NEW LYKE WAKE CLUB

A few months ago somebody came up with the bright idea of a company charity event …and this someone evolved into doing The Lyke Wake Walk. Being from an engineering company, where most people are office based, we didn’t exactly have a que of fit, athletic long distance walkers lined up so we ended up with four gullible employees and some family and friends added in for good measure ….making our walking group up to 8 people. We set off at 3.15am in the dark at Osmotherley, gps in hand …maps at the ready. The first stretch to Lord Stones was completed in the mist, up on the cliff top with clouds swirling round and daylight barely visible. The dewy morning caught out it’s first victim at this point – as despite walking poles – I took a good tumble on the rocks and had a proper ‘you’ve been framed’ moment (thankfully no-one caught it on camera).

Lord Stones provided the first pit stop for brekkie, then we pushed on through the mist over to Blakey, walking along the old railway line to Blowworth unaware of the steep drops around as the fog was still keeping the early morning sun at bay. A welcome crew break and refreshment stop came at The Lion, Blakey where we were met by our crew and some much needed comfy chairs. By now it was ‘factor 50’ weather, as the clouds had parted to blue sky and sunshine over the moor, allowing us to fully appreciate the views. Jam donuts, blister plasters and sock changes complete, we pushed onwards up the road looking for the turnoff back onto the moor.

The trusty GPS came in handy navigating the boggy bits over the moor, trying to avoid the bogs, dense reeds and the adders lying in wait to come attack (It certainly made you walk faster when someone shouted snake!). With hindsight, given the heat, we should have had another crew stop Blakey and the Pickering Road, as the next 10+ mile seemed like an extremely long way and we were glad of seeing the crew car parked at the side of the road!

At this point we were making good time and progress and although slightly weary, everyone was bearing up pretty well ….little did we know what would be thrown at us next! We headed away from the road and crossed the stream without too many wet feet and grumbled our way up to the top of the next hill.

A few mile further along and Fylingdales was in sight. Powering down the moor, knowing that the next crew point wasn’t far ahead we were all in good spirits. At this point we had spoken too soon and things started to go wrong! Sonia, the youngest member of our group alerted us to something in the grass. At first none of us quite comprehended what was in front of us …. We had found a lady, laid barely conscious alone in the middle of the moor in the baking sun. Not quite what we had expected to see. After a lengthy call to 999 our group split – with 5 members of the group walking on to the next road point and the remaining waiting on an ambulance and the Scarborough & Ryedale Mountain Rescue (volunteers who do a fantastic job and our thanks must go to). Given the remoteness of our location and the situation we were faced with, this halted progress by over 2.5hrs. The first five of our team made the sensible decision after 2hrs waiting to continue onwards, leaving us 3 to give chase half an hour later after we had handed over to the emergence services. By this point it was 6.30pm and we still faced another 8 mile ahead. All of us made a pact that we were finishing no matter what – we hadn’t come that far to drop out!

The last four miles over the stony moorland track and gruelling uphill after the road crossing caused a great deal of cursing, the elusive mast seemed to never be getting any nearer. After a full day in scorching temperatures the weather took a sudden turn and out of nowhere we got caught in a quick downpour of rain, although this was almost a welcome relief by this point and spurred us on a bit quicker. . We made up about 10mins on the other group, finishing the last, never ending, few miles in what was left of the daylight to complete just after 9.30pm At this point the main grumble was that the delay had caused us to miss our fish and chip stop in Whitby, as everywhere would now be shut! Sunburnt, achy, slightly wet and very hungry (yet blister free) we all felt a great sense of accomplishment – Out of our group of 8, only 2 have done any serious (20mile +) walks previous to attempting this. We have raised almost £2000 for Age UK and once we all regained feeling in our legs, discussions started around our next adventure ….. a reverse crossing in 2020 maybe ??? (!!!)

Laura, Mo, Mike, Sammy, Mobeena, Sonia, Akmal, Akram from AVRS Systems Ltd, Middlesbrough.

A date pencilled in the diaries for 2 brothers (James and Tom) and 1 best friend (Smudger) since March the same year. With the date closing in the weather forecast was that it was going be the hottest day of the year so far, not really ideal conditions to take on the Lyke Wake challenge. Not deterred or put off and never a group that was going to turned down the challenge that lies ahead. We arranged to park the cars at The Lion and Ravenscar, we embarked on the biggest endurance challenge any of us had taken.

We got underway at 04:27hrs after an evening of how best to take on the challenge and a morning spent being eaten alive by midges at the camp site. Tom’s water bladder leaking all over his gear through the night, we were keen to get going to beat the sun over the 1st 10 miles of hills.

Each hill we climbed was covered by cloud and incredibly windy which provided some of the most spectacular views of the day.

We were 8 miles into the 40 mile when we had our 1st blister. Typically, the only tiny piece of skin not mummified by tape on smudgers foot was his little toe that hosted the 1st blister of the day.

We managed to beat the heat as we ventured over the hills onto the long trail to Blakey. With a reasonable time of 6 1/2 hours, we reached The Lion where the 1st car was parked with extra water, food, change of socks and a toilet stop awaited.

We rested up for about 45mins, with a coffee recharge and an ice cold drink. We then set off to tackle the boggy section.
On a previous practice run of this section (it was a lot dryer) Tom managed to sink up to his knees in mud and split his trousers. With this in mind I was the only one to purchase some new gaitors. The heat was beginning to pick up, and after a lot of rain in previous weeks I was feeling pretty happy with my new gaitors prompting the nick name “gaitor boy”.
It was a lot worse than last time, luckily we had “sheep track” Smudger leading the way finding the best route to keep his and Tom’s boots nice and clean.
Part way through this section Tom started to drop back from a pain in his shins which had been gradually getting worse. After a brief stop to provide some make shift support for his shins, we knew the pace had to slow with more frequent stops if we were to stand any chance of finishing together as we were not prepared to leave anyone behind. We were very stubborn with our attitude that we were all going to finish no matter what.
There was a lovely breeze slightly cooling the day down until we dropped into the ravine at Goathland. This is where we really noticed the heat as the breeze was being blocked by the deep ravine.
There are 2 parts of the walk where we really had to try to switch off and not look forward, there was the stage where Flyingdales RAF base (dubbed the big sand castle) started to come into view and when the radio mast at Ravenscar came into view. They are like optical illusions that never seem to get any closer. It almost seemed at one stage that they were moving further away but we weren’t about to let this dampen our spirits.

With the pace slowed right down we still managed to complete the walk in 16 hours 50 mins.
What an incredible experience. We witnessed the sun rising and setting, we had highs and lows and made memories to last a life time.

Tom showed incredible guts, resilience and mental strength to push through the pain he was experiencing for over half of the walk. Tom definitely got the walker of the day award from myself and Smudger as we both know the pain he was going through and the most people would easily gave up. I know a lot of people will say he should have stopped, but this was his choice and I’ve never seen more pure determination to reach a goal, even in my 7 years in the Army.
Smudger was amazing throughout, I didn’t expect anything less. He was calm, lifting morale where needed, always there with a joke normally at our expense and patient even though his hay fever exploded after about 4 miles leading him to bung toilet roll up one nostril only removing it for photos.
I’m going to repeat myself….what an incredible experience, I wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else and having spoken to the others we are all in agreement with that
Cheers lads, onto the next challenge.