The Lyke Wake Walk (Part Three)

After a brief stop to take on water, snacks and for a few a change of socks, we struggled to our feet. It was now about 4:00 p.m. and although we all had aching legs and backs our morale was still high. We had completed approximately twenty-eight miles which is the longest distance that I had ever walked in one day (so far).

The large boggy area was behind us and the path ahead appeared to be made up of a large expanse of heather growing over a firm sandy top soil. It looked to be fairly easy going until we discovered that the heather was hiding thousands of large pebble like stones and boulders. It was impossible to maintain a steady stride as we tried to avoid stubbing our toes or twisting our ankles as we negotiated our way through this hidden minefield.

Our path rose gently for nine miles to the next check point just below Fylingdales moor. We could clearly see our destination in the distance as it's presence was indicated by a small white building on the sky line in the centre of the ridge. We set off in single file, I was at the front with a couple of the cadets as the team began to form a straggling crocodile behind us. Every few hundred metres we stopped to allow them to catch up and have a short rest before carrying on.

All the team were now starting to feel the strain, we were tired and sore, our feet were hot and in some cases blistered. Our rucksacks were rubbing against our aching shoulders but everybody was still able to crack a joke and manage a smile. As we got closer to the check point the small white building turned out to be a rather large concrete structure containing a military Early Warning radar. We dropped down to the North Yorkshire railway line then struggled up the short steep ascent to the minibus where we flopped on the ground exhausted.

There was only eight more miles to the finish line near the coast at Ravenscar with a further checkpoint just two miles from the end. The weather was still clear although there appeared to be a few ominous black clouds on the horizon so the staff members made the sensible decision that we would leave our rucksacks on the bus, carrying on with just our rain jackets and a bottle of water each.

The sun began to go down in a blaze of glory as we struggled onwards and upwards across the heather clad moorland. Unfortunately the breeze also dropped which was the signal for swarms of midges to rise out of the heather and attack us without mercy. We were all now absolutely 'chinstrapped', the joking and singing had stopped as we limped in to our final checkpoint. Several voices were heard to say that they were shattered and didn't wish to carry on to the end. However after a short rest and realising that we were only two miles from the finish stone we all rallied for the final push.

With forced smiles we struggled up the short sharp climb back on to the moor where I led the way, pace counting out the route and stopping every 100 metres for a short rest. Some of the team were suffering from muscle strains, blisters and even one case of double vision but everybody helped each other along. Slowly but surely we limped along until out of the dark we saw the headlights of our minibus next to the finish line. I counted down the last couple of hundred metres for the benefit of the team as we closed ranks and walked with heads held high up to the bus where we all collapsed exhausted but elated with our formidable achievement.

It was just before midnight as we crossed the line, we had set off twenty hours and forty-two miles earlier and after factoring in rest breaks we realised that we had actually been walking for eighteen hours. Unable to see the Lyke Wake stone in the darkness (We discovered later that the mini bus had parked in front of it) we decided to return in the morning for our finishing photograph.

We were now members of the elite Lyke Wake Club and they weren't lying when they said that the only way to gain membership was by enduring pain and torment. All of the staff members are experienced walkers and mountaineers and we all agreed that this was definitely the most difficult single day walk any of us had ever done.

Note: The map image is courtesy of the New Lyke Wake Club website and the Ordnance survey.

The Lyke Wake Walk (Part Two)

It was 3:30 a.m. on a warm summers morning, I'd only had approximately two hours sleep and was about to embark on one of the toughest walks that I had ever done, forty-two miles across the North Yorkshire Moors in twenty-four hours or less. I must be mad, but it's a challenge walk that I have always wanted to do and it's the only way to gain membership to the elite Lyke Wake Club.

The team consisting of myself and twelve other Staff members and Cadets from Bromley Volunteer Police Cadets were posing for photographs by the Lyke Wake stone at Scarth Wood Moor near Osmotherley before setting off on our epic adventure. At 3.44 a.m. we set off by torch light in high spirits following the road northwards before turning east and climbing gradually up onto the moor.

The first few miles of the path followed a series of short sharp ascents and descents along the ridge of the Cleveland Way with panoramic views across the plain towards the bright lights of Middlesborough. We were all feeling the burn in our calves and thighs and some of the less experienced walkers were finding the terrain tough going. The stunning views of the sunrise along the ridge more than compensated for the pain though.

After approximately ten miles we reached our first check point at about 8:00 a.m. However we were ahead of schedule  so had to sit around for a little while until our support vehicle made it's way to us with food and water. We had walked a quarter of the distance  and apart from a few aches we all felt in good shape. After eating our breakfast courtesy of the Youth Hostel and replenishing our water we crossed the road and ascended back up on to heather covered moor.

