Coast to Coast day 9: Reeth to Bolton on Swale

After a day of abandoned mines and related mine sites yesterday it was a change of scenery today. Our walk took us through farmland and the reasonably sized town of Richmond.

I neglected to put in the stats for yesterday in the posting for day 8. In part this was due to the inability of being able to upload the information into my Runtastic database and some adjustments that I expected to be needed to take into account sections where Runtastic does not record correctly. This is an issue when doing steep climbs where the information doesn't record on the climb. The downhill bits are generally fine.

According to our trip guide, yesterday was supposedly an 11 mile day (17.6km) with a mere 150m of height gain. We walked at least 19.33km (I'll check the distance with one of the other walkers who has alos been tracking it) and had an elevation gain of at least 620m. A bit of a difference!

Our room last night was in an attic. There were two large beams running through the room following the slope of the roof. The challenge was remembering that they were there and ducking around them rather than hitting them, particularly with a head. I managed to only hit my head twice. Once again the breakfast was excellent. we cannot fault the service of the B&Bs nor the breakfasts they have provided.

We awoke to light rain this morning but this had stopped by the time we went down for breakfast. The forecast for the day was rain in the afternoon. This meant decisions on what to wear today. In the end I opted for long pants as I figured I would survive quite happily without wearing my overpants. I will only wear them, the overpants, over shorts as they tend to grab at the knee of long pants which gets annoying on a long walk.

The group had been split across two B&Bs as there were no acceptable places in Reeth that could accommodate our party of twelve.

My boots were almost dry this morning which was good. Putting on wet boots is no fun.

As we headed off the weather looked reasonable and the rain held off until 12:20. Event then it was never heavy, just an nuisance requiring us to put on wet weather gear. even though my pants below my rain jacket got wet they dried quickly so I was happy with not needing to wear my overpants.

Today we followed the River Swale as it meandered its way from Reeth to Bolton on Swale. The walked through some lovely green farmland, complete with the usual sheep droppings, and forsdted areas along the high valley walls. The days walk was quite easy as most of the the climbs were gentle and it was generally soft underfoot.

A glorious Yorkshire morning

Walking beside the River Swale

One of the challening stiles we encountered

 Today we encountered quite a few stiles. As we passed through farmland we went through stiles to pass in or out of fields. Some of the stiles were very narrow and some also had gates as seen in the picture above.

The River Swale can be seen in the middle of this photo

I wonder why this area is known as Whitecliffs?

We arrived in Richmond in time for a latish lunch before heading off to Bolton on Swale. This added a fair number of miles to todays walk but makes the next stage easier than it otherwise would be. We were collected at Bolton on Swale and driven back to Richmond where we were staying overnight.

View of Richmond (including the castle) from the Richmond Bridge

Richmond Castle tower at night

 This evening Trevor and I took the opportunity to walk around Richmond Castle after we had dinner. The tower was lit up but not the walls which was a pity.

Stats for day 9:

We expected to walk 17 miles and have an elevation gain of 400m. Actual distance is to be confirmed but was around the 27.4km mark while the elevation gain was 766m.

My right foot was a problem today. Surprisingly the heal didn't cause me too much grief however the front half of the foot complained off and on all day. I think it just needs a rest. Oh well, there are only four more walking days.