Ran into my pals the brother and sister, along with the German dad and daughter team for breakfast. We said our hellos but I was first to breakfast and first out the door but not before I kept saying to all of them “our penultimate day!” I mean, how often do you have the chance to use the word penultimate? I didn’t want to waste the opportunity.
The beginning of the walk…wasn’t great. The weather was fine but the wind was still blowing and the first part was mostly on the road.
The wind wasn’t just blowing but fierce and in my face, making every step a challenge. And the walking was boring. Flat, no views. In fact after 3 miles I could still see the Lion Inn almost directly across from me. I had just walked in a long 3 mile semi-circle. D’oh.
So as soon as I turned off the main road to a smaller trail I broke one of my rules…I listened to music.
I know, I know, I wanted to get absorbed into nature and give time for deep thoughts. But I was struggling and I just needed something to get me through the miles.
And man, did it help. I hadn’t even listened to music in my free time at night and boy did I miss it! Since it was so flat I could see people behind me, but apparently when we just walk on relatively flat land I’m not so slow! They NEVER caught up to me and in fact the music put a kick in my step and I put more distance between us. Eat my dust hikers!
Until I took my break of course and everyone passed me. The bro/sis, the German dad/daughter and the fast walking couple I had met on the heatwave day. But from this point on we kept leapfrogging each other for the rest of the day.
At one point I was taking pictures of some heather when 2 younger hikers passed by me and we talked for a minute, and they continued on. “Wait a minute….aren’t they the couple I saw a breakfast in Richmond who were having their rest day? How did they catch up to me? They should be a day behind! “
But that mystery would have to wait as they powered on and I just plodded.
We finally got out of the moors and back into farm country. We passed through a village which had a perfect bench in their little village green where I sat to eat my lunch.
It was good I fueled up because after I had to climb another rise. This one had these old worn walking stones and as I was going up, I talked to an old couple coming down. They told me these stones were laid at least 500 years ago probably by the monks who lived nearby (the monastery is now a ruin.) I had stopped to chat with this couple and it was here that everyone joined: bro/sis, father/daughter and the fast walking couple. Apparently they had all taken a lunch break when I had and were now just hiking again.
Since it was a hill they all went ahead as I fell behind but I wasn’t sorry this time. Something about learning the history of those stepping stones made me imagine what this forest was like hundreds of years ago. I could see the monks walking to the village bringing jars of honey to trade for goods. Or villagers bringing their horses through on their way to get help or some information from the monks.
It felt quite magical like some old British sorcery at work bringing the past to life in front of my eyes. I could practically see people living and using this forest.
The spell was broken by some other hikers coming up behind me. The younger people I met earlier! So I had my chance to ask. “Did we meet in…” I started.
“Richmond!” They finished. Turned out they had done one 23 mile day while I had broken it up into 2 days so that’s how they caught up with me.
We exited the forest onto the road and at almost the same time we heard synchronized voices telling us to turn left onto the road. We both had the same navigation app on, but the funny thing was they had changed the voice to a British lady while I had kept mine in the robotic Siri voice.
They wished me well and powered off. This whole next part of the trail was through picture perfect villages and was so cute and charming. As I arrived closer to my destination (the village of Grosmont) I heard a loud whistle and saw white smoke puffing into the air.
I walked quickly towards the white smoke…I knew what it was and hope I hadn’t missed it! And on my way to look at it I passed by my B&B right when the owner was at the front door. I stopped.
“You staying here tonight?” He asked.
“Yeah, but I want to go see that,” I said pointing. “So I’ll be back in a little bit!” and he nodded.
“That” was this little towns claim to fame…a steam powered train! A real train, but also sort of cuteified for tourists. It was puffing away but still on the track when I got there. There was a huge crowd of hikers and tourists taking photos and videos and talking to the engineers.
After a few minutes the train slowly puffed away and I waved bye to everyone on it. It was so cute!
It was then and there I decided on my next days plan, but I headed back to the B&B to check in and got the most bizarre room of the trip.
You see, with so many small villages and me not knowing much about this hike, I contacted a local company to book all my rooms and arrange the Sherpa company for my luggage. They sent me a list of all the B&B’s so I could have looked them up, but I never got around to it.
And it’s been such a fun surprise everyday to see the place I will sleep. Often it’s pubs but it also been family houses, corporate hotels, historic inns. For instance tonight’s B&B was also a professional art studio for the owner.
So I never knew what I was getting and every day I’ve been pleasantly surprised, but today I was just downright shocked.
I had a big room on the top floor with a giant tub at the foot of the bed and TWO chandeliers in the room! How was I supposed to take a shower and wash my hair without getting the entire bed soaked?!?
I knew it was impossible for a klutz like me so I didn’t know what to do until I noticed a “private bathroom” of the room across from me. But the door was open and nobody was in there so I snuck in a quick shower in their bathroom, wiped everything down and snuck out.
As sexy as a giant bathtub is, it wasn’t really practical, lol.
The owner told me there was only one place to eat in town, the pub, and I should make reservations or they might close early. I ran into the bro/sis again (they were also staying there) and we went to the pub together. Since we were making dinner reservations we just decided to have dinner together.
It felt really fitting, this was our last trail night and a good time to celebrate with them. I mean, even though I didn’t meet them day one, they started on the same day as me and were the only people to do the exact same mileage everyday. So we had basically done the walk “together” even though we actually only walked together for half a day. But they were great company and totally made my trip better.
We said goodnight and I tried to say goodbye just in case but they assured me they would see me tomorrow on our last day. I wasn’t so certain because I had a super special plan (that I told them and they said was a fantastic idea) and I probably wouldn’t see them on the trail.
What is that plan? Well you’re gonna have to wait till tomorrow…my FINAL day…to find out!
Today was 21km in 6 and a half hours.
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