The New Lyke Wake Club
Quarter Century Celebrations!: The Tyler Family
Date – 13th July 2023
Start from Osmotherley – 4:45
Finish at Ravenscar – 21:14
Total time – 16 hours 29 minutes
Walking time – 14 hours 35 minutes
Idiots crossing – Jane Tyler (several previous crossings last century), Ella Tyler (first timer), Julie Bushell (our valiant leader)
Support – Gerry Orchard, Barry Tyler
What better way to mark your quarter of a century by crossing the Lyke Wake with family and friends …! That was Ella’s idea some time ago. Not sure she was still thinking it such a good idea when the alarm went at 3.04am on 13th July…. nor when we had done a few miles and the feet began to pulse and the knees began to ache and the enormity of what we had signed up for sunk in? Julie kept us informed throughout the day with interesting facts and snippets of information about the route and Gerry’s jokes got worse and worse at each checkpoint. This kept our minds occupied when the body began to object.
We met several groups of walkers on the railway doing DofE hikes and the Coast to Coast. It was good to see some other humans and say hello. We then started noticing empty pistachio cases along our track which proved others were mad enough to attempt the same rout e and had completed it ahead of us. Those empty shells were a great marker for our weary feet and a brilliant in depth conversation topic which kept us entertained for miles!!! We have even been prompted to go out and buy some of our own!
The weather was kind – dry all day and not too hot which was a welcome relief for the two southerners after a few weeks of London heatwave.
We took the Old Margery route and so had to return to sample the food and beverages at the Lion Inn after we had recovered a little the next week.
Barry joined us from Hamer House to Wheeldale as he was wearing his new blue jacket and said he wanted to be a real “Blue Man in th’ Moss”. He certainly looked the part. At the Ellerbeck car park we enjoyed wonderful cakes and pastries that our support team had bought on route and this fuelled us for the last stage. After deciding to wash her right foot in a stream with her shoe still on, Ella plodded onwards across Fylingdales happily telling everyone that the idea of this birthday walk had been totally ridiculous. We were so pleased to see Gerry and Barry at the top of Jugger Howe and we thought that they were with the support car…….this was not the case as they had walked westwards to meet us and thought we would be pleased. We struggled to plod onwards until we reached the layby and then after a break of about 60 seconds, Ella announced that she wanted to get it over with quickly…and decided to charge ahead with an energy we could not believe. This inspired Julie and Jane to jog to catch her up so we all finished with a “sprint finish” to reach the LWW stone together after our epic journey.
The wheelchair Gerry kindly got ready for Ella many years ago, although the cause of this ridiculous escapade, was miraculously not needed !
