We all enjoyed our stay in Richmond and had a delicious meal at the Rustique restaurant. Strange not to be surrounded by fellow Coast to Coasters! Our walk today was a 16 miler over a variety of paths and under an overcast sky. Andrew set a cracking pace and because there were no hills we all walked very briskly. We wanted to arrive before the rain. Unfortunately we arrived long before the BandB owner, but she had left the bunkhouse open so we were able to take shelter and make a welcome cup of tea . It was a bit cold in there but eventually our longings for HOT water were realised when she arrived and showed us to our rooms . She is cooking for us tonight- lamb casserole (lamb from the farm) Apologies for the latter, Kath!
Leaving Richmond we walked alongside the river Swale for several miles through ferns and a heavily wooded area. We wore gaiters having been warned by Stedman ( the guidebook) about " slithering around over clammy, saturnine slush!" Jenny remarked that "the potential for mud was there"
However it was more than manageable. We encountered mud much later when taking a shortcut to this farm through fields and ditches and all have appallingly dirty boots , which are not allowed in the house.
We had a long, tedious stretch of walking on a narrow minor road where almost the only traffic was a dusty, red Royal Mail van which beetled past us in both directions at different times.
Dreading crossing the A1 I was relieved that we went under it in a muddy tunnel to Catterick Bridge. Catterick is built on the site of a Roman garrison and town called Cataractinium dating from 80 AD to the 4th century. Interesting that it is still the base of an army camp today. We didn't linger there but called in to the churchyard of St Mary's in Bolton on Swale to see the monument to Henry Jenkins who was thought to be 169 years old when he died; his longevity not his unremarkable life is his claim to fame. Rather quaintly the church has bottles of water and soft drinks available for walkers with an honesty box to hand. No village stores or co-ops in these parts. We had with us a somewhat unsatisfactory packed lunch so didn't go hungry as we huddled together on a convenient bench to picnic - grumbling a bit about what we paid the Band B owner for our provisions.
The rest of the walk was characterised by " unexceptional field tramping " in Stedman's words. True..
But we have a long up and down day ahead of us so this flat stretch Jen and I quite welcomed.
The good news is that there was excellent signposting today as we were no longer in any national park.
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