Richmond to Danby Wiske

Richmond was a shocker. To be in the wide outside meeting a handful of people a day for the last week it was a shock to the system to suddenly find oneself surrounded by the hustle and bustle of modern day life. Give me the former every time.
We have seen some rain but, fortunately, we have avoided the worst of it - the five hours of continuous rain overnight had all but petered out when we started off this morning, it was coats and gaiters only and they soon came off when the heat started to be generated.
Today's walking was flat, almost pancake flat. Initially it followed the River Swale, now brown and muddy and increased in flow and volume by the rain. Then it moved on to field verges, green lanes and field crossings. We met and overtook Paul and Soph (who will be joining us in The White Swan in Danby Wiske later) and motored on; and met no other Coasters today while on route.

Catterick Bridge was a nightmare, built for busy traffic rather than foot-traffic waiting to cross the road. The A1 a dream - we just went through the bridge underneath it. We plodded onwards, with Yellowhammers in the hedges, flowers in the verges and not much else. The book says, of one road trodden, "this is a very, very quiet country road" - 40 cars, one lorry and three bicycles later we were almost glad to get back onto the fields.
Back at Danby Wiske early we (almost) gate-crashed a christening party that was being held in the pub - we felt really underdressed, us in our sweaty walkers, they in their Sunday best (including the lady in her cycling shorts!)