Day 2/4 Cleveland Way (section of the Way) 54km - Hambleton to Boltby - 31 May 2010

14.4km, took 3.5 hours

Lots of thoughts (about the upcoming group project presentation) were clogging up my mind and the excitement about returning to Singapore continued to keep me awake throughout last night. I got up at 5am for no particular reason and couldn't return to sleep after that. Breakfast was at 8am and I started off shortly after.

A brilliant day once again, windy but much more sunshine than yesterday. Leaving the A170, a path followed an ancient dyke cutting through the forest to emerge on the edge of the escarpment, taking me by surprise! I should have predicted that though, based on the narrow contours alongside the Way - those were high-soaring cliffs overlooking west towards Yorkshire.




An official detour led along past the gliding club to the viewpoint above the famous White Horse. I managed to hear and spot a few gliders up in the sky...so cool, imagine taking up flying/gliding as a sport! The White Horse was kind of a let-down as I couldn't see the whole horse due to its enormous size and the location of where I was standing. I probably had to climb all the way down or hover in the air in one of those gliders in order to catch a full glimpse of it. I retraced my steps back to rejoin the Way.






















I was walking at a leisure pace today. There was no urgency as today's walk was a brief one. I arrived at Sutton Bank and spent some time in the Tourist Information Centre shop. I bought some cute handcrafted gifts and browsed through the exhibitions on display.



Beyond Sutton Bank, the straightforward path followed the edge of the escarpment with magnificent views out across the Vale of York. Bright yellow fields brightened up the fantastic day. I took a forest path which led down to Boltby. This was not part of the Cleveland Way, but was the most direct route to Boltby - where I would be staying tonight. The forest path was quite challenging: steep descent, very uneven, muddy at places...seemed to be a terrain for horse-riding, rather than for walking. Hiaz...talking about horse-riding, I couldn't get a slot to hack today because of the busy bank holiday. Sad... :(





















I arrived at Boltby and realised something: No stores, no pubs...only houses! Mmmm...I guess I would be skipping lunch/dinner today then. I checked in at 'Town Pasture Farm B&B' and was given an ensuite triple room (1D+1S). Very clean and pleasant-looking accommodation! I spent my afternoon washing up and taking a 2-hour nap, before continuing my reading ('Key of Light' by Nora Roberts). Great book!