Take It Easy

C2C – Day 13: Thursday 14 April – DANBY WISKE to INGLEBY CROSS (10 miles)

For some days now we have been eyeing-up today as a rest day; with a relatively low mileage, little ascent, and fine weather forecast we anticipated a simple ramble. And so it was. Footpaths, farm-tracks and quiet lanes bounded by arable fields and the far-off views of yesterday’s Pennines and the ever-approaching North York Moorlands of tomorrow. Aside from a hair-raising crossing of the A19 dual carriageway close to our destination, this really was a lovely gentle day of sunshine, birdsong and the light conversation of two old friends.

Just outside of Danby Wiske we happened upon a ringside view of two hares, disappearing quickly at our approach before their bout could begin. This vision set me thinking about all the creatures that we haven’t seen – there have been no foxes, no hedgehogs and, until later today, no evidence of badgers. I did, fleetingly, see a muntjac deer cross our path just before Richmond, and we have also seen countless rabbits over the last two days, a couple of bats this evening, and of course our brace of red squirrels in the Lakes. There does though seem to be somewhat of a dearth of mammalian wildlife; perhaps this is due to the terrain that we have crossed, or perhaps the advent of our garish waterproofs and incessant chatter!

Aside from crossing the East Coast Main Line, and the aforementioned A19 of course, we passed no landmarks of note any larger than some expansive farms. However some pictures of the delightful countryside in the Vale of Mowbray do provide some description of our C2C path today.

Needless to say, we were back at The Blue Bell for dinner, ahead of an early night, all in anticipation of our climb up onto the moorlands in the morning.