C2C Day 9 - Richmond to Osmotherly

An early start of 8 pm for the longest walk of the holiday so far, we were away from Richmond first and fairly soon were passing groups who had started from some of the outlying villages along the route. The weather started fine, with plenty of blue sky.

This day, walking across the Vale of Mowbray is known for its flatness and amount of roadwork. It was very reminiscent of the Staffordshire Way in sections. As a result we were able to travel at better speeds, averaging 3.6 miles per hour for the first 13 miles to Danby Wiske. We also benefited from the recent refurbishment of the White Swan Pub in the village and made it our first stop. Finally we enjoyed hospitality where previously Julia Bradbury found it closed when she passed in the TV Series, rather than her enjoying food while we found the shop/tea room/etc.closed.

We moved on, eating up the miles and putting up with some swarms of irritating black flies, Ross's technique for coping with them was to pull his buff over his head, before we finally reached Ingleby Cross, a natural end to the walk at 2.30 pm. Unfortunately, we were booked into the YHA  Osmotherly was nearly 3 miles further on, and would result in a total mileage for the day of 26 miles.

After 9 days of walking we had to don waterproofs as a shower hit us walking through the forest between the two villages. We have been incredibly lucky up to now, while the weather has been cold, minus 5 deg C at Shap overnight, it has been clear and dry throughout. In fact this is ideal walking weather and we have been grateful that it has not been too hot. Current forecasts suggest that it will stay predominantly dry to the end of the walk, with just the slight chance of a shower.

We turned up at the Hostel at 4 pm, but had to wait until 5 pm for the reception to open. We wanted to return to Ingleby Cross to meet up with some of the other walkers but the only taxi service wanted £30 return! Instead we ate at the Hostel then settled down to TV and an early night.



Accomodation Report - YHA Osmotherly

Comfort - 3 stars
Hospitality - 2.5 stars
Food - 3 stars
Facilities - 4 stars

Overall - 3 and a bit stars

Only four of us in the hostel.  Breakfast OK.