Duration: 11.5 hours
Daily Distance: 26 miles / 42 km
Total cumulative Distance: 237.5 miles / 380.5 km
Distance left to go: 65.5 miles / 105.5 km
Temperature: 14 Oc
Wind: 20 mph south westerlies with hell blows on the cliff top!
Cumulative number of bird species encountered: 121 with Fulmar, Kittiwake and Gannet new for the trip today.
Sir Rob highlights – mud, finishing strong, the sheer brutality of it all!
Jonny highlights – seeing another days marathon mileage off and watching the fundraising total rise. A good reminder of why we are suffering!
The blog updates have been a bit pleasant the last couple of days. We were buoyed up on Saturday having crossed the Humber Bridge and seeing Gooders again. Yesterday we had an active rest day with mild mileage. So I can see for the reader it must have been a little dull.
Well, fear not: day 10 was horrific.
We started early knowing it was a big one and were marching by 07:45. We had a lot of road work to do with only a few connecting footpaths and were also totally out of food. We factored in a village which was marked as having a shop. It didn’t. Nor did the next one. Luckily the third one did. After 4 hours and 15 minutes of shifting we got some supplies!
It was also raining hard for the first few hours and I found out my waterproof trousers are less than waterproof. The result was wet pants, which wasn’t too pleasant on an already degraded crotch.
We were then gifted a sunny spell to partly dry us out as we covered good mileage, although sadly on roads. Roads are really harsh on the feet. There is no ‘give’ in the surface so they aggravate our already bruised and blistered feet. This is ok singularly but if you then go along cliff top paths and through rough fields the pitching of the feet over this uneven ground is unbearable. Once tender due to the road miles soles are then having to move laterally as opposed to simply up and down. Harsh!
We also have a new issue to contend with; terrain! There are hills now and lots of them! We traversed the Yorkshire Wolds and the coastal path is also really up and down. In the rain, with wet mud, slippery rocks and endless stairs it was really challenging!
After piling on through the hunger, bashing our feet on the tarmac and then crossing fields, slopes and steps; we were due another soaking. This arrived horizontally and with 10 pence piece sized hail / rain drops driven into us via the gusting wind. It was good to finish as the day started – soaked through to our pants.
On one of the afternoon breaks we also made a grim discovery – our youth hostel accommodation for the evening was on the north side of Scarborough. This added really unwelcome mileage to an already long day, with the added upset of requiring more tarmac bashing miles.
On balance we are still in pretty good nick, although incredibly I achieved a further blister – on my left heel. The skin is so thick and the blister so deep-seated I am unable to lance it, even my trusty penknife wasn’t up to the job!
Despite this endurance we still have cause to be cheered – or at least to keep going!
We sometimes log into the JustGiving page on our breaks to check on progress and there was immense progress on day 10!
Our talk at Frampton Marsh RSPB the other evening raised a great slug of cash and was added with the following message:
Incredible effort gents. Love watching the pennies rise as the miles fall, you should be immensely proud. Inspirational journey and message which the Frampton team are honored to be part of.
Reading that yesterday certainly spurred us on and was even a bit emotional!
Onwards – for Turtle Doves!
Dove Step 