Clay Bank Top to Blakey Ridge (15km)

Day 7 - Clay Bank Top to Blakey Ridge

We bid farewell to our lovely B+B hostess, Christine after she drove us back to the Clay Bank car park at 9am to resume our walk.  And in typical Coast to Coast fashion, the morning started with a steep climb.  This time to the top of Urra Moor.  It had rained quite heavily during the night so there were big puddles and wet sand to negotiate.  The air was still very heavy and a thin curtain of mist hung over the moor.  I suppose it wouldn’t be the Yorkshire Moors if it wasn’t bleak and windswept at least some of the time.  Hence my decision to wear my raincoat as it guarded against the worst of the buffeting from the wind and stopped my cap from being torn away and blasted across the moor.  Ross didn’t have the same problem as his amazingly engineered Tilley hat just stuck to his head:)

Ross emerging from the mist

Dressed like I'm going to the Antarctic

We happened across our fellow C2C walker from Lincolnshire again and shared the trail for a while, past the Face Stone.  It is one of many moorland pillars scattered around which served as ancient direction posts and markers.

The Face Stone

Mercifully our morning climb was the only one for the day as the ground then levelled off and we walked across a plateau.  We took leave of our friend before Bloworth Crossing where the C2C trail meets a disused railway track.  The old Victorian mineral railway used to run between the area’s ironstone quarries and Teesside and now serves as a route across the moor.  The next 8km of our walk were on blissfully level cindertrack without any need to navigate.  Compared to yesterday it made for easy and swift walking.

The disused railway track

The sun kept peeking out from between the clouds to illuminate the heather and show off the best of the views down the valley.

Moorland colours

Views down the valley

And suddenly following a curve through an old cutting, a glimpse of our destination – the Lion Inn perched precariously on the hill top.

The Lion Inn on the ridge top

We serendipitously reached the Inn at 12:30pm just as the lunchtime rush was on.  The place was buzzing with day trippers, walkers and tourists and was a comfortable spot for a hot meal.  It seemed like a very short walk today but the comparatively easy track helped a great deal.  From the Lion Inn our host from Church House Farm came to collect us and delivered us to our beautiful room for the evening. 

Church House Farm B+B

It was a restful afternoon and provided much needed time to recuperate and prepare for the next two long days.  My poor little feet are being held together with Band Aids and my walking shoes are on their last gasp and are being held together with superglue.  Everything just needs to hold together for two more days and 45km – the ocean air in Robin Hood’s Bay is almost close enough to taste!