11/04/18 - Day 3 - Inn Way to North Yorkshire Moors - From Levisham

Start - Levisham
Finish - Egton Bridge
Distance -  15 Miles
Key Features - The Moors, A Forest, Heartbeat, Best Meal of the Way, Best Pub of the Way
Geocaches - 10
Pubs - 6 Available, 4 Successfully visited, 1 passed by, 1 closed
Previous Stages - Day 1, Day 2


Day 3 of the Inn Way and for my money, the best day of them all.  We have the Moors for the first (and second) time.  We have varied walking through forests.  We have the best pub and the best meal.  We have the worst pub.   We have Nick Berry.

All of life is here!  I just need the weather.  You just need to strap yourself in for a lengthy blog.

At least its not raining

So a day that promises the most beautiful views and I am denied by mist.  We can all look at what I could have won at another blog.

Levisham starts high and in no time, I am out on the first moors of the trip.   Levisham Moor is a gentle introduction with good paths, providing easy navigation to a couple of items of interest.

Skelton Tower - Location of a rare Virtual Cache

The Waterfall at Hudson's Cross

To break up the bleakness, the route drops down to the railway and climbs to the breath taking view point of Needle Point.   No point me sharing photos of cloud, so here's what its like to walk through a forest.

Cropton Forest

Its a fair distance through the trees on good forest rides until I reach Wardle Green.  It's amazing how the landscape changes.  In an instant, I'm out into what I would call proper, featureless moorland.  There's nothing but heather and those mental birds that scare the life out of you by taking flight on your approach and then gliding back to the ground going "clak, clak, clak, clak".   They are my only friends.   There's no other life up here.  I have no idea who left the footprints I am following or when.

A Rare Directional Sign in the heather

Simon Howe and the Pile of Stones

After a good couple of miles of this, it then becomes a completely surreal experience to enter a Theme Park Village.  It's when I reach the 1950's police car that I realise that Goathland is the setting for Heartbeat's fictional Aidensfield.

Our route guide sums it up best when he says

"Places you have never visited before feel familiar with an uneasy feeling of deja vu at almost every corner" 

That, and looking completely at odds with the first humans that you have seen all day who are milling around aimlessly and pretending to enjoy themselves.

But what about the Pubs Mappiman?

There are three and get this, I actually walk on past the first one.  The Spout House Bar looks a bit posh for someone carrying everything they currently need for a week and looking as I do.

Too Posh

I mistakenly think the Inn on the Moor is an Inn.  Its more of a posh coffee lounge but to be fair, after the rushed of her feet solo barperson has made 7 cappuccinos for the blue rinse brigade paying separately (in coppers, may I add), she does pour me the best Black Sheep of the entire journey.  A delightful pint in sterile conditions.

When is an Inn not an Inn?

And on to the Goathland Hotel, where the proprietor has changed the name to the Aidensfield Arms, to lure in the Nick Berry fanclub.

And talk about being careful what you wish for.  The place is mental busy with runaround kids, the indecisive elderly and the quite frankly insane and he is having to work like a trojan.   I order my Black Sheep and he gives me the 1000 yard stare.  I ask him if there is a problem.  After a sigh and a pause he says "You haven't said if you want a pint or a half" in the most cheerless, morose Yorkshire accent imaginable.

His beer is terrible too.... vinegary rubbish that I was too scared to complain about.   And if you think I am being harsh, just check out the TripAdvisor reviews.

1st Inn Way Sticker!

Nick Berry's Local - I was out of there in a heartbeat quickly

I tweet my disappointment and the route designer instantly replies that fear not, for the best pub is just around the corner.

How he found it 20 years ago, I don't know.  I found it by fighting my way through the crowds recently disgorged from the Steam train and following my GPS for around a mile to Beck Hole.

And there, just past the teenager on a bridge desperately trying to get a signal from someone's WiFi, is the lonely and exceptional looking Birch Hall Inn.

