Ravenscar: 29 May 2010
- Distance
- 25 miles
- Difficulty
- Hard
- Location
- Ravenscar … Map of start point
- Transport
- 115 bus from Scarborough
- Leader
- Heather
An early start, we had a staggering 25 miles to cover (and by the end, we were staggering!). We set off uphill, with views towards Robin Hood's Bay, then turned inland across the moorland. The path dropped down into a wooded valley, and we made our own path up a steep heather bank back up onto the main track, which then dropped steeply down again to cross Jugger Howe Beck. Another steep climb back up and we followed a good track across the moors to Lilla Cross, and on to a first lunch stop at Louven Howe.
After first lunch, we followed the track to Whinstone Ridge, with a quick pause while the speedy group who had gone on ahead were hauled back and set on the right path, then through Newton House Plantation, noting that we'd done more than some walks already, and we weren't even half way! We followed a path through the woods to The Hermitage, an interesting rock construction by a viewpoint, and then past the Falling Foss waterfall to Midge Hall tea room, which served up some wonderful tea/coffee/hot chocolate (delete as applicable) and cake!
After stuffing ourselves with cake, we set off again along May Beck to where Mark had parked Dale (his car!), filled with bottles of water, flapjacks, Jaffa Cakes and other assorted goodies for us to refill our rucksacks. Then we followed the path alongside the beck to John Bond's Sheep House (!), before turning north again across Shooting House Rigg. Although it was Heather's walk, Mark took the lead at this point, and led us straight off the path. As we scrabbled through the heather, we came to a stream running through Stony Gate Slack, that looked a bit wide and wet. Heather took charge again, gave Mark an appropriate scolding, and led us back to the path and the bridge over the stream.
At the time when most GYBO walks would be heading for the nearest pub, we still had over a quarter of the walk still to go, as the mist came in and the rain came down. After a hairy moment crossing a busy main road in the fog, we headed past the hamlet of Raw … and then lost Adrian, who had taken a shortcut. We got the group back together and followed the steep road down through Robin Hood's Bay. After a short climb, we joined the old railway path, and Heather let the speedy ones in the group off the leash. Despite having just walked 20 miles, they vanished off into the distance at a great rate of knots, while the other half of the group enjoyed the last few miles at a leisurely pace, slowly but steadily gaining height as the route meandered its way round long lazy curves along the coast, and finally got back to Ravenscar just before 9pm.
A role call of honour for the hardy trekkers who completed this epic challenge (in no particular order): Heather, Mark B, Mark K, Stevie, Debs, Els, Scott, Tracy, Glen, Adrian, Tina, Jonathan, Karen, Rich H, Iain and Jon. And a special thanks to Heather for organising the challenge, and for having the brainwave of parking a load of refreshments half-way round!
Photos by Stevie