19: Blakeys Ridge to Egton Bridge

Woke up this morning to the sound of grouse - kind of a cross between a kookaburra warming up, a frog croaking and a duck quacking!  There are lots around - poor things should keep their heads down as it's the middle of the shooting season here.  Out of our window we could see these naughty lamby's who invited themselves into the hotels picnic ground!

A great days walking today - started off a bit overcast and we had a bit of rain, but who cares on the second last day of a long walk?

Off we set along the top of the moors along the road, then across the top of the ridge through lots of heather.  Quite flat for most of the day, till around midday we started to drop down a bit. 

Apparently we are in Harry Potter country - Gothland Station - Hogsmead in Harry Potter Land is quite near and we might go there tomorrow on our way.  We are also in 'Heartbeat' country - the pub we are staying in was Greengrass' local.

We had lunch at Glaisdale - we had made good time today so we stopped at the pub and had a real sit-down lunch instead of a sandwich by the side of the path (or huddled under the eaves of shepherds hut). 

Then a leasurely stoll through a little forrested path along 'pack pony' steps, put in place for pony's to carry stuff from the village to the monastery, into Egton Bridge - a very cute little town with some lovely old buildings and a great church (St Hedda's) with beautiful stained glass windows and the relics of Nicholas Postgate, a martyr executed in 1679, for continuing to practise his faith.

And a little piece of trivia for you: apparently Egton Bridge is the setting for the oldest surviving gooseberry show in England, established in 1800. The show is held on the first Tuesday in August each year by the Egton Bridge Old Gooseberry Society and this year saw 7 Society records broken!  Wow, that would have been a big event in this sleepy little village! 

Tonight we're staying at the Postgate Inn - Joe and Pete nipped down to the other local (in the pic above) - mmm yes this may be something of a pub crawl around Engand but we do need a reward after a long days walk!.  They came back very excited - they had met the Laird of Egton and his wife who had been out organising a hunt today - all decked out in the shooting gear.  A shoot with them costs two thousand pounds a day and there are 55 people working on a shoot - you even have someone to load your gun for you.

We intended to have dinner at the Postgate Inn, but the food prices are really high, so back down the road to the other pub.  Of course we had to walk back via the stepping stones over the River Esk - tricky after a night at the pub and when only one person in 6 has a torch - but fortunately all arrived back at the Postgate dry.

Only one days walking to go!!!

Phoebe looking very excited about having to only walk one more day