Day 22 - Danby to Great Ayton

Day 22- Danby to Great Ayton

I have had virtually no signal for the last two days, and making the last post was difficult and time consuming, and I am apprehensive about this one. I am now typing the post initially as an email then copying and pasting into Blogpress so that I still have a copy if it gets lost.

Today has been the best walking of the trip so far.

Breakfast was taken at a superb bakery shop in Danby. This is a family business with two or three other shops and also acting as suppliers to hotels etc. Many different kinds of bread and cakes of the highest quality were on offer. I had a freshly made cheese tomato and onion sandwich, two cups of coffee and a chocolate brownie. I also bought a Hiker's Bar for later.

Blus sky with rolling puffy white clouds and a fresh wind made ideal walking conditions - there was also a remarkable atmosphere of clarity. Quiet roads and tracks with endless courful views of this special part of Yorkshire prevailed. The colours are homologated with the very light brown sandstone used for building, and the characteristic bricky red pan tile roofs.

A mile or two brought me to Commondale and a tea room. Earl gray tea and buttered scone was taken here along with a chat with a "local charachter" farmer who had the usual anecdotes and pearls of wisdom. I also chatted with the lady whose son has just passed out as a soldier and will be joining the Pioneers - she was of course worried about him being posted to one of the trouble spots. Her daughter is doing pharmacy and hopes to do medicine and she is just on her way back from the usual students Thailand trip.

From Commondale it was gently up onto the moors. There really is a feeling in these parts that you are on top of the World all the time. I met a Landrovet coming the other way which did not amuse me and I was not overjoyed when it stopped and the guy wanted to talk. I asked him if he was just an offroader or did he have some official capcity. There was something about this guy that I didn't like. He was wearing a military style khaki shirt and there was a belt of 12 bore cartridges draped accross the passenger seat, his reply was evasive but eventually he said that he was a gamekeeper; well I suppose there are some good and some bad but they are not a fraternity that I take to, so I cut the conversation as short as possible and carried on my way.

The day finished off with my second ascent of Roseberry Topping, a strangely pointed sharp little peak (320m) outj of context with it's surroundings All this and the ease of ascent which takes about fifteen minutes makes it a target for all and sundry, and it being Saturday there were plenty of them about, but it is still fun and the views, especially today, of Teesside, the Yorkshire Wolds and the Vale of York are splendid.

I had received a text from Gayle to inform me the camp site I was aiming for at Great Ayton was closed down so I have now booked in at The King's Head just outside Ayton and I have had my first bath of the whole trip.

This has been a magnificent day




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