The friend, Gary, was not with them. Apparently the twenty five mile road walk the day before was a little too much. Gary had blisters all over his feet. He ended up taking the Packhorse into town.
Stewart and Paul got a ride into town. Richard, Petep Laurie, and I walked into town. It was suppose to be two miles, but it felt longer. It was a road walk on a very busy road when people drive too fast.
We got int Great Broughton about 2:00. The sun had come out and the sky was blue. We set up our tents up at Jet Miner's Pub. I went to the store/post office to see if I could get information about chemists (pharmacist) or doctors. My eye was getting better but it was still pretty red. I didn't want to wait ti get ot London to have it looked at. Besides I wouldn't get to London until Friday night when everything was closed and it would probably be closed on the week-end. Anyways, the person at the store wasn't very helpful. So I got the phonebook and looked up some phone numbers. I used the sell phone Kevin had given us to use to call the chemist and the bus. There was a bus going to Stokesly in about an hour and a half. Pete and I decided to take it into town. The bus driver told us that the last bus would be leaving to go back to Great Broughton in about 15 minutes. Pete went to the store that he needed and I went to the chemist and got what I needed. We had plenty of time to catch the next bus.
When we got back, I laid down for awhile and then showered. We were meeting Paul, Stewart, and Gary out at the pub tonight. Richard was going to join them for dinner. I cooked out instead.
We met everyone at the May Horse. That night was Quiz night. You buy like a Bingo card with numbers. The announcer asks questions and you fill in the answer in the correct number spot. Once you make a line across you call "Quizco", or you are suppose to. Then you answers are checked. If all of them are correct you win some money. We had a great time playing. It was a lot of laughs. We played 3 out of 4 games. We were all too tired to play the last.
We said our goodbyes to Stewart, Paul, and Gary,not sure we would see them again. Pete is still with us making sure we don't get lost.
The campsite was pretty quiet. It was quiet enough to hear the snoring.
July 8, 2003
Today was a real short day. We stiill got up early. We called the taxi to drive us up the trailhead. We didn't want to walk too much up the busy road which was all uphill. We were hiking by 8:15.
Not sure what the weather was going to do today. It always looks like it is going to rain.
The walk was quite easy. Only one climb to the top of Urra Moor and then we had a flat walk on a disused railway bed. Only a nine mile day. We left the Cleveland Way and will be once again trying to find the coast to coast signs.
Paul and Stewart caught up to us just as we made the climb to Blakey where we were spending the night. We all had lunch in the beer garden at the Lim Inn. This place is in the middle of nowhere on top of a ridge.
We said our final goodbyes to Stewart and Paul they were doing another ten miles. They wanted to finish a day earlier than we were. We really enjoyed their company.
Our packs weren't here yet, so we hung out in the pub. I asked where we could tent. They said in the sheep field. We have sunk to a new low. The sheep field is filled with sheep shit. They charge us 2 pounds for that pleasure. We don't even get showers. The bathrooms are only accessible during pub hours.
When Laurie and I got our packs, we went to the field to clear a spot for our tent. A man came up to us and asked if we were going to set up our tents. We said yes. He said that the horses that they put in the sheep field are easily spooked and the noises of the flapping tents from the wind could spook then and they could get away. Oh great, now we are going to get trampled by horses among the sheep shit. We told the man we would be careful not to spook them.
We ate dinner in the pub. One thing that I have been amazed at is the hospitality to dogs. People seem to be able to take their dogs anywhere. There were about five dogs in the pub. They were all well behaved. They didn't bark, they didn't attack other dogs and they didn't bother the people. They just layed by their owners. many places let them stay in the B & Bs and inns.
After dinner, Pete and I took a short walk. My dinner was so filling I needed a walk.
July 9, 2003
We were waiting for the people to come and open up the pub. We needed to use the "loo". That is the English word for toilet. We left shortly after that which was a little before eight o'clock.
Again it was another beautiful walk. When we got to Glaisdale, I realized I miscalculated the mileage. I thought we were only doing 15 today. It ended up that we had 18 miles to do. My hiking partners weren't too happy about that.
We stopped for lunch in Egton Bridge by a river. We rested for about forty-five minutes. It felt good. At that point we still had about 5 1/2 miles to go.
We went through Grosmonti. This is where the North Yorkshire Moors Railway is and one can take a steam train trip. This station is also where a scene was filmed for Harry Potter. I never saw the movie. Now I will have to rent it.
From Grosmonti we had a killer of a hill to go up. Once on the top we tried to find a trail to take, but couldn't so we turned around and took the road up some more until we found another trail to take.
