We are now in the rolling hills (small ones at that) of the Vale of Mowbray. It is so flat that on a 16 mile walk we only climbed the equivalent of 38 floors. Not that made it dull. For those of you who do not like cows close up, do not walk here. We are in arable / dairy farming land. Infant its the first arable crops we have walked through since St Bees. The Belgium's are with us and now there are some new arrivals - a couple from Scotland and chap from Newcastle. It now seems many people do the C2C in stages rather than 1 big walk !!! Andrea omitted that fact when booking it. Oh and the weather (for the Brits reading this) has been hot, muggy and sunny.
Longer version
We set off from Frenchgate in Richmond at around 9am. Well it was suppose to be an easy 12 mile walk through rolling countryside. Richmond is cute as the Americans would say and has lots of eating places. Frenchgate btw is particularly steep:
With the sound of occasional gunfire we headed east towards the A1. They are spending £340m widening it and it certainly seems to be impacting everyone including us C2Cers. We had a mile detour to get to a purpose built temporary footbridge near Catterick. The A1 widening is in full flow
The noise from the A1 is considerably less than the M6. I think I could have watched them working for ages but Andrea was off on mission. Some of the villages around here are very nice and there were a few properties I would love to own. At around 1pm we passed Kiplin Hall: no I have not heard of it either. but its a large Jacobian House that is being done up. Anyway they were advertising tea and cake, so down the long drive we walked. To say it was a bit bizarre as a place to stomp in with you walking boots would be an understatement. In the panelled dinning room surrounded by large paintings of people from the past, we first ordered soup, to find they had run out, then jacket potato, to find they had run out. It is a charity run by volunteers who are trying to do it up. I think service isn't their focus but it was a nice cup of tea... just remembered: I have not drunk coffee since 11th June ! I know the people at work will be shocked :-)
We toddled up the road to go through a big gate where a woman was just closing a second gate. She glibly reported that her van had attracted the attention of the cows. She sure had. First the cows and their calves came to inspect us with a lot of mooing and then like Moses parting the waves in came the biggest bull I have got close to in my life. I am sure they were saying hi but after 1 or maybe 3 seconds we turned around - especially as I was wearing red. No fool me. So back along the road, up a side road and then we stopped to ask a man how we could get back on track. They are wary up here but after a bit of conversation he admitted they were his "beasties" and Foxy the bull was small for a bull weighing in at a mere 1.5 tonnes ! Anyway he thought we should meet them - so it was back to the field in his Discovery (luxury I can tell you). And the beasties were lovely:
They are all pedigree short horns and would not hurt a fly normally .... Foxy is 4th from the right. I have to say after this encounter, the Frisians we met later were childs play. Due to detours and other things we ended up walking 16 miles but the weather is lovely, the people (once you chat) friendly and the walking easy. The pub in Danby Wiske is a bit weird - the bar man really does not want to serve anyone, there are only 2 starters on the menu (oh and one of them is off !) but there are 8 desserts !
Quirky things
Next to the A1 where the contractors have been digging are loads of poppies. Not quirky perhaps but pretty
Also at the A1 next to all the traffic roaring by an number of archaeologists are doing a dig on the remains of a Roman Fort. There we are with all this technology at work building the new roads etc, and next to them are people with hand trowels gradually unmasking a wall or a pavement built 2000 years ago.
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