Cleveland Way (Part 5) - Gribdale Gate to Saltburn: 26 June 2010
- Distance
- 12 miles
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Location
- Gribdale Gate … Map of start point
- Leader
- Stevie
A small but select group of 12 walkers met under the baking hot sky of late June in Saltburn, to cross the midpoint of the Cleveland Way. We dispatched everyone in 3 cars to the start of the walk at Gribdale Gate, and began immediately with a steep climb. Soon the path levelled out onto the top of the moor, but within minutes we were plunging down a steep hillside only to be confronted with a route zigzagging up what seemed like an almost vertical face of Roseberry Topping. We staggered to the top, exhausted, and spent several minutes recovering from the ordeal and enjoying the panaromic views across to the coast.
We then had to retrace our steps down the steep slope and up the other side, with the walk leader (not altogether truthfully) reassuring everyone that that was most of the ascent over and done with. The path then swept east along the edge of the moor, before darting off into the tree-stump strewn wreckage of a recently forested forest, and a short, sharp climb took us to the top of Highcliff Nab, where we had our lunch looking out over Guisborough and trying to spot the ruined priory.
We continued through the forest, deprived of much of the shade we had been looking forward to by the recent logging activities, and then dropped gradually down through thicker woods to cross a busy main road. Then … guess what … the path climbed steeply up the side of an old quarry (it really is the last hill, I promise!). We were all struggling with the intense heat, so Andy tried to distract us from the pain by taking his shirt off … it certainly distracted Karen, who was so upset at the sight that she promptly fell over, but fortunately was no more than slightly bruised.
The path descended into Skelton and, while a couple of people nipped into the Co-op to stock up on drinks, Jon told us, in a booming whisper that echoed off the distant hills, how he thought the town was "a bit weird". We continued through a housing estate that had very inconsiderately been built over the much older Cleveland Way, and into Crow Wood, where we dropped down to cross Skelton Beck in the shadow of a towering railway viaduct. From there, the path led us into the woods of the steep-sided Saltburn Valley Gardens, and soon we emerged at the top of the hill in Saltburn. This being a nice sunny summer's day at the seaside, we headed down the hill to enjoy an ice cream sitting on the sea wall.
Photos by Stevie