0618 Glaisdale to Littlebeck
Our penultimate day on the Coast to Coast – 15 km from Glaisdale to Intake Farm at Littlebeck. It was a day of three parts. Debs and Jo joined us once again this morning for the first part of our walk to Grosmont – a delightful ramble through Arncliffe Woods. Squirrel sighting – 1. First stop was Beggar’s Bridge, which legend says was built by a local who left the village to go find his fortune. On the night before he left, he was unable to visit his sweetheart to say goodbye because the River Esk was flooded. On his return, fortune made, he married her, and built the bridge so that no other lovers would be kept apart. Awww.
Nearby was the North York Moors line – which we’d shortly be on!
Along the way we were lucky to see the Classic Tractors for Charity event, which consisted of about a dozen elderly examples chugging down the road.
We arrived in Grosmont by mid-morning and decided to take a ride on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway to the village of Goathland for morning tea (days in a row with scones – 3).
In keeping with the tractor parade, we stumbled on a vintage stationary engine exhibition AND a sizeable collection of vintage prams – a niche hobby (reminiscing isn’t what it used to be).
On return to Grosmont, Debs and Jo left us and walked back to where they left their car. Luckily, they provided us with fresh rolls, crisps and sausage rolls for a hearty lunch before we tackled the last great climb of the trip.
The guide book described the first two kilometres this afternoon as “calf-popping” and it certainly was steep, with road signs warning of a 33% incline.
We slowly climbed back up to Sleights Moor and into the cloud – our first cloudy experience on the moors and what a different place it is in the mist.
Two days ago, the moor was bakingly hot and there was no respite from the sun. Today, it was atmospheric and, as we walked, a series of standing stones arose eerily in the heather. It still wasn’t damp enough for our wet weather gear, and looking at the forecast, it is very likely we will make it to the end of the journey without breaking it out.
On our arrival at Intake Farm, Val chanced upon a poor little kitten who was suffering the effects of cat flu and quite unwell. After some supplementary lamb-feed milk via syringe, and some of Val’s TLC the little guy is looking a lot better and is currently tucked up in a warm basket next to the range stove in the kitchen with his little brother.
Our host, Judith, cooked us a very tasty stew and pavlova for dinner and we spent the meal chatting to five Americans who were camping in the yard outside the B&B. Unfortunately for them, it has been raining quite heavily this evening and we are very glad to be staying inside. Luckily Peter managed to buy the Sunday papers in Grosmont before we left this morning and we are currently set up in the lounge reading the news of the world and looking forward to our last day on the walk tomorrow.
Authors Note: Frequent visitors to this blog may have been wondering why, in some pictures, your heroes appear as bronzed Adonis/Aphrodite figures whereas, in others, the chums look pale and somewhat anaemic to the eye. The reason, of course, can be explained by navigation.
As the adventurers are travelling West to East it is only the right side of the body that is exposed to the full glare of 26 degrees of English summer day after day after day after…
Consequently, we resemble a pastie placed in the oven on ‘grill’ instead of ‘bake’; one side done to a crisp the other pasty white in colour.
Distance walked 14.5 km
Saints to Outlaws 
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