Distance: 21 miles
Weather: sunny, warm when out of the wind
Critters: bunnies, pheasants, buzzard, harriers (on a string), deer, mouse type thing, heard an owl.
After a very restrained breakfast and a quick trip to Boots for more suncream (we hadn't expected to need more than one bottle of that!) we were off at about 9am. After crossing the bridge over the A19, we turned off down a track through a farm and then across some more fields of oilseed rape, the path not being quite as clear as it was yesterday and again we got covered in yellow. Along field borders and tracks took us to Felixkirk where we joined a quiet road, the first bit of serious uphill in a while, and we were into the North York Moors National Park.
Some more uphill, and with a buzzard circling overhead, we entered a wood with bluebells and wild garlic. Coming out onto moorland, we joined the Cleveland Way (which doesn't sound very picturesque, but actually does a 108 mile circuit of the North York Moors from Helmsley around to Filey and is probably a very nice walk indeed.)
At the top of Sutton Bank we met up with Rob's sister and family for a picnic lunch and we had the pleasure of their company for a couple of miles around the escarpment edge. It was rather windy and there were a couple of moments of hat related anxiety.
Walking on, we followed the Cleveland Way through the the pretty village of Cold Kirby (probably named on a windy day) and then onwards towards Rievaulx. Within an hour of my saying that I hadn't seen any deer on our trip (Rob saw one in the ground of the yha in Windermere because he got up early) two of them came running out of the woods and crossed the track just in front of us.
The abbey ruins at Rievaulx are beautiful, set in a secluded wooded valley, and they have a very nice cafe where we had coffee and the stickiest chocolate biscuit cake, and then were entertained by a civil war reenactment and firearms demonstration.
The last three miles to Helmsley took us along a quiet road, which was signposted as being a mile but we think they lied, and then a longer than normal 'two miles' along wooded tracks and some sheep fields. We have left world of rabbit and are now definitely in world of pheasant.
Coming down to Helmsley we could see the castle in the distance, but from closer to it was hard to get a good look at it. We are staying at the yha, which is very quiet and we got a big room to ourselves, which is a relief as I didn't much fancy having to negotiate top bunk beds and ladders after today's walk.
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