Birch Hall Inn - Fully Licenced with a Sweet Shop next door

Sensing my approach, I hear the door bolt scratch.  They've read my tweet and want to restore my faith in good Yorkshire Beer and joyful service!

Well actually, he's on his way out to Goathland and the pub doesn't open till 7:30pm.  This, despite being a Good Beer Guide 2018 entry that states 11-11 opening hours.

There's not much chance of any future InnWayers getting a tick here, as we have a good 4 miles of agricultural walking to our home for the night at Egton Bridge.

I'm mud splattered and tired, which leads to a navigational error putting me on the wrong side of the River Esk to where I am staying at the Horseshoe Hotel, another GBG 2018 Entry.  Not to worry, there are stepping stones that can avoid a lengthy (everything seems lengthy after 15 miles) retrace of steps and never have I made a finer entrance to a pub.

My room?  Top Left.  I'm in the bathroom trying to get peat off goretex.

Lovely host, perfect En Suite Double Bed room but if I get too settled, I'll never get out to explore the Postgate Inn.

Breaking with tradition and being a good pub next to a railway station

The Postgate is a foody pub, with an exceptional menu written on slates and hung above the fire place.  The beer (a single Cameron's Strong Arm) was not much to write home about but in a week of fine evening meals, my chicken wrapped in bacon on a gnocchi bed was the best.

So I eat up and head back to the Horseshoe.  At last, a proper pub with a fishing memorabilia laden bar full of drinkers and a well behaved Patterdale Terrier.  There's good banter between us all and its obvious that whilst I have been eating, they've all been drinking.  Hard.

Eventually the following are left;

The great barman host - the kind that pours spirits with no need of a measure.
The Patterdale Terriers Owner, who is as drunk as a lord
A couple on a dirty midweek break.
Yours Truly.

Lots of laughs and raucous conversations until our couple decide to have one more artisan G&T before talking too loudly about what they are going to do to each other when they get to their room.

Patterdale Terrier Man fusses his dog.  Barman cleans some glasses.  I pretend to read my newspaper for a 2nd time today, attempting to do the easiest and last remaining sudoku.

They sense they need to be a bit more discreet and their conversation drops to a series of flirtatious giggles and the clinking of goldfish bowl sized gin chalices.

This continues until the man erupts in a temper and shouts "Oh Love, I cannot believe you forgot to pack the lingerie."

10/04/18 - Day 2 - Inn Way to North Yorkshire Moors - From Hutton Le Hole

Start - Hutton-le-Hole
Finish - Levisham
Distance -  13 Miles
Key Features - A brewery, a muddy forest and a heritage railway
Geocaches - 1
Pubs - 4 Attempted, 2 Successfully
Previous Stage - Day 1



In addition to this being a week of hiking and beer drinking, it's also a week of the Full English Breakfasts.

You may have noticed that I am walking this solo - so to keep myself entertained, I've been posting daily updates of the FEB on Facebook for comments, approval and to determine the overall winner.

Just one FEB Photo on the blog

You would not believe the amount of vitriol for ramekins or the love for a good poached egg.  The winner was day 5 at Rosedale Abbey.   Orange juice positioned in a flute on right hand side, hash browns, small tomatoes and a perfect egg.   Gloopy, thick beans meant a photo finish.

Today presents the worst of the weather.   It's hammering it down on wake up but by the time I have finished the above and spent 20 minutes waterproofing myself and my rucksack, it has stopped.

It leaves behind a ghastly muddy reminder and some thick mist which stays for 3 days.

After setting off and getting a hint of moorland, I arrive at Lastingham at about 10am.   There is a cracking pub (CAMRA 2018 Good Beer Guide) here which opens at 11am.  So advice for future Inn Wayers - have a lie in.

