The final dinner was at the Victoria Hotel in RHB: a slightly Fawlty Towers establishment, but the food was good even if the arrangements were a bit chaotic.  So it was last ales all round, speeches and thank yous, and a well-earned gift for Dave the guide who got us all here with good humour and encouragement.

Pete, our yorkshireman, thanking Dave
  

 Straggling up the climb out of Grosmont.  
The bleak road across the first moor.

  That’s Whitby in the distance…it stayed there a while!  
The coffee stop at Falling Fosse.

 Getting there!

  
And there’s Whitby…still!

 A bit closer…the tall building is the Abbey.

   The North Sea!

 The last sheep photo!   

Descending down to Robin Hoods Bay.

  Here we are…191 miles on😀  
MADE IT!

   

The final day, a moderate walk of 15 miles with a steep climb out of Grosmont to start!

The climb out of Grosmont was along a 1 in 3 road but luckily it got slightly less steep after a while, but we huffed and puffed up it for a mile and a half.

Then it was across much poorer quality moor (we can tell the difference now thanks to Dave!), across the road to Whitby, and across mor moorland until we descended into a wood at Littlebeck.  Lovely coffee stop, and we shared a cream scone and carrot cake.  Then through more woods and onto yet another moor…this one a bit boggy in places.  

Eventually a late lunch stop.  Dave’s favourite sheltered stop sheltered by some gorse had been cut so we were on a road verge beside some blackberry bushes.  Pushed on to Hawsker, past fields where grain was being harvested.

Then we turned for the sea, descending to the coast path through a caravan park.  While it was a bright, hazy day not sure about the idea of a beach holiday on the Yorkshire coast!

Then the final 3 miles – along the cliffs with the sea on our left – just like the first day at St Bees.  A steep descent through the village – which was full of day trippers.

After photos at the Bay Hotel, signing the Coast to Coast book and a celebratory drink it was off to the B&B to get ready for dinner.

Photos and more to come.

Warming up outside the Lion Inn: let’s get going!   
Posing with Fat Betty…

 Our shooting hut stop on the moors.

   
Fabulous view!  I think this was Great Fryupdale.

 On the Beggars Bridge at Glaisdale.

   
The Egton shooting estate house.  The road from Egton to Grosmont was a private old toll road across the estate.

   
The historic steam engine at Grosmont.  The village is famous for its historic steam railway and is much visited by ‘soothes’ – steam train enthusiasts.

A 15 mile long moderate day, after the big day yesterday.

Started out along the road from the Lion Inn.  Most of us were feeling the effects of the long day yesterday.  Staff at the Inn seemed none too happy about the slightly early Breakfast start!  First stop was ‘Fat Betty’ to leave the traditional sweet treat and a group photo. No one quite knows what or why she’s there but it’s a C2C tradition to leave an offering.

Then it was a walk across more moor land,  blooming heather and past more shooting huts and grouse. The walking was pretty pleasant, and although it was a bit breezy it was also mostly sunny.  Brief stop at a shooting hut, then further on across a track across more moor.  Eventually descended into Glaisdale, a pleasant little village, with a stop at the pub for coffee and to eat our lunch.  Some of the group visited the butcher for a pork pie.  Sherpa Van man (one of the C2C baggage transfer companies) offered me a lift after he saw me hobble into the pub – have been walking with bad heel blisters for a couple of days – I refused!  Too close to give up now!!!

After Glaisdale, second group photo of the day at the Beggars Bridge, then onwards on a pleasant path from Egton to Grosmont, and our stop at a very nice B&B.  Arrived early enough for me to visit the steam engine shed and the station.  Yet another pub meal, where other walkers we’ve passed along the way were also having a pint and dinner.  One more day to go!!

Photos to come.

We set off up a woodland path…   
…to the Cleveland Way path…

 …good views over the Vale of Mowbray – where we walked yesterday.

   
And then there was up and over the moors…

 …with views down to Teeside.

   
A rest stop with real toilets and coffee at Lordstones.

 And then the long haul to the Lion Inn…

   
 And finally the Lion Inn

  And along the way a posing grouse. 

The biggest day: 20 miles rated as strenuous.  Early start from our B&B Park House.  First up, a climb through a wood to the Cleveland Way and up to Becon Hill, the first of five moors (aka hills) we walked around or over that day.

Then it was up and over Carlton Moor – steep walk with views back over the Vale of Mowbray – all those fields we crossed the previous day!  

