C2C day 12 - Clay Bank Top to Blakey Ridge - 14 km

The Lion Inn, Blakey Moor

Judy went off with Graeme in the car to get her "Captain Cook" fix (see below). The rest of us took just over 3 hours to reach the Lion Inn at Blakey - it is the only building for miles around, surrounded by moors. It has a huge dining area and appears to be very busy all the time. Similar to Tan Hill Inn we stayed in on day 7, as far as remoteness and popularity go.

The walk was very easy and some would say boring, but the expanse of moors and the desolateness of it all is interesting in itself.

Judy with a statue of a young James Cook

Graveyard of St Cuthberts where James Cook's mother is buried

Judy's comments on today:
Meanwhile ... after the tempting sight of Roseberry Topping yesterday (a hill that James Cook used to climb as a boy - there is a view that this gave him the idea of climbing to high points to get his bearings whenever he landed at a new place), today Graeme and I went off for a James Cook experience. First the James Cook Birthplace museum and St Cuthbert's church at the village of Marton - where James Cook spent his first 8 years. Then the James Cook School House museum and 12C church at Great Ayton - where he lived from the age of 8 to 17. We are becoming James Cook aficionados and are looking forward to Whitby to fill in the rest of the story.