Lastingham's rather large Church

Pretty Looking Blacksmiths Arms

Some forgettable agricultural walking brings me to Cropton at 11:30am and one of the beer surprises of the week.   The New Inn is both open and a brewery tap.  Like the Blacksmiths Arms, it's also in the 2018 Good Beer Guide.  By the time I have removed mud splattered hard shells, gaiters and boots its midday and the first of the brewery tours punters begin arriving.   It's full by the time I leave, two pints of Yorkshire Classic to the good.

A Brewery - And its Open!

Back out and on for some forgettable walking through a muddy, stony forest and picking up a long straight Peat Road that offers little joy in the mist.

Scarth Wood - Before it gets into a quagmire

Newton-on-Rawcliffe comes next.  It's a diversion to hit the village and see if the pub is open.  It's a Tuesday, its 3pm.  I am feeling lucky.

Of course its closed.   This is kind of heart breaking, as it was tough mud to get there and get back on the route - all up some very steep paths.  Descent, no easier than ascent in these conditions.

White Swan, Newton on Rawcliffe

So you don't make the same mistake

It's just on to Levisham Station where spirits are restored.  If you're going to arrive at a heritage steam railway station, you might as well do it when the train is arriving.

I time things to perfection.

Train's a coming

There's also a hardcore multi cache - where the clues for the co-ordinates are taken from information at the station.   I plot into the GPS and its a long way from the station, all uphill but fortunately, where I am going.

Path for the Geocaching Treasure - No Views

And that's today's walking over.  I arrive into Levisham Village and have a long chat with a local dog walker.  Well, I say chat, its more me ranting about closed pubs and him laughing his head off.

My room for the night is the Horseshoe Inn - perfectly positioned at the top of the village green and I bet it's stunning in summer.

Entertainment for the Evening

With my only friend

Disappointment that my single room has no En-suite is tempered by the fact that I have the bathroom facilities to myself.   Baths make sense when you've completed a long walk in mud and mist.

Donning my best bib and tucker (I have a collared shirt in that blue bag, don't you know), I head down at tea time.

As per last night, the food is excellent, the beers (Yorkshire Moors and Black Sheep in addition to Timothy Taylor Golden Best) are superb but the furniture is mainly rock hard dining chairs.

But fear not, for next to the stairs on the way to the rooms is a wonderful chesterfield which I commandeer before a group of elderly ramblers have the same idea.

They take the hard pews and through inadvertent eavesdropping, I learn how gentlemen make love.  It's all about the elbows and knees apparently but I didn't hang around for the "how".

I selflessly surrendered my couch and went to watch Cunk on Britain. 

This is a comedy on BBC2.

09/04/18 - Day 1 - Inn Way to North Yorkshire Moors - From Helmsley

Start - Helmsley
Finish - Hutton-le-Hole
Distance -  15 Miles
Key Features - River Rye, Agricultural Landscapes, Kirkdale, Historical Saxon Church
Geocaches - 5
Pubs - 5 Attempted, 2 Successfully

The Inn Ways are a collection of 5 walking guides produced about 20 years ago by Mark Reid.  They combine my favourite activities - investigating new places, good walking in national parks and of course, the anticipation of exceptional beer.  The North Yorkshire Moors is my third one, having previously completed the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District.

Planning is part of the fun.  Booking happens the first week of the year in January, providing me something to look forward to.  Of course, after 20 years, some things change - so other people's blogs can provide some advice.  And hopefully, so can mine.

Here's two bits of advice for day 1 - Don't start on a Monday (for reasons that will become apparent) and don't start before 10am.   Long Term parking is available at the Castle Car Park in Helmsley but you can only buy a ticket from the visitor centre when it opens.

So, having left Worcester at 5:30am, I have 30 minutes to get my boots on.  A single geocache at the start of the Cleveland Way provides a 2 minute distraction. 

My walk starts almost immediately after the church bells chime 10am and the visitor centre opens.

Helmsley, as lovely looking as you are, will be explored on my return in six days time.

