Robin Hood Wrap Up

Day 18: Egton Bridge to Robin Hood's Bay

Yep, that's the North Sea!!  On this final day of the C2C we walked 17.8 miles from Egton Bridge to

the end of Wainwright's famous trek at Robin Hood's Bay. Upon arrival at about 3:00 p.m., we dipped our boots in the Bay, tossed our pebble from the Irish Sea (carried across country as is tradition) into the North Sea, signed our names in the C2C book at the Wainwright Bar in the Bay Hotel and toasted one another on a job well done.

Tallying our GPS, it looks like we walked just a tad over 210 miles.  We averaged over 12 miles a day with today being our longest and the high route into Patterdale being the shortest at 7.5 miles.

We've stayed at 16 B&Bs -- most of them very good.  If we could have another night anywhere, it would probably be the Willance House in Richmond.  Although the Manor House in Kirkby Stephen and the Butt House in Keld were top picks. What we know for sure is that to us the physical accommodation mattered much less than the kindness of the hosts.  I guess that falls in line with a favorite Maya Angelou quote, "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."  The best hosts made us feel at home in their homes and we thank them for that.

Like most C2Cers, we agree that the experience was heightened by the people we met on the trail. Although we heard over and over again that most walkers were Americans and Australians, we met only two of each (coincidently traveling together).  Most of our walking mates were from England. It also seems like the C2C is a real family affair -- lots of walking couples, siblings, two dads walking with their daughters and one father and son (then of course there were the three generations we met at Haweswater). There were also single hikers (male and female) who had their own special support networks as we all connected and tracked their progress from day-to-day (Have you seen Sarah?).

Final thought: This a very do-able hike that can be incredibly fun and rewarding with proper preparation.  Despite being called the Coast-to-Coast Walk, it is a hike and requires the fitness, gear and wherewithal that comes with some hiking experience (on multiple day trips).  Because you needn't camp or carry all your gear, daily recovery is solid.  Good map reading skills and some mountaineering experience (especially if you take the high routes in the Lake District like we did) are essential. C2Cers also can do the walk in stages (we met people who were doing the route over a number of years) or select the length of their stages in a straight run.  For us, 17 walking days felt a little slow once we got past Kirkby Stephens -- and at the same time, the pace forced us to slow down and be fully present to the experience, opportunities (like meeting fellow walkers) and photography.  We met many walkers doing the C2C in 14 days (and a couple of 12 day-ers) -- all very do-able.

When we get the final photos, I'll post once more to the blog.  At this point, we've overwhelmed the app Cliff uses to transfer photos from his camera to our iPads.

Thanks for vicariously walking with us.  It's been a blast!