Too Old Codgers

Statistics:
distance - 20.9 miles
moving speed – 3.0 mph
start – 8.50 am
finish – 6.30 pm
moving – 6h 55m

In preparation for another big day, Graham breakfasted on fresh fruit salad and yoghurt followed by the full cooked English. Mary was more restrained having yoghurt, cereal and baked beans. We chatted with the owners Steve and Rachel and one of their twin daughters before and after breakfast, and got away at 8.50.

It was a pleasant walk up through the village then up the Swinestye Farm track with views over Cod Beck Reservoir, Roseberry Topping and the series of ridges we would be walking over during the morning. The gentle descent across Scarth Wood Moor and through Clain Wood was followed by a level stroll along the Scugdale Beck valley. After crossing the beck the first serious climb of the day took us up onto Live Moor. We were to walk across heather moorland for the rest of the day. We stopped on a large cairn at the summit of the moor for morning tea at 11.15. A couple of our vintage stopped briefly to chat, then continued their jog across the moors at a pace we could only marvel at.

'Clain Wood'

We descended a gentle little hill, followed by a long, fairly gentle ascent up onto Carlton Moor with stunning views north across a patchwork of fields and woods to industrial Teeside, a view we were to have for several hours. After passing the remains of an alum mine we descended steeply to a minor road and the Lord Stones Café. In 2010 we had retreated from the mist and rain into the café with a roaring fire and warming food and drink. We had no such justification this time, so pressed on to climb Cringle Moor. At the summit we admired the view over Teeside from the Alec Falconer Memorial seat, a view restricted by mist to a few metres in 2010. The rollercoaster continued, with another steep descent to the point where we had turned off in 2010 to go to our B&B near Kirkby, followed by another climb up onto Cold Moor.

'On Carlton Moor, Live Moor behind, Scarth Wood Moor on horizon'

'Remains of an alum mine, Carlton Bank'

'Steep descent from Carlton Moor'

'Graham collapses on Alec Falconer seat after another long climb'

'On Cringle Moor, ahead Cold Moor, Hasty Bank, Urra Moor'

From Cold Moor we dropped down to Garfitt Gap, then climbed to the rocky outcrop of the Wainstones. Here we stopped for lunch at 2.15, with views north to Teeside and south down Blisdale. While we ate we watched rock climbers scaling the rock faces. After lunch we had a brief level walk along Hasty Bank, then another steep descent to the B1257. A sign told us it was 3 ¼ miles to Bloworth Crossing. The time was 3.40. We set ourselves targets for getting to Bloworth Crossing at 5pm and the Lion Inn at 7pm.

'Arriving at the Wainstones'

'Lunch atop the Wainstones'

'Rockclimber on a Wainstone'

'Graham admires view over farms, forests and Teeside'

The final steep ascent took us up onto Carr Ridge, where lots of pheasants wandered across the path. It was a long gentle climb onto Urra Moor. We thought the hard work of the day, the continuous steep ascents and descents, had been done. Although the walking from Urra Moor was relatively flat, especially along the path of the disused railway from Bloworth Crossing, we were tired and it was a real grind. We reached Bloworth Crossing at our target time of 5pm. We saw many grouse along the route, as we had in 2010, and witnessed several territorial disputes between males with raised red eyebrows.

'Grouse on Urra Moor'

'Looking back over the ridges we had crossed'

'The face stone'

'Bloworth crossing'

At each bend we hoped to see the Lion Inn, but we passed many bends before Graham finally saw our destination for the evening. He turned to Mary who was about 50 metres behind to tell her the good news. By the time she rounded the bend, the Inn had been enveloped in mist. We continued along the rail track, aiming for the track we had taken from just below the Inn in 2010. As we reached the area where we should have found the track, a mountain biker approaching from behind us stopped and explained the track had been moved and that we had passed it half a mile ago. He explained it would now be best to continue along the rail track to the road and then follow the road back to the Inn.

'The disused iron ore railway'

'The Lion Inn is enveloped in mist'

The mountain biker chatted with us all the way to the road, and we were grateful that he distracted us from our exhaustion. He had been a merchant sailor who had been tempted to jump ship in Brisbane, where we live, many years ago. He had retired and lived in a family residence in Hutton-le-Hole. The Barn B&B we had stayed at in Hutton-le-Hole on the first leg of our walk had been his grandfather's barn.

When we reached the carpark on the road, the biker first offered us a lift to the Inn then retracted the offer saying that, after all our efforts on the walk, we would want to complete the day on foot. At that point we would probably have weakened and accepted a lift, to regret it later. His friendly chat had helped us at the end of a long, tough day much more than he could have realised.

We reached the Inn at 6.45, having completed our longest mileage on the trip of 20.9 miles over a moving time of almost 7 hours. We had climbed, and descended, around 1000 metres over seven ridges.

We entered the Lion Inn and went straight to the bar. Mary had a double whisky and soda and Graham an Old Peculier – the drinks were wonderful, as were the shower (Mary) and bath (Graham) soon afterwards in our room. We returned to the dining room for dinner and a glass of wine, but we were too tired to enjoy it. We were asleep by 9.30.

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