And I'm off - from Helmsley Castle

First stage of the walk is along the River Rye and lanes to the first couple of pubs at Harome and Wombleton.  I always expected to be too early for the gorgeous looking Star Inn but had high hopes for the first pint of the expedition at the Plough Inn. 

The at times precarious path along the River Rye

Pub #1 - Star Inn Harome - 11am but doesn't open on Monday Lunch times at all

Pub #2 - The more functional looking Plough Inn at Wombleton

God Damn it!

So future Inn Wayers.  Don't start on a Monday.

There's no need to be upset though, as the sun is shining and the walking takes a turn for the exceptional.  I find the first Inn Way branded sign post at St Gregory's Minster - a quite special place with the most complete Saxon inscription carving in the world, etched 1000 years ago into the sundial.

Its also a Multi-cache - which means I have to collect some information to point to location of the hidden treasure.

First one of these seen

St Gregory's Minster

Collecting Information for the Geocache

Hopefully the photos will do justice to the quality of the walking as I am taken down to Hold Caldron and Kirk Dale.  I don't even notice the climb out of the valley.

This is why I am here

The climbing is to the twin villages of Fadmoor and Gillamoor.  Fadmoor, eerily quiet with not a living being around.  Feels a bit 28 days later and there's no chance of a drink at the Plough Inn on any day of the week anymore.

Show me a sadder sight than a dead pub.

But Gillamoor provides.  The Royal Oak is open and I feel it could be especially for me.  I am the only punter in my 1 hour, 2 pint stop.

I've seen some pretty sights today, but this is surely the prettiest of them all

Black Sheep - Pint #1 on the Inn Way

Just Add Punters

The author enthuses about the views from Gillamoor.  The OS Map has a view point marked and this is why.

The Bleak and Lonely Moors 

A drop down Broom Hill for a soggy and muddy arrival at Hutton-le-Hole.   This is described by Mark as possibly the prettiest village in the country and he might be right.   Sheep, roaming free, greet my arrival.

Hutton-le-Hole

Entertainment wise, it has an ice cream parlour, Ryedale Folk Museum, the Barn Tea Rooms (my bed for the night) and as long as you come on a Monday after Spring, a fully functional pub.

Ryedale Folk Museum

Or Alternative Entertainment

Three real ales on in the Crown and many couples dining.  The food is very good but all the seats are wooden dining chairs and after an early start and 15 miles walking, I am needing a little bit of comfort.

I head back to the Barn and fall instantly asleep, only to be awoken by the most incredible sounding snoring you have ever heard.

It was me.

05/04/18 - Kings Arms at Ombersley

Distance - 4.5 Miles
Geocaches - 0
Walk Inspiration

Spring finally appears and it's just too good to ignore, so a short walk from Ombersley was found from www.walkingworld.com.

I really should have factored in the recent rainfall and thought twice about a riverside ramble

Things start well enough from the centre of Ombersley, crossing fields to find the river Severn.

First blue skies of 2018

Or should I say the River finds you.  This is Ombersley, Worcestershire but you could be forgiven for thinking you'd been magically transferred to Louisiana.

Managed to use a fallen tree to get through this hazard

Eventually resulting in carrying boots and rolling up trousers

A collection of houses at Hawford Wood provides an escape from the floodlands to cross the A449.

Fields, with fine views in all directions, from the clock tower at Abberley to the distant Malverns.

Malverns

Big Skies in Worcestershire

Back across the A449 to the pretty village of Ombersley.  Three pubs, a superb butchers/coffee shop (they are diversifying) and plenty of C15th Black and White half timbered buildings.  Everyone is out tending their gardens.

Today's refreshment stop is the Kings Arms.   A more traditional English Inn could not be found anywhere in the land.  All low ceilings, pensioners who lunch and £7 fishfinger sandwiches.  Chips are extra.

C15th Century

Ringwood Boondoggle - Looking lovely in the Spring Sunshine