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Five Smellies Go Mad on the Moors! Cue music...........
Link to Ormesby Pathfinder Walk website: - (http://www.ormesby-pathfinders.org.uk/). As luck would have it, as we were sneaking across Gisborough moor we were ambushed by the local villain! We'd bumped straight into the gamekeeper before we'd got onto the landrover track! But after a lengthy but friendly discussion about the rights and wrongs of why the footpath wasn't a bridleway and who's side is Lenny Small on anyway, we were allowed to continue on our way with his blessing, (sort of?). Shortly after that, Mark had a scare when he whacked his derailleur on something and couldn't engage his lower gears. But after a quick technical twist by yours truly he was back in the saddle and bombing down the track to CP1. This was to be our only mechanical problem all day.
It was nice to see Ray Stevenson who met us momentarily as we approached Hob Hole but then had to go straight back home for some fox hunting free beer do. Tccch!
We pushed on through a hard section climbing up the road to Westerdale and over Blakey Rigg and down into Botton village to arrive at 12:45pm, just in time for lunch at the village café. However, some confusion arose when asking the creamery chappy the whereabouts of the café we were told "it's closed between 12:00 and 2:30! What?? However, completely ignoring this advice, after all we are all bonafide Smellies, we went into the café anyway to find that it was open and doing business. This was obviously a cunning rouse to put off strangers on bicycles from having a cup of tea in their café! There's no fooling us towniees like.
Now seeing as how I'd recce'd the next section out of Botton very carefully so we wouldn't run out of brdleway.......we ran out of bridleway Duhhhh! Luckily though there was no one around to see us skip across the farmer's field to join the bridleway on t'other side of the stone wall. Phew! Another close thing! Such fun!!
We had to push our bikes over Jack Sledge path now but we were rewarded for our efforts once over the top as we all bombed down to the Moors visitor centre pausing only for a pic at Duck Bridge. More cups of tea and cake. Yum yum! Now the final stretch beckoned and we were all up for it, apart from me as I was starting to feel the strain a bit by now. However we all managed to stay together on the last section despite a head wind and arrived back in Commondale at 4:00pm. Smashing!
So well done to Bill, Mark, John, Paul and me for successfully completing the route and commiserations to those who were unable to join us and who missed out on a jolly wheeze of a day! Bref |
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On
a breezy, rain threatening morning of Saturday, 15th June, at 9:00am,
Bill Pennell, Mark Edwards, John Barnes, Paul Haydon and myself (minus a
dog), set off on our bikes from Commondale village for a jolly jape to
ride round the Pathfinder 25 route.
To
stay legal and to avoid any more confrontations we stayed on the
Cleveland Way to Highcliffe Nab gate where we joined the bridleway to
Sleddale farm. Despite the threat of rain it never really materialised
and the weather improved as the day went on. 
For
some reason Mark got a two person teapot and the rest of us only got a
one person teapot for the same price? He must have charmed the two young
Swedish lassies working behind the counter with his silver tongue Boro
accent like! However, before we could set off, Bill had to go through a
‘questions and answer’ grilling by one of the residents before he was
guaranteed an exit visa. Phew! That was a close thing!
I
must confess we didn't have ginger beer at Mucky Tom's. Instead, with no
real ale on offer, we had to settle for a couple of pints of Briteshite
John Smith's smooth, which even I had to admit after a 25 mile slog on
a bike, up and down dale, went down very well indeed.