But first you have to see my bathroom in the B and B at Richmond. Yes, it was somewhat awkward to have a shower but somehow it worked.
After following the road for a short way the path to the right beside the sewerage works appeared. There was no pong.
Speaking of pongs, you might read this article on a machine that records smells and eventually could recreate the smell for you. Apple will no doubt come out with the I-pong at some stage.
Yet another gate to wend my way through. There have to have been hundreds of them along the route.
The River Swale.
It was an absolutely beautiful day and it felt so good to be walking again.
By this time I was walking with an English couple. I stopped to take this photo of the line of trees and they immediately stopped and took the same photo.
And here they are. I have found that most walkers enjoy having somebody else to walk and talk with for a while. I like the variety of people you meet along the way and they are all interesting in their own way.
Today I was using the maps from the Steadman guidebook and occasionally checking with my phone GPS. In fact I met the English couple because I had missed a turn and while retracing my steps ran into the couple who had made the same mistake. Landmarks like this bridge are invaluable for finding your way since the Steadman maps reference them.
A sea of yellow flowers.
Spraying weeds out in the middle of nowhere. Why they were doing that fence I have no idea.
More landmarks.
My first glimpse of the Canadian couple I would have dinner with that night and whom I would walk with the next day.
The church at Bolton-on-Swale.
A most welcome sign, even if I did have plenty of water.
The monument to Henry Jenkins.
It is worth reading about Henry Jenkins who was said to be 169 years old when he died.
Now consider that if the age is true and he had died in 2013, he would have been born in 1844. He would have been 17 when the American Civil War started. Take some time to think about what has happened in the last 169 years.
My orange backpack and jacket adorning a grave stone. For this section of the walk I am not using the Sherpa baggage service since my big duffel bag is already at our friend's place near Whitby. The orange bag holds my rain pants, a couple of changes of clothes, water bottles and toothbrush etc.
I don't know why the stone had the scull and crossbones on it.
Experienced walkers airing and resting their feet and doing some minor repairs to blister pads.
The fridge with the cold drinks. It is a very thoughtful service to hikers and apparently more places are doing it. The Coast to Coast hikers bring a lot of money into the area so we hikers are very much welcome and appreciated.
The English hikers. The wife was only doing the walk that day and was returning home that evening. They would subsequently be known as the Lone Ranger and Tonto.
While there were still sheep around, mostly we saw cattle. We gingerly passed by one bull who was getting very interested in a particular cow. We told him that he could have the cow all to himself.
It was a delightful day for walking but a bit of shade every now and then was welcome. Most of the walk was flat and navigating was not that difficult.
Goalposts. The grass on the field was much too long to allow the game to be played.
Now that is a tree house.
We all thought that these were a bit dilapidated.
We finally arrived at Danby Wiske.
My B and B, the Old Schoolhouse. It wasn't open when we arrived so I was forced to sit around on the green and drink beer. It was tough but somebody had to do it.
Wainwright was dismissive of this village in his initial book but it now is a really delightful place.
On the left are the Hairy Bikers. They were giving out nick-names to the various travelers they met along the way. I did not get to find out what mine was. Perhaps you can make a suggestion.
This is Paul Tinker who created a blog of his Coast to Coast walk back in 2011. He was doing the walk again to raise money for breast cancer research.
Inside the pub. I had the beer on the left and it was good.
The couple from Victoria in British Columbia. We were waiting for the B and B to open and later while we were having our tea and cake we were joined by a bloke from Amsterdam. We all dined together that night at the pub and then walked together to Ingleby Cross the next day. But that is the subject of the next blog.
The other walkers were continuing on for another nine miles. I was happy to stop and relax.
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