5/15/08

Day 14: Glaisdale to Robin Hood's Bay (July 7,2007)

Accommodation: Boggle Hole Youth Hostel, Robin Hood's Bay
Distance Walked: 19 miles


FINISHED!!!!!!

How do I feel? How can words really express how I feel? Exhausted, happy, sad, relieved, reflective, exuberant, amazed. I've just completed something I've wanted to do for four years. And now its done. Is it anything like I expected? All of it and none of it at the same time. Who knew really what walking day after day, mile after mile, would be like? Who knew all the people I would run across and meet. The people whose paths in the universe I crossed for a short time. But we all went through it and we completed it and shared it. And now we will move on. It seems like ages ago when we started the walk. But I'm glad for it all . I'm glad for the weather and the scenery and the growth and the people. And the walk. All of it. And I toughed it out and completed it!

A happy walker on the last day

So today: Bre and I got up early and ate at 7:00 to get an early start to Grosmont to see the station and get Breanne her bus to Robin Hood's Bay. It started with a nice walk through Arncliffe Woods into Egton Bridge. It must have been the combination of it being the last day and needing to get Breanne there, but I was booking it! And I felt great! We made it to Grosmont with plenty of time to spare and were lucky enough to see a steam engine train. They used these trains and the station in the first Harry Potter movie! It was a sight to see. Then Bre's bus came and I waited for Ron and his friend Ted. They came along after I saw these guys who call themselves the Lost Boys because they get lost so much. Apparently one of their goals was to try 50 different pints of beer and they were on 45. We also saw all the regulars along the walk. Strange to think I'll probably never see them again after today.






They used this station and trains in the first Harry Potter movie!
The whistle was ear splitting though...


So anyway up and up and up out of Grosmont we went - I still had quite the energy amazingly. And then down to the incredibly cute little hamlet of Littlebeck and into the woods where the Hermitage was! I was for some reason very excited to see this carved out stone! Who would ever be crazy enough to carve that out? Above the door, carved in the stone it says "1790 G & C." G & C were nutty. As Ted said, maybe it was God and Christ. And then on and out of the woods for lunch and then up into the moors and to more bog. I'll have to say this whole time Whitby and the North Sea was always ever near, almost taunting me, and I can't quite understand why Wainwright ended in Robin Hood's Bay? [after making a day trip to Whitby, I now understand...the bustle and craziness of traffic was more than a little startling!]

The Hermitage - so neat... but why?!


We decided to take a road around the second bog, and while it was painful road walking, it was a good thing we did because when we rejoined the path the Lost Boys popped out with mud past their boots!! Then into the town of Hawkster where we lost the Lost Boys to a pub (still hadn't reached 50 beers yet) and down to the sea for a long 3 mile jaunt up the coast to Robin Hood's Bay.
Coming upon the North Sea!

I might add that today the weather was phenomenal. Partly cloudy, perfect temperature. And it was amazing because coming in there were showers all around but we evaded all of them! There was one little pitiful spurt of rain, almost like the weather gods were determined to not let us have a day without at least some rain, but really I couldn't ask for a better day to finish the walk.

When we got in to town, I had to pack the HUGE bag down to the coast and on to Boggle Hole Youth Hostel, which was a bit out from Robin Hood's Bay, because Packhorse doesn't deliver there. I just about buckled carrying it because of the weight - practically two pack fulls of stuff crammed into one pack. I could hear people mumbling about it as I past by. But we made it to the sea and Ron bought ice cream and I just sat there. I had made it. But I didn't really reflect till I made it to Boggle Hole and got changed and got Bre and went back into town.

Our first peek at Robin Hood's Bay
with the tide out

Ron and I enjoying our victory ice cream!

When we got back to town, we dipped our feet (I did a bit more than a dip), throw our stones that we had saved all the way back from St. Bees, and then I just sat and reflected. I had made it. Tonight we had dinner at the Bay Hotel with Ron and Ted and his wife and then said our goodbyes. I walked down to the sea, looking out into the evening air with the tide in and the calm sea. There was music playing in the background, and it was just the perfect way to end the two weeks of this walk. The calm and quiet and beauty of the North Sea. I said goodbye and turned down the path towards Boggle Hole. What an amazing adventure.


Dipping feet in the North Sea... we made it!


The Coast to Coast: Never forget the walk. The aches , the ups and downs. The stiles! The rain, the mud! The beautiful scenery - the Lakes, the farms, the moors, the woods, the seas.

The people: Mountain Goat, everyone in the Lake District, Ken and Jane, Ruth and Kimmi, Sue and Helen, Crazy Hair and the pack, Ron, the Lost Boys, Mary and Bruce and all the others we encountered on the walk.

The sun sets on Robin Hood's Bay
192 plus miles complete



MORE PHOTOS FROM DAY 14!





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