I can see the sea, I can see it!

Day 8: Blakey Ridge to Grosmont

Sarah: Our day typically begins around 6:30 with English tea for one particular Blister Sister. We check the weather, repack our cases (yet again), pack our rucksacks with essentials for the day - enough layers for whatever happens,  waterproof pants, winter hat and gloves, maps and our ‘Bible,’ Steadman’s “Coast to Coast”, 1.5. Litres of water, 1st aid kit, pen knife, rubber bands, duck tape, blister dressings, athletic tape, change of socks...........etc. etc.  after 80 miles, everything but the duck tape and 1st aid kit  have been used repeatedly.

Setting out in driving rain

Today was our last up on the moors - that rugged, quilted landscape of heathers, bobbing wild flowers, rock cairns and silent, ancient standing stones. Runnels of trickling water find their way into tiny streams stained a reddish ochre from all the remains of  now invisible and disused lead mines pockmarking  the landscape,  long since heather covered.   Bright  green mossy lichens  glow in the rising and setting sun.  We can walk for hours up here seeing no one, or suddenly encounter others hiking the C2C in the next dip.  Skies are enormous, constantly on the move in the layers of breezes, gusts and winds.

Patchwork of moorland colors

"Fat Betty". where hikers leave offerings of no longer needed granola bars- the end is in sight!

Rosedale Moor Standing Stone

But when we began today, all we saw was swirling mist shrouding the land, rain stinging our faces as we were blown and buffeted by the winds. All very Gothic and so pleased we got to experience the moors when the going got really rough - it felt more complete somehow.

Transition from upland moors to farming valley floor 

Within two hours, winds, sun and clouds were playing hide and seek and there, way off in the distance, I could see the thinnest line of azure on the horizon. The kaleidoscope of the valley floor
below was completely different - patterns formed by rich grazing and agricultural land and we began to descend into a whole new area rich in farmland, small hamlets, an occasional pub! But not before that azure line had become a wide band of lavender clearly signifying we were nearly there - the North Sea and Robin Hood’s Bay - over 100 miles from where we began our Blister Sisters Trek.

Tomorrow is a rest day for bones, backs and blisters. They all need it., then our last day............

Sisters: 93 miles and a glimpse of the sea!     Blisters: "counting 1, 2, 3 -ow- 4, 5, all healing slowly"

"Beggar's Bridge in the Esk Valley