Day 12: Glaisdale to Robin Hood's Bay
Dave and I were woken up just after 6.30am by the kid in the tent next to us, but we'd set our alarm for 6.45am anyway so we weren't particularly bothered. We were up early as today was our longest day and we had to be at Robin Hood's Bay by 4pm at the latest to get the sherpa van back to Richmond. By some miracle, it wasn't raining when we got out of the tent, although it was looking particularly gloomy. By somewhat less of a miracle, the tent was still upright after the beating it had had from the previous night's weather. We packed up our tent, picked up our lunches and then headed off. My feet felt fine and Dave's knee wasn't giving him any problems so we made some quick progress. I'd eaten my packed lunch by 9am.
We arrived in Grosmont pretty soon, and stopped to pick up some proper lunch from the shop next to the railway station. Out of a desire to continue the long walking tradition, I bought some Kendal Mint Cake. Sir Edmund Hilary and Sirdar Tensing ate it on the 1st successful expedition to the summit of Everest in 1953, don't you know? By some pretty lucky timing, as we were leaving, the level crossing shut and a steam engine pulled into the station. According to my Dad I went on it when I was younger, although I don't remember.
The climb out of Grosmont was pretty steep, but as it was the final day we got up it pretty sharpish. After crossing the A169, we reached Littlebeck (the village) where we began to follow Little Beck (the river) through Little Beck (the forest). The path was pretty wet and slippy, and in a fantastic demonstration of Sod's Law, Dave slipped over and landed on his knee. He was soon back on his walking poles. Apart from that, the forest was quite cool, complete with a hermitage and a big waterfall called 'Falling Foss':
Near Sneatonthorpe (at 921055 to be exact for all you map reading fans), we saw a group of three guys who were just ahead of us take a footpath which went completely the wrong direction. I thought it was a bit odd, but when we got to the fence, I saw that there was indeed a Coast to Coast sign pointed that way, and so started to follow it. Thankfully, Dave was a bit more on the ball than me and after consulting the map decided that the sign was wrong. We took the map route and it turned out to be correct. While stopped for a break shortly after, we saw the three guys come following us up the road. Apparently, they'd not travelled far along the path before they'd realised it was wrong, so they'd got their map out and come to the same conclusion as us. They congratulated us on our quick spot, then we walked with them for a bit.
Dave and I stopped at the pub in High Hawsker, bought a drink, then sat outside and ate our lunches. The weather had cleared up a lot by now, and it was actually a pretty sunny day. Quite amazing, considering the weather the previous night. I made the mistake of eating my Kendal Mint Cake, and then finishing off my pint of Coke. It's like drinking orange juice just after you've cleaned your teeth, only about a million times worse.
As we left the pub, we ran into Helen again (the doctor who we'd had dinner with the night before) and so she joined us for the rest of the walk. We reached the North Sea just next to Hawsker Bottoms quite quickly, and then it was just a matter of walking around the coast to Robin Hood's Bay.
We finally arrived in Robin Hood's Bay, after 192 miles and 12 days, at just before 3pm. We immediately made our way on to the beach for some celebratory photos:
After leaving Helen to find her sister, we went to The Bay Hotel, the "official" ending to the Coast to Coast. Helen had told us that there was a book behind the bar that you're supposed to sign, so we tracked it down and added our names. My pen had apparently celebrated the end of the walk by leaking all over everything in my pocket.
We sat outside and had a drink while we made some phone calls to tell our friends and family that we'd made it. My plan had originally been to trawl the local shops and buy the cheesiest souvenir I could find for my girlfriend, but we ran out of time so I just ended up buying her a Robin Hood's Bay pen. It didn't make much difference though, as later on, before I could "surprise" her with it, I managed to let slip what it was. I am rubbish.
We walked back to where we were supposed to be picked up and started chatting to a couple who were also waiting for the sherpa van. By some gross miscalculation, they'd finished the walk a day earlier than expected, and having already booked their place on the sherpa van home for today, they'd had to book into a local hotel for the previous night. Oops. The van was full in the end, so we spent quite a lot of the journey swapping stories with our fellow Coast-to-Coast-ers.
We eventually arrived back at Richmond, where we picked up my car and drove home. Not before taking a picture of my soon-to-be-patented feet protection system though:
Day 12 Stats:
Distance: 21 miles
Total Ascent: 748m
Total Descent: 910m
Time taken: 7.5 hours
SMR (Stile-to-Mile Ratio): 0.76
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