Day 14 – Brantingham to by Shiptonthorpe

Easter Sunday, 24 April (0810-1305)

Distance: 14 miles

Weather: high cloud, a few sunny intervals, warm again

Number of weasels/stoats seen: 1

This was the day that Mick described as being ‘much lumpier’ and he wasn’t wrong. My goodness, some of those early lumps were quite violent! They were fine lumps though, which gave stunning views and, although the day was again hazy, it was not nearly as hazy as yesterday so the views were there to be enjoyed. The sun wasn’t blazing down as it was yesterday either, although it was still warm, especially as I huffed and puffed up those uphill bits.

Being on a National Trail navigation wasn’t an issue. The paths were obvious and the white acorns and prominent sign posts were at just about every point where you might possibly think “I wonder which way I need to go?”. So, without my head in the map I enjoyed farmland and views – and I positively sped along.

Ridiculously, I was disappointed when 1pm came and I hadn’t arrived at my destination. Ma-in-Law (with whom I stayed last night) had asked at what time I expected to finish the walk and I had said 1pm. I was out by 4 minutes (and I didn’t half march though that last half a mile!).

Mick was waiting for me in the lay-by where his brother had dropped us off a few weeks ago, and he laughed and called me an obsessive as I walked past the car. I wanted to be absolutely sure that I didn’t miss a single step of the walk, so I’d walked past him so that I could be certain that I had overlapped with the point from where I’d restarted on Day 15.

So, there we go. I’m all caught up, even if a little out of order. A few more days of rest and chores are now in order before we set back out for Inverkeithing later in the week for Part 2 of the walk.

One of those lumpy bits: the clue was in the street name!

(Stats for the day: 14 miles, 4 hours moving, 55 minutes stationary)