It seems like weeks ago, when we were in the Grisedale Valley and Steve and I were doing Norman Wisdom impersonations. Well today, it was Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, or Pete & Dud as they are best known. The initial conversation went something like this and you have to imagine that you're hearing Pete & Dud voices. 

 
Dud (Paul) says, ' ere Pete, it says in the book that there's a wicket gate up ahead.....so, what's a wicket gate then Pete, if you don't mind me asking?'.



Pete (Steve) replies, ' course I don't mind you asking my inquisitive little friend.....a wicket gate is someone Dud, my ole mucker, it is actually someone with.............a very cool walking style'. (Wicked gait - geddit??)

You have to believe that it was funny at the time and what's more, that it sparked a good hour of fun doing Pete & Dud impressions about pretty much anything we saw! And who said that men can't have an intelligent conversation?! Although, I suppose the other explanation could be that we're starting to go a bit stir crazy by day 11 of this walk.

 

But all this happened some time later; let's firstly, rewind back to Reeth and our departure from The Manse. After saying our goodbyes to Jonathan, we actually remembered to take the group photo this time and then set off to Richmond, with Jane back with us today. The walk was really lovely again today, continuing down the Swaledale Valley, but before long we encountered our first narrow stile of the day.....Steve leapt ahead to show his agility at scaling these obstacles and decided to reveal more leg than was desirable to the rest of us in the process. By the way, please note the white hat on Steve's head at this point......I shall refer to this later.

 

The walk took us through the pretty hamlets of Grinton, Marrick and Marske, before tracking a number of smaller settlements along Applegarth Scar, then down into Richmond. It was near Marrick that the famous 'wicket gate' of Pete & Dud fame was encountered just before the Nun's Steps', 375 steps believed to have been constructed hundreds of years ago to allow nun's to get from Marrick Priory to the village.

This leg was another lovely walk, still in the Swaledale Valley and all it's glory and navigation has become a lot easier, partly because we are no longer weaving through mountains, peat bogs and the like, but also because we now seem to have C2C signs on a far more regular basis. We saw our first proper METAL C2C road sign, there seem to be far more wooden signs and even the round disc signs on the waymark posts include the words 'coast to coast path'; a veritable embarrassment of riches!



Applegarth Scar was the high point of the leg and included some of the best views yet of the valley. I really am liking Yorkshire more and more, the scenery is absolutely stunning.....perhaps the likes of Geoffrey Boycott and Michael Parkinson have been right all these years. A little beyond Applegarth Scar is a a place called Whitcliffe Scar, but renamed Willance Leap in the 17th century, after a man called Robert Willance who later became mayor of Richmond, but who in 1606 survived a horrific fall when the horse he was riding up on the fell bolted in the mist and plunged 212 feet to its death over the Scar, with Willance still on board. Willance broke a leg (later amputated) but survived and was rescued and taken back to his home at 24 Frenchgate Richmond, the very building we are staying in tonight! And what's more, Robert is buried the graveyard behind Willance House.



Talking about 'spooked animals', today we had our first encounter with cows on the C2C. Now, cows have never bothered me in the past, but today was different. I was slightly ahead of the rest of the group and had just gone through a gate into a field. I'd already seen half a dozen young cows grazing in the field, but as I came through the gate, the cows starting walking towards me, probably thinking it was milking time. No problem so far, but then they just kept on coming and when they were a few yards away, they even lined up in formation and started snorting.....time to get back behind the gate I thought! By this time, the other guys had caught up and it was like some sort of 'Mexican Stand-Off' us on one side of the gate, the cows on the other! There was no obvious alternate route, so was this going to be the end of the trail? Could our C2C be over? Of course not, we're made of sterner stuff and after waving our sticks and making lots of noise, eventually the cows backed off.........then we legged it by as fast as possible!!

 

More eagle-eyed readers will have noticed that I have not got back to Steve's white hat as yet. Steve has owned this hat for many years, having originally acquired it in Nepal and after all these years, today was to be Armageddon Day for this titfer. Poor old Steve was opening a gate which was surrounded by boggy mud, so that we could all pass through. Suddenly, a gust of wind got up and the hat flew beautifully through the air to land slap bang in the mud! The hat was a gonna and went into the next available bin!

 

We arrived at Richmond around four and found Willance House, a beautiful, quirky property, over 400 years old. As mentioned earlier, this was the home of Robert Willance (of Willance Leap fame) and the property is full of lovely period features. We were treated to tea on arrival, with homemade shortbread and fudge........fudge that is also available to purchase if you want it. Colin and Sandra really looked after us and breakfast was absolutely fantastic.



Day 11 over and 125 miles in total completed to date. Tomorrow is the really big one with 23 miles to do in one day.......cripes!!!

Today's interesting facts from the QI elves are:
* Richmond was founded in 1071;
* Reeth will host a stage of the Tour de France this year;
* Fudge originated in the USA and its earliest known origins date back to 1886.