At moor number three we had a choice – up and over or around – and we chose to go around the next three.  After that, a break for lunch, and the up ANOTHER moor to Carr Ridge and a gradual rise from there to our highest point.  Then it was down to a windy former railway level crossing (Bloworth Crossing) for the old iron ore railway on the moors.  

At this point it was still 5 miles to the Lion Inn on Blakey Ridge, our stop for the night. So from there it was a 2 hour slog across the old railway bed into the wind to get to the Lion Inn.  Cruelly, when you get there, you can’t see it, and the pathway goes up, seemingly to nowhere!

But we made it.  It was a very quiet group for dinner.  But the end of the walk is so close by then you can taste it!

Photos to come😀

17 miles rated as a long moderate walk.

Slightly later start as we waited for the mini bus back to Bolton.  Time to explore historic St Mary’s, with it’s monument to England’s oldest man Henry Jenkins who allegedly died at 169.  Record keeping in the 1700s perhaps wasn’t as accurate as now!

First stop was the village of Danby Wiske – the lowest point of the walk, a small village with a green and a pub.  After a coffee stop, lots of walking across fields and small roads (and more fields…) until the psychological and physical barrier of the A19 – we crossed this major motorway on foot!  Local businesses are petitioning for a footbridge as the estimate is 10,000 people a year do the C2C but for now it’s a dash across four lanes of busy traffic.  Then a shortish walk to our B&B – Bev, the landlady greeted us with a glass of bubbles on arrival😀 and there was roast chicken for dinner, complete with Yorkshire pudding.

 

Booting up outside Pottergate B&B in Richmond.  
 
One of the many fields we crossed.

   

The memorial tablet for Henry Jenkins in St Mary’s at Bolton.

 

 
 

17 miles and rated as a long moderate day.

Today was the only day we were walking to a time-to make the following day shorter we were walking beyond Richmond and being picked up at Bolton (where there is pretty much nothing except a historic church and some houses), and taken back to Richmond, then busing back the following day.  This meant we had to be in Bolton by 5pm to meet our transport which put more stress in the day.

Set out from Reeth in some light drizzle, and walked down a valley across fields to reach Marrick Priory, now an outdoor education centre.  Encountered along the way what are called in Yorkshire ‘squeeze belly entries’ – very narrow stone stiles.

On through the village of Marske, through more fields and past slumbering sheep, then down into Richmond.  Lost the group trying to find the lunch meeting point, but eventually found the guide (who was showing one of our group to the B&B as she wasn’t walking on).  

After a very quick drink and bite to eat, the route march to Bolton commenced.  Parts were pleasant, but there were a couple of big diversions for major road works out in the open with no shade (who would have thunk the north of England could be this hot) and I got a bad cramp that made walking miserable.  But we made Bolton just as the mini-bus arrived in very good time.

Dinner in Wetherspoons in Richmond – a good value restaurant chain with a bit of a diversion from Quiz Night.

   
John encounters a squeeze belly entry!

 
Sheep!

   

  View down to the River Swale approaching Richmond.  
Sheep nap time.

 Richmond Castle.

  
St Mary’s at Bolton on Swale.

Keld to Reeth: 11 miles rated as a strenuous day.

We set off from Keld Lodge in a cloud of midges – the first time we’d encountered big clouds of them.  Nice walk through the village (a few houses) and a climb on loose stone paths up past Crackpot Hall, the managers house for an old lead mine above the River Swale.  The whole day was a tour through old lead mining areas, but it’s been so long since there was any mining that the buildings are ruins and much of the landscape has recovered.

It was also the day for our first close encounter with grouse.  We’d been on grouse moor around Shap, but on these trails they got quite close, and their call sounds like they are laughing (at walkers!).

We stopped for lunch in a pleasant narrow valley with mining relics, then climbed a steep rocky trail that was an old mining ‘hush’ where water was used to expose lead ore.  At the top a narrow band that looked as barren as a moonscape was surrounded by heather moor and farmland with grazing sheep.

  Yorkshire stonemasons showing off – note the straight lines of stones across the barn even though it’s built of irregularly shaped stones.
The River Swale from up near Crackpot Hall.

  
Lunch break.

Struggling up the ‘hush’.  
 The path dropped down to Cringley Bottom, then it was on through farmland to Reeth, and an ice cream on the village green with the locals, before finding the B&B, freshening up and dinner at one of the three pubs in town.