England: Wainwright's Coast to Coast Walk: Day 14 Glaisdale to Littlebeck

Last night I was afraid that I would miss completing this walk by 19 miles. I have a bunch of blisters, which I can live with, but after resting awhile in bed, I got up and found I couldn't put any weight on my right foot. I went back to bed, tested it during the night and found it improved, and was much better in the morning. I think the pounding of 58 miles in 3 days had just caused some real soreness.

Today was much like a day off. We had only an 8 mile walk to Littlebeck. The first 4 miles were mostly flat through a few nice villages. We arrived in Grosmont just in time to see a train pulled by a steam engine leave town. Grosmont has a steam engine depot and we walked around the repair sheds for awhile. We waited to see another steam engine pull in and then headed out.

Our only real climb of the day started while we were still in Grosmont. It's the final steep climb on the trail and they saved a good one for last. We passed a couple of 33% grade warning signs.

After wandering through the moors, we had a short roadwalk before turning to some farmland and arriving at our night's stop, the Intake Farm. This is a working farm with sheep and 160 cows. We are in the farmhouse for the night. I took a nap when we first got in and was woken up by sheep and cows being driven past my window. We just finished the best meal of the trip which included a dish made from one of their own cows. We shared dinner with a British couple who are here doing day hikes, and 2 ladies from Denmark who we met on day 1 and never saw again until yesterday.

Right now we are having a thunderstorm. The rain is here and it looks like tomorrow's final 11 miles into Robin Hood's Bay will be wet.