The Cleveland Way - Part 2

We did the second stage* of the Cleveland Way on Saturday. It was eventful. Firstly, we were quite late setting off. Are the timings of ‘serious’ walkers affected by hairdresser appointments? Well, those of handbag walkers are.

Two new haircuts later, the three of us set off in the early afternoon heading for Rievaulx and Cold Kirby. It was probably a mistake to rely on V’s satnav to get us there, as initially it didn’t seem to recognise Cold Kirby as a place, and wanted to send us towards Harrogate. When I entered Rievaulx as an alternative, it took us via some winding back lanes. I kept reverting to the map to check if there was a better way, and ended up ignoring it completely. It also got foggier and foggier the closer we came to our destination.

Eventually we got there, and we all piled into one car to head to Rievaulx as our starting point. At this point I realised I’d forgotten my socks, and my pashmina. We parked at Rievaulx amongst horse boxes, and started our route, initially along a road.

We hadn’t gone far before we encountered The Turkey, in the middle of the road. A big, very scary, bird, which had somehow escaped Christmas, and wasn’t going to let us past easily. I tried to hide behind J, but she would insist on taking a photo of it, which only attracted its attention.

The others got past. I couldn’t, and for a few moments thought I would have to go back to the car. Eventually, as it clearly wasn’t going anywhere, I climbed over the fence into a field, and gave it a very wide berth, all the time checking to see if it was coming after me. I finally managed to rejoin the others two field later by scrambling through the hedge. I was a bit shaken.

After that, the walk took us through a valley, which we all agreed would be lovely in better weather. About this point, J wondered if she’d left her car keys in the other car.

‘Well, I’m not going back past that rampant turkey’. Thankfully, a quick check revealed they were in her rucksack.

The walk up the valley side was tiring, and then the final stage across open field, with the view obscured by the fog, just made me long for a cup of tea.

We reached the car in Cold Kirby having only done about 4 miles, but we were pretty tired, and looking forward to cake. As it was getting late, we headed for Sutton Bank Visitor Centre for the nearest tea shop, only to find that it had closed 20 minutes earlier. Have they no thought for handbag walkers?

There was no option for it but to head back to Helmsley, and the patisserie tea shop in the Black Swan Hotel. With mud on our boots, we weren’t exactly dressed for it, but they didn’t seem to mind. And the tea and cakes there are lovely.

I’m really not sure how we are going to manage when we have to walk the long barren stretches of moorland.

*This is our second stage. We have yet to complete the recommended first day of walking in the official trail guide