NEW LYKE WAKE CLUB

Sat in the warmth of the Easingwold School staff room we over heard a colleague talking about the Lyke Wake Walk. MMmmm, sound interesting, our ears pricked up. After some investigation we found out that some of our ‘older’ friends and family (as this was obviously something you had to do in the 60’s) had attempted the challenge but failed…
40 miles in 24 hours?….We’re fit young women aged 35-46…cant be that difficult, we thought!
We had not long since completed the 3 peaks. What could be more challenging than 26 miles up and down mountains?…. certainly not a 40 mile walk across more or less flat moorland!!!???
So, that was it. The book was bought. The maps photocopied, the route planned. Lifts sorted. Dates set. No going back. No dropping out.
We were being told: ‘Don’t forget to mark check points, take spare boots, lots of food, torch, keep in contact, don’t think you’ve failed if you drop out’…..
FAIL. DROP OUT??????!!! Not a chance we said, we had just done the 3 peaks…
It was 4:20am in the morning . Still dark and not a sole about. We stood proudly against the LWW starting stone for a photo.
That was it, we were off. Footpath good, sun rising and a good pace set. Strategically balancing the camera at various points of interest to take selfies for evidence of our adventure, and something other than our blisters to look back on and reminisce. We now know precious time was wasted. Time not just wasted taking selfies but also trying to find paths that were marked on the map and written about in the LWW book, but were not actually there…. ‘Ha, what bloody paths?’ we moaned. Also trying to find markers that were talked about in the book….’Ha, what bloody way markers?’. We were cursing by now. Some paths and way markers had seemed to have completely vanished, so just took a guess.
It all worked out…..18 hours later we reached the end, albeit in pain and with pressure sores to bring tears to your eyes, but WE DID IT, and we can tell you it is not easy! It was far more difficult than we expected.
We should have listened to you Eira!!!
We plan to do it again sometime, but quicker….it’s not going to beat us!
Thanks to Linda & Steve Williams for rescuing us at the end, the champagne made the hurting all the more bearable.
Thanks to my crazy friend and work colleague Anouska for doing it with me….wait a minute…what am I thanking her for? If she hadn’t agreed to do this then I wouldn’t have done it and I wouldn’t have experienced such pain.
Just kidding…it was a fab adventure and it has now been ticked off the
‘Why Not’ list.

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