A Detour by Way of the Beehive: Wainwright Coast to Coast (Part I)

This post was written from Tanzania on December 20, but I have placed it in the blog to fit the timeline of when the events shown actually occurred. While running a recovery program on my SD Card to save some Tanzanian beekeeping pictures from a camera error a whole crop of random C2C photos re-appeared and I have decided to upload them.

From the end of August to the middle of September I hiked from the Irish Sea to the North Sea on the Wainwright Coast to Coast Trail (C2C), which is about 220 miles. I call it a trail, but the spirit of the hike is just to walk from one coast to the other. The large number of walkers and official guidebooks have created a definite path, but it is not an official trail and does not carry a National Trail designation.

The pictures included in the posts Coast to Coast Part I and Coast to Coast Part II are not in perfect order, but do show a little bit of the C2C from about Day Six to Day Fifteen of my cross-country trek of England. This post includes sights from the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors with some heather landscapes, a historic Lion Inn, Egton Bridge, Kirkby Stephen, the Muker Agriculture Show, a fell race, some campsites, and sheep.

I'll begin with Day Eleven to Day Fifteen

The face in the rock is a bit unsettling when you are alone on the infinite moor.

A historic Lion Inn. I say "a" because there are probably a hundred Lion Inn's in England (maybe more), and I suspect more than one of them is historic for one reason or another.

Camping completely exposed on the edge of the moor. There was an intense thunderstorm that night.

In Egton Bridge I met a national champion beekeeper - he had a ton of ribbons and certificates to prove it. He was very well known for heather honey.

Back in time to the stretch before Kirby Stephen (approximately Day Six and on)

Just when you think you are alone on the moor a sheep shows up.

Kirkby Stephen (pronounced without the second "k") - This is approximately the half way point (around mile 100) for the C2C and I took a few days off here to let my feet recover from the previous six days of rain and wet.

I'm sorry to say I never learned the conversion from furlongs to miles... or to anything.

Grey squirrels (introduced from North America) are a menace in Britain. They have mostly decimated the native red squirrel population (which iare a different species from the red squirrels in the States) through disease and competition. I saw a red squirrel while I was in Kirkby Stephen. It stopped to flick its tufted ears and waved to me before it dove into a bush.

Sometimes many sheep appear...

...and they don't yield to walkers.

I found a few posts with very nice tile art on them. I would be interested to know their history.

Nine Standards - big rock pillars made by aliens (of the extraterrestrial type).

The mud was deep enough to lose my trekking poles.

More than just getting mud in your boots, these bogs can be very dangerous. It is difficult to discern where the ground is solid and a misjudged step can easily land you in mud up to your chest. These, along with charging cows, windy ridge walks in the Lake District, and questionable pub food, are the biggest threats to hikers on the C2C. Flooding can be bad in some of the valleys too.

Pretty typical way to make it through the many dry stone walls.

These walls are everywhere and are made without mortar, yet they last for centuries. I learned the basics for how to build them in Muker, but building them is really work for masters of the craft.

I think Swaledale Sheep were the most common along the trail, but every once in a while I saw other breeds, like this one.

A proper Cornish Pasty

I didn't always get a mini picnic table.

Relaxing in the Dales.

Sheep herding competition at the Muker Agriculture Show. I had only seen this before in the movie Babe. I am sad to report that nobody was using sheep-pigs in Muker.

Fell running has become quite popular in Britain. A "fell" is a hill and there is a race circuit with contests all around the country. This event in Muker was especially remarkable because the entire race could be viewed by a spectator with a keen eye or binoculars. The runners had to run across a river, up the hill, across the top of the hill, and then back down on a trail to traverse the river once more and then cross the finish line. I would have joined but I only had boots and sandals and had an additional eight miles to carry my pack that day.


I arrived at this caravan park very late in the evening after spending the whole day at the Muker Agriculture show. The owner told me I could have a caravan for the same price (£5 -US$8) as camping and put me in this beauty for the night.