Day 12 - Reeth to Richmond

It's not that often that the colour of the sky is so important but today we were confronted with grey.  Now I'm not talking pale grey.  I'm talking asphalt grey and the reality is the sky was darker than the road and that's a road leading to a very wet day!  The good news; it makes for great photos.          

I find it interesting that even when a village is built in a fairly remote area that the houses are built as terraces - each so close together.

  

Looking across the village green at different views of Reeth with the hills in the background.

Reeth is a beautiful little town filled with hills which we walked up and down until we found our accommodation at Cambridge House. Robert and Sheila welcomed us with afternoon tea, a wonderful treat for us after a long day and they proved to be great hosts, very warm and informative.

We also enjoyed the opportunity to share afternoon tea with Brad and Alex, a Grandfather and his granddaughter, from America.  We have been meeting them over the last three days, mostly Alex walking passed us and Brad happy to chat as he walked alongside  anyone who was happy to chat while they walked.  That's us!!

The bath was the best luxury of the day!  Sometimes words don't do justice to certain events - a bath is one such event.  An absolute joy when we discover one in our room.

On a bench in the village green at Reeth Julia Bradbury interviewed an American man who had walked the Coast to Coast 8 times.  We took the opportunity to sit on the said bench once... we  may never be back again.

The Tour de France passed through Reeth in 2014.  We have seen yellow bikes displayed in many places and wondered why they were hanging about as they were.  Turns out they are a legacy of the Tour.  It's great fun discovering some of the places we have seen on TV. We did enjoy watching the Tour on telly when it started in The Yorkshire Dales, knowing that we were coming one day.

We walked back down and up the hills for dinner and then back up for bed. It's always such a delight when we are able to eat dinner at our accommodation.

So we set off for our journey on this very grey day pressing on to Richmond, leaving this pretty village behind.   Everyone had told us that we were in for a beautiful walk and Robert said confidently that it wouldn't rain until the afternoon. My biggest mistake was not putting on my gaiters.  By mid morning the legs of my pants where wet up to mid calf.

Again we are accompanied by the water - not from the sky but beside us in the Arkle Beck and then the Swale River rejoins us.  We passed by some more quaint villages and through several farms with the usual stone walls and barns. In fact we have to take great care while walking through the fields and played dodgem with the cow pats and an abundance of sheep poo.

These cows seem to think the path is theirs!

We came to  Marrick Priory which was built for the Benedictine nuns.   It was destroyed by Henry VIII in 1540, was renovated  in 1970 and is now an outdoors activites centre.  School children from all over Yorkshire come for several days of great adventure.  The activities sounded great as we talked to some of the kids who were enjoying their time away together.  But their greatest excitement was that they were heading to Macca's for a snack on the way home...

The Priory 

The Nuns' Steps 

As we left the Priory, we entered Steps Woods and walked up the Nuns' Steps - apparently 375 steps, said to have been laid by the nuns as a walkway to the abbey.  Marrick was our next village and then on to Elaine's Farmhouse Kitchen.  Today this was a particularly delightful break, where Elaine served us tea and scones (and in Graham's case, Cinnamon Toast with Hot Chocolate) and tried to sell us her Coast to Coast mugs.  But sorry Elaine, but they are too much weight for us to carry.

                                                       

 

 

We had to cross many stiles and they seem to be getting smaller and smaller, some not much bigger than your boot.  One was quite interesting - Graham named it 'The Rock of a fence'.  Considering this was meant to be a reasonably flat walk, we seemed to climb a lot of hills today.

One such climb began at Paddy's Bridge and took us up  to the white-painted cairn on Applegarth Scar where we had lunch.

It was great to reach this cairn that for so long was just a white speck in the distance.

A beautiful misty forest with a very muddy footpath was our final challenge before  Richmond.

Then at last, our first view of Richmond.   Another welcome sight!

The end of our day's walk was straightforward but I did find the walk along the outlying hills of Richmond uncomfortable on my ankles.  We walked on a slightly sloping angle until we reach the edge of the town.  I was glad for some flat ground and my feet were saying, 'Get off me!"  

Tomorrow is another rest day - Bring it on!!