June 11, 2015
Miles: 13.6
Time: 9:06 - 4:30
Elevation gain: 1,781' elevation gainYear to date miles:
Year to date miles: 411.9
Hike description:
After more trail talk for breakfast, we headed off into the woods. We met 2 more Tasmanians. We've met more Australians on this trip than any other nationality.
In the woods we saw a mouse door in a tree and the hermitage - a huge stone that is carved out in the middle. I had seen photos of it before, but never realized the scale.
We walked through more moorland - amazing we didn't get lost in that stretch. Our guidebook referred to posts which are no longer there. We met an east to west hiker - a British man doing it for the first time. Bad ass :)
Shortly after the moors we saw a black adder right on the trail. It was not happy with us.
We got all of the complicated navigation and then missed an easy turn on the road. Another detour.
Once we got close to the ocean, Glen was on a mission. The trail actually goes along the cliffs for a ways before dropping down to Robin Hood's Bay. No stopping at the B&B first.
Robin Hood's Bay is a quaint touristy town with narrow roads steeply leading down to the sea. It looks like a place the British might go to for a seaside vacation. Not that it is a place to go swimming - the ocean is way too cold.
We arrived at the sea and scrounged around to find the pebbles we have been carrying all the way from St. Bees. We dipped our boots in the sea (as per tradition) and threw our pebbles into the sea (also as per tradition). I think Glen was expecting to find mounds of St. Bees pebbles on the beach.
We headed to the Wainwright bar at the Bay Hotel and signed the book they have for people who complete the hike. We saw Ken and Elizabeth's entries from the day before. They took a photo every kilometer of their hike. We then celebrated with a pint & had our photos taken in front of the Coast to Coast sign. We spoke to 3 others who had done it in 11 days. I think we have more work to do on our fitness levels! Paul and Sue came along and we agreed to meet up for dinner later. We saw a few more people we recognized come in during our dinner. Then several hikers we had never seen - my guess is that they were going at a faster pace so we never overlapped. We heard that we had just missed Stedman (author of our guide), who was in the pub. Bummer!
This has been quite the adventure, and I wish we could keep going. The variations in scenery have been great. We've loved meeting people from all over the world (well, mostly Australia) along the trail. We adore the lambs, and you will have to forgive all of my sheep photos. I will always remember the lambs calling out to their parents ("mama") in their high voices and the parents replying ("I'm here") in their low voices. And all the lambs who would timidly approach us as if asking "cookies?" and then run back to their mothers. Glen and I both feel a sense of accomplishment - the hike has been a challenge but we were able to complete it (including the high routes) and feel physically good. Not one blister! My feet are a little sore but should recover soon. We got lost/took detours almost daily, but that is all part of the adventure. We were at times mentally challenged by the weather, but we really were quite lucky - only having 1 miserable weather day.
Night: Streonshalh
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