I’ll not forget Simon Ogier’s bold statement: ‘I think we need to have another go at the Lyke Wake Walk next year’ in a hurry – although I’ve only myself to blame for agreeing with him, must have been something to do with a reasonable amount of red wine that had been consumed earlier that evening in December 2016!
Our previous crossing was completed in 2005, so it was indeed high time we visited our old friend (and foe) once again. As motivation for the walk we decided to raise some funds for the charity Epilepsy Action in memory of our colleague Carlos Arroyo, who passed away in May 2016 following an epileptic seizure.
Having previously crossed West to East and been faced with a lack of facilities and an interminable drive back from Ravenscar, the decision was made to cross in the reverse direction, as whilst this meant a long drive from Simon’s home base in Ripon at daft o’clock in the morning, it would at least get us closer to home at the end of the day.
We considered camping in Osmotherley, but as Simon and Alison kindly offered to put everyone up for the night we decided to stay over and aim for an early start.
After the day’s work was done the team travelled up to Ripon to settle in for the evening which included a quick trip to the ‘One Eyed Rat’ in Ripon – proper real ale pub well worth a visit. Gavin decided that he needed a little more Dutch courage than most and ploughed his way merrily through a bottle and a half of red wine, much to everyone’s concern for his ability to get up in the morning!
Nonetheless we managed a relatively early night and set alarms for 0230 the next morning which arrived way too soon. A steady drive over to the stone by the radio mast at Ravenscar to arrive at 0440 arriving in low cloud/sea fret and chill breeze. One of my colleagues Paul Morritt lives in Burniston and had expressed an interest in meeting us at the start, which he duly did with a much appreciated flask of coffee in order to set us up for a good start.
Timings as follows:
Start Ravenscar/LWW Stone 0501
Eller Beck 0740
Wheeldale 0850
Knott Rd First Stop 1140-1210 – much needed sandwiches and refilling of water bottles. I will add at this point that I don’t remember the section up to this point being quite so boggy – I must have blanked that bit from my memory. My boots at this point seemed to have developed the ability to absorb and retain water which is far from ideal on a walk of this magnitude!
Lion Inn 1255 – weather now much improved, sunny and breezy
Clay Bank Second Stop 1630-1700 – much needed application of blister packs and a change of wet footwear (certainly on my part) and the application of suncream for Ryan (a little late in the day)
Cod Beck/LWW Stone 2040hrs – just one short sharp rain shower to contend with as we headed up on to Cringle Moor. Extremely glad we had walked this section as a practice recently as the path down to Scarth Nick seemed to go on forever!
Overall time 15h 40mins, a brilliant effort by everyone and well deserved condolences to the following:
Gavin ‘Just one more glass’ Bellerby – excessive consumption of red wine on the evening before the walk yet managed to power through and complete the walk
Danny ‘Tusken Raider’ Serrano – unique choice of headwear
Ryan ’Lobster Legs’ Dunning – lack of sun cream had a spectacular effect on Ryan’s exposed legs
Simon ‘New Boots’ Ogier – practice walk two weeks before necessitated purchase of emergency new boots (Second Crossing)
and myself Ian ‘Lead from the Back’ Anderson – this is definitely a marathon not a sprint (Third Crossing)
Many thanks to Alison, Rachael and Eleanor Ogier and Lisa Cooper for much needed refreshments, sandwiches and support driving, Paul Morritt for meeting us at Ravenscar, and Adam Shubber for meeting us in Osmotherley to transport our weary York contingent home.