Rotary Club of Bradford Blaize
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Home | Ways and Means | Sponsored Walk in Aid of Marie Curie Hospice and Other Charities
R. Allan organised a long distance sponsored walk around the Cleveland Way. The main thrust of the walk was to raise money for Marie Curie Bradford Hospice but they raised more money than expected so some will go to other causes.
7 Bradford Blaize Club Rotarians and friends (Robert Allan, Tim Ratcliffe, Adrian Berry, Peter Meredith, John Waterhouse, Roy Tate, and Barry Smith) tackled this 109-mile walk over 7 days at an average of just over 15 miles per day, for Marie Curie Bradford Hospice. Our target was to raise £8,000 and we may well have exceeded that.
This stated daily average does not reveal that at least a couple of the days were much harder than the others and a couple were much longer – the longest single day being 19 miles. But everyone enjoyed the fellowship and, thanks to excellent organisation by Robert and Roy, the accommodation went flawlessly with overnight stops at Helmsley, Osmotherley, Great Broughton, Saltburn, Whitby, Cloughton (Near Scarborough) and after arriving at Filey, a final meal out with our wives at Colingham.
In addition to the named walkers, we were joined (some walking, some just cheering) by supporters in the form of Club President John Watson, Alan Morrell, John Moxon, President Elect Gerald Sanderson, Paul Smith, Barry’s friend John Patrick, and our very own Alan Arthur. Support came willingly from our wives - who helped to move some of the bags around as well as giving us all the other comforts and advices we have long come to value from them. And our other supporters helped with bags and brought us home. So it was far from an solo effort by the seven.
The Cleveland Way comprises a couple of days of relatively gentle walking each of around 12 miles, but with fabulous views from the top of Sutton Bank, and then from Osmotherley the path becomes very much more corrugated (perhaps a slight understatement, that?) as it traverses over the moors up towards Teesdale and East towards the sea, emerging on the north coast at Saltburn. Thereafter, a couple of long days and one medium day take us down the coast to it ends on Filey Brig where our welcoming party awaited us.
Incidentally, the day when we were joined by friends from the Club was our longest day – President John (who confessed to never having walked more than about 13 miles before) was therefore subjected to nearly 19 miles of walking – a miscalculation on the expected distance meant that he was deceived in this, but his generous gift of wine that evening to us all suggested he was relieved - if not grateful - to have immersed himself in this experience in his declining years, albeit having eschewed it in his youth.
For the most part, our exertions went without major incident. Sadly, Barry Smith had to leave us after the first day; although he has threatened – and we’ve already accepted his invitation – to return on our next walk. Thanks for the wine which we celebrated your birthday with, Barry, and we are really sorry you were not with us. Tim’s attempt to walk through a solid glass panel at the Spa Hotel Saltburn was not part of the official walk itinerary, and his bruised nose can be added to the list of aches and pains, mostly enjoyed in the Leg and Foot Department, by our members. John Waterhouse soldiered gamely on despite a bad knee, swallowing painkillers at every possible opportunity, and of course the sticking plasters came out on occasion. Everyone (ignoring minor lapsed which we will certainly not need to list) duly completed every mile of the walk and can legitimately claim their sponsorship money from their sponsors – it is, indeed, arguable that we walked more than 109 miles given some of the detours from the route to get to our hotels.
The wonderful weather which we enjoyed on all but the last day meant we came back bronzed and possibly even rusty. Perhaps the weather created a heat haze which stopped us seeing the views quite as far as we might otherwise have done, but that was more than compensated for by underfoot dry conditions and - although hills are sometimes more easily achieved in cooler conditions - given the wet weather both before we left and indeed on the Jubilee weekend after our return, we cannot possibly complain.
Given one or two understandable miscalculations we had made over daily distances, we could give plenty of advice to other walkers about what are the appropriate places to break the journey, particularly on the moorland section - it’s not easy to chop this walk into bite-size pieces. Given our advancing ages (averaging over 65) our next walk ought to aim for an average of 12 miles a day rather than over 15 – but to say that this is now the fifth time that we have walked together, over the time we have been walking for charity we will have raised getting nearly £40,000. So as well as being grateful for the privilege of fresh air, fellowship and fun, we should pat ourselves on the back, but now get down to discussing where we are walking next year!
Route and mileage for the walk per Robert Allan but disputed by Tim Ratcliffe was as follows: -
|
Day 1 |
Friday 25th May 2012 |
14.5 miles |
Car to Helmsley (10.30 start) Walk to Sutton Bank – car (Judith Ratcliffe) back to Feathers Hotel, Helmsley. |
|
Day 2 |
Saturday 26th May 2012 |
11.5 miles |
Conveyed by car back to Sutton Bank Walk to Vanehouse Guest House, Osmotherley |
|
Day 3 |
Sunday 27th May 2012 |
17.5 miles |
Osmotherley - walk to Wainstones Hotel Great Broughton |
|
Day 4 |
Monday 28th May 2012 |
17.5 miles |
Great Broughton - walk to Spa Hotel, Saltburn by the Sea |
|
Day 5 |
Tuesday 29th May 2012 |
20.5 miles |
Saltburn by the Sea - walk to the White House, Whitby |
|
Day 6 |
Wednesday 30th May 2012 |
15.5 miles |
Whitby - walk to Coberhill Hotel, Cloughton |
|
Day 7 |
Thursday 31st May 2012 |
15.5 miles |
Cloughton walk to Filey |
