Coast 2 Coast day 11 - Lovesome Hill to Chopgate

Lovesome Hill do a fantastic breakfast with eggs, bacon and sausages sourced from the farm. We also met a nice guy called Steve (not Backpack Steve, another one - we'll call him Steve from Wales). He lives on his parents farm, works at a builders yard and is up for a week to visit relatives and do some walking.
It turns out that Mary and John from the farm have completed not only the Coast to Coast but also the West Highland Way - we are outclassed! Lovely stay and nothing could be too much trouble - Mary even found Dawn a water bottle for her pulled muscle. She is obviously very proud of her area and doesn't like the fact that Wainwright suggested you should run through. "this area puts all the food on your table". We are inclined to agree as the next section was a lot nicer that the previous day.
We left at around 9.00 and having followed the main round for about 500m we turned left and followed the boggiest path known to Yorkshire (so far!). The path follows paths and farm tracks across to the busy A19. A careful crossing takes you down to Ingleby Cross and a welcome cup of tea at The Bluebell Inn.
The path now gets interesting and seriously upwards as you slowly gain height through the trees and reach the Cleveland Way. This is where you can tell the difference between a National Trail and the C2C - funding! Lots of flagstones to follow here! It also has an awful lot of ups and downs - difficult in the heat and humidity of the day - but the rewards are brilliant views back over the Vale of Mowbray and probably Richmond on a clear day. We even caught our first glimpse of the North Sea! We messed up the distance a bit, rather than the 16 mile section we thought, we actually had over 19 miles to walk, with enough hight gain to look down on Snowdon! The Wainstones were a welcome sight and having repatriated a nice lady with her camera we were finally descending into Clay Bank where we would be collected and taken the couple of miles back to the The Buck Inn at Chop Gate (pronounced Chopyate). A bit kwirky but a good shower, reasonable food and a free transfer again in the morning to put us back on track.
Tomorrow is an easier day other than the weather - we might even make the Lion Inn by lunchtime if the weather's that bad! But for now it's bed time; we're both achey and the bed is comfortable!
Night Night!
Matt & Dawn