Dirgers: Mike Smith, Oliver Curtis-Smith, Katherine Curtis-Smith
Date; June 20th 2025
Successful crossing yesterday (sore everything today).
We left the Lyke Wake Stone at Osmotherly at 5.05am on a self-supported walk – we were passed a couple of times by three supported charity walkers for bone cancer, and wish we’d planned better!
Smooth sailing (glorious weather) through to the Lion Inn and a refuel. I wasn’t paying close enough attention though and my son didn’t fill up his water bottles for some reason (weight?). The boggy crossing was fine (only a couple of spots of peat to sink into) but section 5 was nearly our downfall. Dehydration had set in for my son, and we had to juggle liquid supplies to get him mobile again. Then it was a case of stepping him through the last parts step by step, with options to stop and have me go and get the car at the A168 and A172. By the time we reached the A172 he’d recovered enough that the last 4-5 miles (despite the Ravine!) were manageable.
We had slowed down a lot with rests and pacing to accommodate tiredness, but it was still light enough even after 10pm to see our way through to the stone at Ravenscar at 10.40pm. Fortunately we’d driven and left a car there the previous night, so just had to drive home rather than wait for taxis etc.
All in all a great experience but I’m not sure if I’ll get them to do it again!
Cheers!
Mike