Years ago my mother and I were discussing what sort of animal we considered ourselves to be like. She was a badger, a creature that most people had heard of, but didn’t really know well; a creature that was family orientated with a love of fun. I was a dormouse, because of my propensity to go off on adventures then come back hungry and exhausted, wanting to eat and sleep.
My mother instilled in me a love of walking and when, many years ago, she completed the Lyke Wake Walk and told me the story of her challenge, I decided that one day I would do it too. The years passed and so did my mother, but my dream of walking in her footsteps remained.
Enter Marie, a good friend who had previously enjoyed a successful East to West Crossing, and offered to walk it again with me. Logistics were not easy and support was scarce, so we set off together, unsupported, on Thursday 25th July, 2019, on what turned out to be the hottest day of the year, at 29 degrees. Yet we marched along, happily and confidently until blisters made a brutal appearance, slowing us down and allowing the darkness to enfold us. Finally, on the A171, we called for a taxi to take us to our lodgings. It was a good decision. Not only had the first two numbers turned on answerphones, but the driver for the third had just been about to stop for the night, and with no other support he was our only chance of reaching our lodgings. He kindly came out to collect us.
Back at our hotel, my feet were intact but Marie was suffering with huge areas of sore skin that made me wonder how she had kept going so long. Not to be outdone in suffering, by next morning I was hobbling with hips and knees so stiff I could barely walk, and we commiserated over blisters and aching and mourned our unfinished challenge.
The next attempt, the following year, was even more difficult with logistics, and finally, Marie offered to be my support as I walked solo. This time the blisters attacked me, the darkness fell and again we chose safety over success and again returned home with heads bloody but unbowed.
In 2024, I was determined to complete this walk before my sixtieth year was out. Again I was solo, but Marie was an amazing support, walking to meet me at each checkpoint, and coming along the way as I left, before driving to the next one, and so, with determined marching, a couple of variations, and resolutely ignoring the blisters, I finished the crossing from Osmotherly to Ravenscar, reaching the stone in the dark and too tired to bother with the photo at the finish. As we set off on the drive home, I nibbled some nuts before drifting into a dormouse state of torpor, but not before a movement caught our attention in the headlights by the roadside. It was a badger! It felt as if my mother had been watching over me.
But this successful crossing had one hitch. The trusty guide book warned of dikes and unstable ditches in section 3 – 4, and yes, they were there, and so was water. The white marker stones which, according to the book, make this path “not hard to follow” were very elusive as they disappeared beneath the heads of reeds and I trod in soggy boggy peat and deviated around the clumps and water beds to avoid being sucked into the depths, and I fell foul of some thick and sticky mud which tried to pull my boot off. I finally made it to a road but with no checkpoint in site, and had to sit down to call for Marie, who was trying to work out where I was. When she found me, it was clear that I had deviated at least a mile and after some discussion, I hopped into her car and she drove me back to checkpoint 4 at Hamer.
On the next section, passing Wheeldale Plantation, I again found the path difficult to follow, but got back on track to meet Marie at Checkpoint 5. From there, without further hesitation, deviation or repetition, I had marched resolutely to the finish. I contacted the General Secretary of the New Lyke Wake Walk Club, and explained about the deviation between section 3 & 4 and the car lift to put me back on track, and it was decided I could still count it as a crossing, but somehow, I couldn’t quite reconcile myself to that short ride in the car, even though I had actually added length to the total distance of the walk with my deviation. I cajoled and coerced Marie into yet another crossing attempt!
And so, with a different approach to our logistics, including Sue, who supported us in her campervan, this time Marie and I set out to finish what we had started – walking together, on Friday 27th June 2025. We left the stone at Osmotherly at 0030, watched by the bright yellow eyes of many sheep. By now the route was like a home from home, and we made good time. Sue was there to meet us at each checkpoint, offering her condolences with a doleful face and gloomily predicting problems ahead.
Despite this, we actually caught her napping when we reached The Lion Inn at Blakey Ridge, at 0930, and here it became apparent that her condolences were well earned. Marie was suffering with pressure on her bunions, which was making each step extremely painful. Even with a dose of analgesia, the pain began to take its toll and so, met again by Sue at the Millenium Stone, Marie changed into a pair of trainers which were comfortable and gave her instant relief from the pressure, and we continued towards the “Bog section” where I had lost my way the previous year. It has to be said that the white marker stones still hid beneath the reeds, but with very few damp areas, we were bouncing along the “boggy” sections which were soft and springy beneath our feet, and with no pain to cause us concern, we were enjoying our walk…sorry, I mean commiserating on how far we still had to go.
We didn’t lose our way here, but on the path to Ellerbeck it was again the supposedly easy path to follow which proved more difficult to navigate. The Blue Man i’ the Moss seemed further away than we remembered, but we found him. However, the “large standing stone” was rather more elusive, and even now we are still not sure which of the many large stones it was meant to be. Despite this, we came out on target at Wheeldale road at 1505, and set off towards the ravine.
The scenery was beautiful and we were now unstoppable, going down and up the ravine like mountain goats. Maybe we were a little too unstoppable, because after leaving Simon’s Howe, on the descent to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway line crossing, we somehow missed the path not once but twice, and had to retrace our steps to get back on track. To be fair, the actual path was neither as clear, nor as wide as our variations, but we did realise our mistake and returned to the true path to reach the railway line.
Section 5 – 6 is another path which seems to become elusive and instead of bearing right onto a manmade stony road as the book suggests, our route seemed more direct. Nevertheless, we reached Lila Cross and grieved over the dark clouds behind us and clear skies ahead. After all these elusive paths, we found one of the very few clear signposts indicating the route for the LWW – at a point where the path seemed so obvious we wondered why the post was there at all, but at least we knew we were still heading in the right direction, and trudged along to Jugger Howe where we reverted to mountain goat mode. At checkpoint 6, Sue watched in misery as we came into her view, and woefully commented on our still being able to walk. We left her and gloomily made our way across Stony Marl Moor, reaching the stone at Ravenscar at 2050 hours where we sadly touched the stone together and exchanged condolences that our adventure was complete.
We would like to offer our deepest thanks to Sue who supported us so kindly, and transported us back to our lodgings in her trusty campervan.
We only met one other walker, travelling in the opposite direction, a lovely gentleman called Ian who was walking on a special birthday and stopped to exchange greetings with us – our commiserations to you Ian. Ian told us of some other gentlemen who were ahead of us – it seems they had set off after us but passed us at the time we met Sue for Marie to change her footwear. We hope that they too bounced over the bogs, suffered no bunions or blisters, and reached the stone at Ravenscar. If so, our commiseration to them too.
On a final note, despite our abject misery during this crossing, our pleasure in the nature that we experienced was very great. We saw an owl en route to the start, and a little mouse on Scarth Wood Moor. Marie saw a deer in the Coalmine Plantation, and on the moors in the second half of the walk we saw a slow worm, a little adder, and a lizard. Curlews and lapwings were often around us, a baby thrush was in the heather, and we heard the beautiful and unusual song of a bird we could not identify but believe may have been a nightjar. Beautiful pink orchids, rich and various colours of heather contrasted with the dark peaty moors, and there was a very pretty little yellow flower with a star-like appearance that we have not yet identified.
This walk has been a wonderful challenge and made all the more enticing by the difficulties in completing it. As we sat in our cottage that night, we both said we were glad to have done it, but didn’t think we would do it again.
Next morning, I said to Marie “ How about the other way next year?”