The New Lyke Wake Club

Crossing report – 12th September 2020

It has been over 2 months since this most dreadful of experiences, and I feel only now am I able to look back to that day and recount in some small part the awfulness of what befell me.

It began at 7.00am or thereabouts at Osmotherley, and from the off the fates conspired to deliver the constant menace of a cloudless sky, a relentlessly gentle cool breeze, and the dread prospect of dry ground for the full length of the route. Travelling alone, the odd encounter with a fellow traveller consigned to perdition brought fleeting moments of respite from the thankless task, but unbroken views north from the heights of Hasty Bank only served to dampen spirits.

The only deviation from the course was around Flyingdales, wherein a navigational error set me on a different path and opened up the possibility of escape! Alas, the route was not to let me go that easily and reappeared some hour or so later, reminding me there would indeed be no escape.

After what felt like a lifetime but was just under 9 hours, very hired legs and a broken will limped beneath an antennae at Ravenscar and I vowed never to speak of that day again.

What a gloriously, utterly, wonderfully dreadful route.

Jon Haste