Walk: 10:45am to 2pm - 6.5 miles and 325ft of ascent
Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day....well at least it set off that way. If we'd gone walking from around 5am we would have had wall to wall blue sky, but we didn't - no way I'll ever get up that early to go for a walk :-) Although cloudy though, it never rained and thankfully there was a strong breeze, as if not it would have been a little warm. And at our (ok my) age perspiration is not a welcome travel companion.
Anyway, less of the uninteresting waffle. We left the cottage heading down to the main road where we had to walk in the hedgerow beside the road for a few hundred metres as there was no path, keeping well away from the road as it was like a race-track with cars vying for road supremacy with leather clad motorcyclists. Ok, it's the main road over to the coast from this part of the world, but much better getting there in one piece than not at all.
Thankfully after about 20 minutes and with a slight diversion via the visitor centre we picked up the Cleveland Way and headed in a northerly direction enjoying the views of Sutton Bank and Gormire Lake. It's an amazing sight from up there as the land just flattens out from this westerly edge of the North York Moors for almost as far as the eye can see, right to the Yorkshire Dales. There is a viewing area that claims the 'best view in England' and to be honest it's hard to argue against it.
From there we continued along the Cleveland Way until we reached Boltby Scar where we took the path east towards Hambleton Road; a bridleway/lane that would take us all the way back to the main road and and our lunch stop; the Hambleton Inn - just 10 minutes from our cottage.
We decided to eat 'al fresco' - not a fan of dining in a stuffy public house on a warm day and why waste the fresh air? It's not every day in England that we get the opportunity to eat outside. We both had baguettes with salad and a few home-made chips. Donna had a G&T (she's a lady you know) and I had a lovely Cider; Ampleforth Cider. A strong cider a little between a common or garden Strongbow and a west-country Scrumpy. Made by the monks at Ampleforth Abbey and delicious.
When we arrived back at the cottage it was time for a well earned cuppa, not much rest though as we headed out to the Sutton Bank Gliding Club; Donna begged "we are going to drive there aren't we?" I don't think that after our earlier walk, either of us really wanted to walk the couple of miles there.
Our hope was that we would see loads of gliders taking off and landing, and that I would be able to get loads of photos. However the reality was that we only really saw one glider take off and that was into the sun so once above the horizon we couldn't see a great deal. Plus, gliders that landed were so far up the field that we couldn't see a great deal. Never mind though, time to come back later in the week to see if there's more going on.
Now just back to the cottage and time for a Sunday dinner; Hickery smoked Brisket with potatoes and veg....scrummy.
Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day....well at least it set off that way. If we'd gone walking from around 5am we would have had wall to wall blue sky, but we didn't - no way I'll ever get up that early to go for a walk :-) Although cloudy though, it never rained and thankfully there was a strong breeze, as if not it would have been a little warm. And at our (ok my) age perspiration is not a welcome travel companion.
Anyway, less of the uninteresting waffle. We left the cottage heading down to the main road where we had to walk in the hedgerow beside the road for a few hundred metres as there was no path, keeping well away from the road as it was like a race-track with cars vying for road supremacy with leather clad motorcyclists. Ok, it's the main road over to the coast from this part of the world, but much better getting there in one piece than not at all.
Thankfully after about 20 minutes and with a slight diversion via the visitor centre we picked up the Cleveland Way and headed in a northerly direction enjoying the views of Sutton Bank and Gormire Lake. It's an amazing sight from up there as the land just flattens out from this westerly edge of the North York Moors for almost as far as the eye can see, right to the Yorkshire Dales. There is a viewing area that claims the 'best view in England' and to be honest it's hard to argue against it.
From there we continued along the Cleveland Way until we reached Boltby Scar where we took the path east towards Hambleton Road; a bridleway/lane that would take us all the way back to the main road and and our lunch stop; the Hambleton Inn - just 10 minutes from our cottage.
We decided to eat 'al fresco' - not a fan of dining in a stuffy public house on a warm day and why waste the fresh air? It's not every day in England that we get the opportunity to eat outside. We both had baguettes with salad and a few home-made chips. Donna had a G&T (she's a lady you know) and I had a lovely Cider; Ampleforth Cider. A strong cider a little between a common or garden Strongbow and a west-country Scrumpy. Made by the monks at Ampleforth Abbey and delicious.
When we arrived back at the cottage it was time for a well earned cuppa, not much rest though as we headed out to the Sutton Bank Gliding Club; Donna begged "we are going to drive there aren't we?" I don't think that after our earlier walk, either of us really wanted to walk the couple of miles there.
Our hope was that we would see loads of gliders taking off and landing, and that I would be able to get loads of photos. However the reality was that we only really saw one glider take off and that was into the sun so once above the horizon we couldn't see a great deal. Plus, gliders that landed were so far up the field that we couldn't see a great deal. Never mind though, time to come back later in the week to see if there's more going on.
Now just back to the cottage and time for a Sunday dinner; Hickery smoked Brisket with potatoes and veg....scrummy.
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