This is hugely different to what I’ve been doing over the last few weeks. At the beginning and well up the stone path to Carr Ridge, spring is displaying her colours in primary glory and, for the likes of me who have red/green colour blindness, the yellows and blues steal the show. At the top we look back over the Vale of Mowbray and it’s a patchwork of more green fields but with yellow rapeseed reflecting the spring-sun in fiery rectangles.

We’re walking from Clay Bank up part of the Cleveland Way then, near the trig that indicates the highest point in the North Yorks Moors National Park, we arch back over Urra Moor towards Chopgate.

The moor name, apparently, is old norse for dirty hill but today it is sunlit and fabulously barren whilst the heather is doing its annual rebirth ready to be switched on in late summer. We then veer right at Medd Crag and follow the contour before a minor dip by Cowkill Well where we climb back to the top of Carr Ridge to rejoin the Cleveland Way.

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I’ve not been with the boys (Our eldest ‘boy’ is 77 so I use the term loosely) for a while so the banter is crude and very funny as we negotiate some of the steep elements ensuring that no one is stressed with any expectations of speed.

This is a more than wonderful day that knits this bunch of life-long-friends together as we catch up and torment each other with ribald remarks yet always ready with a caring hand or helpful response. You don’t get better than this.

Enjoy the snaps. G x

Just short of 10km (about 6.5 miles ish) with a fair amount of ‘up’ 😎

With Chris Richardson, Dave Bowman, Peter Hymer, George Preston, Robin Write and George Renwick

PS. Photo credit George Renwick, Peter Hymer and me.