
of the coast I remember not liking the path between RHB, Boggle Hole and
Stoupe Beck - climbing out of RHB to drop down to Boggle Hole and back up
before dropping again for Stoupe Beck! Was suppressed to see the extent of
the coastal erosion along that stretch of beach - there must have been
10-15ft lost in places through the cliff's slumping. Yet again I was making
good progress so decided that instead of staying at Ravenscar I would carry
on to Scarborough. From what I can remember there was nothing at Ravenscar
but a farm and the Hotel/Gold club to do so it was better moving on to
Scarborough. The Youth Hostel was full for the night so I stayed the night
at the Camping and Caravan Club sight off Burniston road. Couldn't have
asked for a better place to stay - the staff were so accommodating and
helpful. The on-site chip shop made it even better - freshly made fish! The
site even has a sheltered area for campers to cook in out of the rain! The
site even has the pub next door which was a rather handy way of spending the
evening!
Tuesday morning, the last day of walking dawned as quite a wet morning with
a lot of mist around (yet again!). Had a late start again - didn't start
walking till turned 10, but didn't have all that far to go anyway. Walked
the long way through Scarborough (sticking to the beach rather than the
roads through - much easier to navigate through!). Also gave me chance to
find the TIC so I could get the stamp for the passport. The walk from
Scarborough through to Filey was quite a horrendous one. With the weather
over the previous days making the path a major quagmire - extremely wet and
muddy underfoot making going quite difficult and almost impossible at times.
This made the day a pretty horrible and tiring day of walking - probably one
of the lowest days I had while on the walk - so much so that I had to listen
to the radio while I was walking - something that I rarely do! Arrived in
Filey just after 3 and got to the Cafe at the end of the walk just after a
group of walkers who had just finished the Wolds way. Went in to sign the
Completion book in the Cafe (first person for the Cleveland Way this year!)
and ended up being persuaded to have Chocolate Cake and Hot Chocolate!
Well - that was the Cleveland way! I'm glad I did it - extremely glad and
quite pleased with myself. Having now done it though I realised that I
seriously underestimated how far I could walk in a day with all my kit. I
also underestimated how many pairs of socks I would need - I didn't take
enough so that I could have dry socks everyday. Also glad that I bought
trekking pole - saved many a fall especially with a full pack on I felt much
safer walking along the very muddy and slippy cliff paths!
Next time I do a long distance walk I don't think I will book as many places
in advance - plans easily change as you are out walking - I was lucky in
that I was able to swap nights round when I was ahead.
I was also really impresses with my new bag (Lowe alpine contour III) -
cheers to whoever suggested going down the Lowe Alpine route. It's a really
comfortable bag with loads of adjustment while still not being all that
heavy - specially like the lid that can be removed and used as a bumbag -
was useful when I left the bag at the bottom of Roseberry Topping so I could
take my valuables with me. Only downside that I have found to it is that to
put a full bladder in the bladder pouch is almost impossible when the bag in
full - I found I had to take stuff out of it to be able to put the bladder
in.
What would I do differently next time - not a lot I don't think. Although I
wouldn't have accommodation and planned routes set as much allowing for
longer or shorter days as needed/wanted.
What next? Well that's to be decided yet - possibly the Pennine way of the
Coast to Coast, although I am tempted by the Yorkshire Wolds Way and the
Cleveland Way all in one (doing the walk Hull to Helmsley). But before that
I definitely think I should do the Yorkshire 3 peaks - can't believe they
are on my doorstep and I still haven't done them. After doing Osmotherley to
Kildale I know I am ready for the 3 peaks.
Thanks for all the advice and answers to questions folks and sorry for such
a long TR (it's my first one so please be kind!)
Oh - and as soon as I get round to sorting through the hundreds of photo's I
took I will stick a selection of them on my fotopic site.
--
Chris Naylor
Cut the nonsense to reply
http://chrisnaylor9123.fotopic.net
Buy Land Now. It's Not Being Made Any More.