Over the North Yorkshire Moors

[taximan]

Route Egton, Wheeldale, Newton on Rawcliffe, ret via Eskdaleside & Ruswarp.
Distance 39.3 Miles over two days
Difficulty Some challenging hills, but worth the effort.
Weather Day one, damp & Foggy. Day two, Bright & sunny.
Company John Leeman.

The main reason for this outing was to try out Johns new bike as part of his preparation for his forthcoming John o Groats to Lands End ride. It was also an opportunity for me to try out a new tent which I bought recently.
On first day we had a very foggy ride indeed and as mentioned above, some of the hills were very challenging , especially the climb from Egton Bridge to the top of Egton High Moor. Once we reached the top though the going was a lot easier and we managed to crack on a bit of speed. John had a problem with his glasses misting up and was having difficulty seeing clearly and he had to follow the blurred yellow blob which was my hi viz jacket. meanwhile I was totally oblivious to this and simply kept going. At Wheeldale Gill we found the ford to be in flood and was far too deep to attempt on the bikes so we had to take the footbridge which crosses the beck nearby. There was a small problem here though, The panniers on the bikes were wider than the bridge, so we had to unpack the bikes, cross the bridge, go back for the bags, then load the bikes again before continuing on our way. A little further along the road is another ford which usually is quite dry, the road surface being about 3 ft above the level of the water. Today though the water was about 6 inches above the road so naturally we had to take photos of each other playing in in it and both getting our feet wet in the process. Shortly afterwards we stopped for a few minutes and John said "I've just heard a woodpecker", I said "no you haven't, that was me farting".( I think he was disillusioned at that) We arrived at the White Swan in Newton on Rawcliff hoping to get a cup of coffee before setting up camp but found the pub to be closed. The camp site was open and we soon had our tents erected. almost immediately, a lady passing by looked at my new tent, (a Gelert Solo) and she said that it was the smallest tent she had ever seen, I have to admit, it is minute and if I had seen one erected , I would never have bought one. I imagine for a younger, more supple person , it would be a great little tent, but unfortunately it isn't going to work for me. (Erm, anyone want to buy a tent?)
As for the site, it was not quite 5 star but the toilets and showers were spotlessly clean and I would have no problem with recommending it. The Dawn chorus was excellent too, although it did start a little early. We had an very nice meal in the pub washed down with a couple of pints of good ale so no problems there either.
The following morning we packed our goods and chattels at a leasurly pace before setting out for home (again, at a leasurly pace) in fine and sunny weather with a slight head wind. Yesterdays problems with water had all gone and visibility was superb. after a coffee & cake stop at Grosmont we finished our journey back to Whitby via Eskdaleside & Ruswarp. Thirty nine miles is not a lot for a two day outing but we were both fully loaded with camping gear and climbed a total of over 3,000 ft which works out at around 79 ft per mile which I am quite content with.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Enjoyed your pictures, thanks for posting them