Day 1, Helmsley to Sutton Bank

Day 1, Helmsley to Sutton Bank

Today’s walk was relatively easy as there weren't too many steep hills and was only 10 miles!  We started at a lovely place called Helmsley that was about ½ hour from Claybank.  Steve W drove and Jacqui was the navigator and companion – we decided that we would take turns to drive each day and that 2 people would be in the bus so that they could drive to the end of each day’s walk and start to walk back to meet the group.

Start of the Cleveland Way.

Some stepping stones near the trout lakes.

 We walked west to Sutton Bank passing beautiful gardens; Rievaulx Abbey -

 (Rievaulx Abbey was founded in 1132 by twelve monks from Clairvaux Abbey as a mission for the colonisation of the north of England and Scotland. It was the first Cistercian abbey in the north. With time it became one of the great Cistercian abbeys of Yorkshire, second only to Fountains Abbey in fame.^{[citation needed]}

Its remote location was ideal for the Cistercians, whose desire was to follow a strict life of prayer and self-sufficiency with little contact with the outside world. ).

- and trout lakes.  We met a man along the route who was going to put lots more trout into the lakes.  It was raining off and on for a while, but stopped after an hour or so and promised to clear up a little.

Jacqui and Steve met us at a picnic spot (for elevenses)

 after walking about 4 miles, then we set off back the way they had walked, through Cold Kirby and back towards the bus.  As we approached the car park, the Cleveland way path went off towards the white horse; this is where the weather turned again and rained quite hard and the wind really picked up – the noise through the trees was really incredible.  Once we looked at the top of the white horse, 

we walked the 1 ½ miles back to the bus where we ate lunch in the bus and then went into the visitor centre to have tea and coffee.

This afternoon has been leisurely and dinner is being prepared.