Coast 2 Coast Day 8 - Reeth to Richmond

We had a lovely meal at the Buck Hotel last night and wandered back down to the B&B at the bottom of the village. A good nights sleep and a nice breakfast with Bev and Eric, a Canadian couple of C2Cers we had met previously who were rather jealous of our day off in Richmond! We also bumped into Steve again in the shop next door. He was doing well and was due to push on to Catterick where he was meeting his wife.
Although it was a relatively easy day of 10 miles we were on the trail by 9.00 am as the weather was due to be wet by the afternoon. We followed the group of lads who were camping at Keld out of the village but where they had obviously decided to take the road to Richmond we took the correct path (for once!) and followed the track up to Marrick Priory. All but the tower o the priory was torn down by Henry the 8th and it has now been extended and renovated to create an outdoors centre. We continued on through Marrick and - whilst tempted - ignored the numerous and at times unsubtle signs for tea and scones at Nun Cote Nook as we were keeping a weather eye over the valley which was looking a little grey!
The walking was through meadowland and much drier than we experienced yesterday. We emerged from the fields just below Marske which is a lovely, if slightly posh looking, village. We soon rejoined the paths again and passed through more meadows on the way up to Applegarth Scar. This is a large tear in the landscape - like a Stanage Edge with trees - and we followed the footpath along the base contouring the river Swale through the Applegarth Farms and on into Richmond.
Richmond is lovely. We arrived in a very timely 4 hours having now clicked up 113.5 miles since our start last Saturday. We found our Hotel - The Black Lion - as we had decided that we had both deserved a pint!
My parents - Tony and Chris - had travelled up the previous day and met us in the bar having spent the morning in Hawes.
After a soak in the bath and a change we had an enjoyable walk around the town as visited the castle. The views from the top of the keep are amazing and you can see all the way to the start of the Yorkshire Moors (don't have to worry about that until Monday!). We also managed to find a copy of the Coast 2 Coast book recommended by Nick at Keld Lodge. We came back and sorted some washing and we just having a drink before dinner when Bill and Susan - the Californian couple walked though the door. It was really nice as they are travelling on tomorrow so won't see them again and they have been great fun over the last week. We swapped addresses so hopefully we will keep in touch. Dinner was chinese tonight - a welcome change from pub grub and an early night is called for. Looking forward to a lie in tomorrow and a leisurely breakfast. Not sure what we're up to tomorrow but we'll bore you with it if you're interested.
That's all for now,
Night Night!
Matt & Dawn