On this next section the going was much easier because we followed the path of an old railway track. Some of the younger members took advantage of the easy going and decided to speed march to a junction where our route split from the Cleveland Way. They would live to regret this decision later in the day. The sun was fully up now but fortunately there was a lot of cloud cover and a steady breeze blowing towards us. Part of the way along this track I hit the wall and we had only travelled approximately one third of the distance. With gritted teeth I started reciting my old walking chant (One two three four....I love the Marine Corps) over and over to myself and after an agonising couple of miles I got my second wind, thank God!

Several miles and some hours later we reached the Lion Inn Public House on Blakey Ridge where we were met by John and Ed our support team who walked out to greet us and lead us to the minibus. The aches and pains in our legs and bodies were now starting to kick in, after sitting down to eat our lunch we got up feeling like octogenarians. Anyway Ultreia (Onwards) as they say on the Camino, we hobbled off along the road which followed a drawn out hairpin bend along the ridge. Our legs soon loosened up but half an hour later after following the hairpin it seemed that we had hardly covered any distance as we looked back across the narrow valley towards the Inn.

At a junction in the road we headed off across country again into an area shown on the map as being several miles of a large boggy morass. This was going to be tough going I thought to myself. However the Spirits of the moor were on our side, while the rest of the country had suffered from intermittent rain in the previous weeks, up here in North Yorkshire it had stayed dry. Apart from the odd section of dark muddy bog the peat was dry and springy underfoot making it heaven to walk on. Morale was still high as we trudged into the next checkpoint for a well earned rest; some of the team took this opportunity to change their socks and footwear.

The Lyke Wake Walk (Part One)

Some years ago I read about a challenge walk across the North Yorkshire moors from Osmotherley in the west to Ravenscar on the coast in the east. The crossing covers a distance of forty two miles sticking principally to the heather clad high moorland with very few roads. The name of this crossing is The Lyke Wake Walk and it gets its title from the practice of carrying the dead from outlying hamlets to holy ground where the deceased would be given a Christian burial. In the old Yorkshire dialect a Lyke is a dead person and a Wake is the practice of keeping watch over the deceased until they are buried.

This was a walk that I added to my Bucket list along with the Camino de Santiago de Compostella and The Pennine Way. Being an Ex-Serviceman and Police Officer I tend to have a very dark sense of humour and the thought of following an ancient coffin road really appealed to me. My good friend and walking pal Neill approached me a few months ago and asked if I was still interested in completing this challenge as he was planning on undertaking it with a team of Volunteer Police Cadets from Bromley. Like a fool I committed myself to this challenge.......and if we had known what we were about to go through we should all have been committed under the Mental Health Act for even thinking about it.

To complete the challenge and be eligible to join the exclusive Lyke Wake Club you must succeed in walking the distance within twenty-four hours. This would be a fairly easy undertaking if the route ran through Norfolk, Holland or Denmark. Unfortunately it doesn't, it runs through some pretty tough terrain with a great number of steep ascents and descents and a very large peat bog in the middle of it. The weather can also cause problems for prospective walkers so a rucksack containing waterproofs, spare fleece, hat, gloves, water, food, emergency bivvy bag, first aid kit, map and compass also had to be carried.

The walk can be done either unsupported or supported with a back up team in a vehicle who can meet the walkers at check points along the route with food, drinks etc. Being responsible adults (I know I can't believe that I said that either) we decided to have a support team in a minibus. They would meet us where the route bisected a number of small roads of varying distances apart along the way. The furthest distance between the check points was ten miles and the shortest was 1.3 miles, but this was at the very end.

We spent the night before the start in the excellent Youth Hostel at Cote Ghyll on the edge of Osmotherley only a short distance from the official start line at Scarth Wood Moor. We were due to commence the challenge at 3.30 a.m. so decided on an early night, however as every body was hyped up for the off we didn't manage more than about three hours sleep. There was also a group of teenagers from a church group in Florida staying at the hostel and we stayed up later than we intended talking to them. They were very pleasant with superb manners and they also promised to keep the noise down when they went to bed so as not to disturb us. But as you know, teenagers are teenagers no matter where they are from and although they tried their best to whisper it was a very loud whisper. I woke up at two a.m. to the low base throb of a music system that one of them had forgotten to switch off. So much for feeling refreshed ready for the day!

Note: The two maps shown above were taken (with thanks) from the Lyke Wake Club website and the satellite view was taken from a photograph on the wall of Cote Ghyll Youth Hostel