CW & TH Day 16

Day 16 - Thursday 21 June 2018

Appleton-le-Moors to Helmsley (17.2 miles)

Up earlier than usual this morning as we had to meet Joanita from Radio York who was coming out to interview us live on the Breakfast Show hosted by the beautifully named Georgey Spanswick. Therefore at 0700 we looked out on to the still 'sheep shit' festooned road to see Joanita sorting out cables and the general plethora of stuff carried by todays mobile radio presenter. Joanita was a delight - a lovely lady who explained that we would be on twice - 0740 and 0830 and after getting a bit of background on both us and the Charity we went live. Despite our nervousness, listening back to the interview later on that day we were clearly having great fun and thankfully got the message across about the fantastic work that Spaniel Aid do. After saying goodbye to Joanita we had Breakfast and waited for the Paparazzi & autograph hunters to arrive but nobody came - probably traffic congestion at Pickering, that'll be it.

Just before 1000 we headed off on what would ordinarily have been our final day but as we started in Boltby this was our penultimate walking day. The weather dipped in and out of perfect conditions all day - sometimes overcast, often sunny but with a constant and very welcome light breeze that contained the humidity. At 17 miles this was to be a long day therefore we were glad of the easy start as the route made its way over very pleasant farmland to reach Hutton-le-Hole. We were only an hour in to todays walk but were pulled in to The Forge Tea Room by both the smell & sight of the lovely cakes & scones. Next up was the beautiful stone village of Gillamoor with its fine Church and superb pub, The Royal Oak - it was very pleasant to simply sit outside and watch the world go by whilst enjoying a cold drink on a humid day.

Leaving the pub we followed a quiet country lane to firstly the village of Fadmoor and then through Skiplam Wood to reach a road. It was near here on a lovely grass verge at Skiplam Cottages that we took the opportunity to air our feet and have a breather. Near Newton Tower we saw 3 young men walking towards us who looked as though they had stepped out of the crowd at Woodstock - very hippy like and far out but pleasant all the same. At Riccal Dale we were now on familiar territory and therefore already knew that we were in for an extremely tough pull up through steep woodland and thankfully it was dry terrain - it would have been extremely difficult negotiating the path in the wet.

Next up was Ash Dale - again we we had walked through here before however we remembered the path as a delightful grassy one and not the lumpy gravel track we had today. About halfway down the Ash Dale path we could see a familiar figure walking towards us - it was Craig the Spaniel Aid photographer. We had arranged to meet him and Lynn - she was the kind person that arranged the interview with Radio York and she had brought along Flossie & Charlie - her 2 rescue dogs. We all walked into Helmsley together and waiting for us in the square was Allison - one of the many ladies that help run Spaniel Aid and who had very kindly driven down from the North East with her dog Milo to provide another member of the welcoming committee.

After a chat and photographs, Lynn very kindly drove us into Pickering and dropped us off at our B&B, The Old Manse. Today had been a long day and after a quick trip out to the shops we enjoyed a carpet picnic and an early night.

With Joanita from BBC Radio York in Appleton-le-Moors.
It was a fantastic experience telling everyone about Fudge's efforts to raise money for his less fortunate doggy mates at Spaniel Aid

Looks like we are in for a lovely day as we head to Hutton le Hole

Just glorious today as we near Hutton le Hole

Hutton le Hole

The War Memorial at Hutton le Hole

An hour in and we are eating cake - well why not?
Fudge is on sentry duty keeping an eye out for the notorious Hutton le Hole Cake Bandits - or is he?