(N.B. Hover your mouse over the pictures for captions)
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Today both Rick and Erin joined us, and we left Richmond by walking round beneath the castle walls. This turned out not to be particularly interesting - it might have been better to drop down to the river. |
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We crossed the river bridge and walked through the playing fields hoping for good views of the waterfalls, but the views were disappointing. Nancy and Joe waved goodbye from the castle as we walked along the far side of the river. |
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From here it was a bit more road walking until we joined the track by the sewage works, and into the woods. |
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As expected, the walk followed a succession of field paths, through Colburn , and more field paths to cross under the A1. At Catterick Bridge we were lucky in finding an ice cream van that was just loading up, and we relieved them of several ice lollies, for the day was getting quite hot. |
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After an awkward crossing of the bridge here, we were back on a path by the River Swale, another section of road, and then a track taking us into Bolton on Swale. After passing the church, we carried on in the search of some shade for lunch. After lunch we started the road walking in earnest. It was very hot, but we managed to keep going, taking advantage of any shade where possible. After an age we got to Streetlam, where we knew their was relief from tarmac in the shape of the fields for a mile and a half. |
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Then it was back onto the road, but only for a short while as the White Swan at Danby Wiske soon appeared. We were ushered into the pub by Doreen, the landlady, who offered tea to the ladies and pints to the men! |
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Later, after freshening up, we came down for a splendid meal - Kath enjoying an enormous ham salad put on the menu at her request! Later on we all had a singsong round the piano, encouraged by Frank the landlord with free pints of beer for the pianists. Both Adryan, who had joined us in the pub, and myself, played, and we finished up playing duets. Surely a night to remember! Frank and Doreen were such good fun, and nothing was too much trouble for them. It is a shame for future Coast-to-Coasters that they are leaving the pub, although they will still be in the village running the old school house as a bed and breakfast. |
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