The Cleveland Way - Part 3

Let’s face it, it was always going to be a bit piece meal. It’s a linear, but not a sequential, walk as far as we’re concerned, by which I mean we will probably jump around a bit depending on which bit takes our fancy. I’m already playing catch up as J and V walked one week when I had to go to rehearsal, so I’ve only just done my first 10 miles, in three separate stages.

This time, we started from Osmotherley, and had the advantage of convenient husband, (V’s) and sometime honorary handbag walker, K to meet us in the pub and collect us at the far end, so didn't have to move the cars around.

I’d done the first part of the walk last summer, when it was a lot less muddy, but emerging from the trees and looking out across the still snow topped moors to Roseberry Topping and beyond, the view gave a sense of scale of the thing we’re doing.

It was all very well marked, and there were a lot of other walkers. For once I too looked like a serious walker, as my handbag had been replaced by my bright blue back pack (only because I decanted into a smaller handbag for hols, and haven’t ‘upgraded’ again since). V managed to get a bit of shopping in by buying a dozen eggs from a farm en route. It was slight less eventful than last time, i.e. no evil turkey (though there were a couple of cockerels and some hens which I gave a very wide berth).

After about 4 miles we detoured, and headed into the village of Swainby, discovering a very nice pub which we’d like to return to. This time we just had tea, but they had a lovely range of food on offer. I'm still thinking that this is really all about what surrounds the walking; the food, the drink, and the shopping.