We got up at a decent time and got ready for another tough day. This would hopefully be the final day if we could get the miles done and the conditions and terrain allowed it.
We had an early breakfast and got out on the road and Maxine dropped us off at the road crossing where we were picked up yesterday. As we had a lot of moorland to traverse today I would be with John the majority of the day, with a short gap in the middle where it was flattish runnable stuff in the Esk Valley mostly on the Esk Valley Trail. We started by climbing back up onto the Moor. Some of this was paved or had tracks and graded trails as the gamekeepers used it to access to land for shooting and farming etc. But quite a bit of it is open moor and the navigation can be a bit fiddly with paths going off everywhere. This can take a little bit of navigation skill and requires some focus and concentration on a map rather than gps line on the watch. I either used my handheld garmin or a paper map to get a bigger view for route selection. There had been lots of controlled burning recently on several of the areas we were on so this made spotting paths a little harder. Although it had been very dry recently we still found the odd boggy section to negotiate around or through. The weather started looking like it would rain and we even had a few spits but the rain never materialised and although colder than previous days and windier it was still very kind weather. 8 days straight with no rain is unheard of on this type of walk.
We cracked on at a good pace with me navigating and leading a very tired John and getting him warmed up to the day, it took us a few hours to clear the first Moor and drop back into Glaisdale and into the valley. Maxine met us there and we put John in trainers again and off he went with a faster walk and the odd shuffle and run here and there. He could make up some time on this section and then I could jump back in as we head back up onto the moors and hopefully lead him accross them and into Robin Hoods Bay this evening.
John ran on his own for a few hours till he was just past Grosmont and I joined him again on the last steep climb up onto the moor and across toward the finish. We had a bit of navigation to do here and if we wanted to get to the finish today I needed to get a little creative here. The path I had planned originally is based on the Northern Traverse race route and cuts across over some of the bigger moors on the more established well used footpaths. I could navigate some of the smaller more direct paths that are rarely used and if I could find and navigate them ok then we could shave enough time of today’s walk to get finished by tea time easily. This is not cutting corners as such, the coast to coast route is not a definitive route although in places it is signed, in fact wainwright documented his in order to inspire people to make up their own routes and explore. We simply used a more direct approach to Robin Hoods Bay than is normally used to shave a bit of time off. Maybe 3 or 4 miles of our original intended route.
Once up on the Moor properly we could see the sea and the going over the moors was actually pretty good and very dry with only a few really boggy sections which is very rare. We made very good progress and all the paths and roads I wanted to use were there still and easy to navigate art from the very last bit was supposed to be a bridleway but had hardly ever seen a foot! It took some old fashioned navigation and bearing/line of sight walking and adjusting to make a path across it but it still saved us a fair bit of time. We were very quickly on the road downhill on the other side and heading into Fylingthorpe for the last short walk into the finish. Maxine would be waiting for us there.
We walked into Robin Hoods Bay at around 4:30pm and met Maxine her knee was really playing up today due to me doing more with John and her having to drive and wall around more. Especially since she had to walk around Whitby town centre to find a new shower puff to stop John from having a emotional meltdown! She did put the picture of the new shower puff on fb and it was duly named Freddo by the masses!
This meant however she was not able to walk down the very steep hill to the final sign as it would have buggered her knee up properly. So off me and John toddled down the hill to get the obligatory photos next to the sign.
We then went back up the hill and had a celebratory drink in the Victoria Hotel by the car park. I had to have a pint of Wainwright Beer to celebrate.
It was great to see John finish the challenge after 8 days as per the original schedule and 185 miles of tough walking and running. He had had his dnf at the Northern Traverse event bothering him for the last year and wanted to put the route and challenge to bed. I think he has well and truly done that now. For anyone let alone a 68 year old to complete Coast to Coast on a 8 day schedule is a fine achievement and worthy of praise.
I wish my fitness and the circumstances with Maxine being injured had been better and I could have covered all the miles with him but I had still done over 115 miles of the trip with him and that was an honour. Pretty decent 8 day mileage for me too!
It did not always go to plan and if I was doing it again I would change a few things with the plan and factor in other things that I did not this time around. The early days miles were a bit ambitious and the shorter days should have been in different places but with needing to stay in nice hotels then this made planning to set criteria much harder. Having proper breakfast every morning mean early starts were harder and planned evening meals meant less time to be out on the trail. In hindsight we should have been lighter and had logistics all the way through rather than the planned half way through only. Minor things in the end and the most import thing as far as I am concerned is the result. We planned to do it in 8 days and we did. I call that a success, I adapted the plan as I went and we got John to the finish. Job done.
