Country Walking April 2021

DISCOVER The Lyke Wake Walk
Fastest Crossing:
Mark Rigby (1984),
4hrs 41mins
Fastest Lady: Helene
Diamantides (1992),
5hrs 30 mins
Most Crossings:
Gerry Orchard, 237
Fastest 5 Continuous
Crossings: Brian Smailes
(1995), 85hrs 50 mins,
200 miles
Youngest Crosser:
Christopher Turton,
age 6.
P Y R A M I D
OF GLOOM
The Lyke Wake
passes the early
warning station at
RAF Fylingdales,
whose motto is the
Latin Vigilamus, or
‘We are watching’.
You don’t have to do what I did.
I did it solo and unsupported, with only
short pauses, but it’s easily possible to
take longer and have a proper sleep-break,
possibly even a few hours at the Lion Inn
if you structure your times accordingly.
(NB: You can start at any time; I just chose
5am to make the most of the daylight.)
Get some practice with long,
continuous walking. The Yorkshire
Three Peaks (while a lot shorter at
24 miles) makes good prep, as does
night-walking with a head torch.
Navigation skills are essential.
The route is not on OS maps and is
not waymarked. Best option is to buy
Harvey’s North York Moors map (£16.50,
harveymaps.co.uk) which includes the Lyke
Wake. You can then plot the route onto your
GPS device or app of choice. And get the
offcial guidebook from lykewake.org
(which also sells the Harvey map).
Don’t stress about your timings.
Although I had a loose idea of what
a good time might look like for me,
I didn’t set goals for certain sections or
waypoints. That way I could just walk
at my happiest pace and enjoy it.
Midsummer is best: lots of daylight
and the best chance of the moors being
dry. But I actually really enjoyed doing
it on a cooler, quieter September day.
NICK’S KIT LIST
Osprey Atmos AG 50L pack
Osprey Hydraulics 2L reservoir
Regatta 0.6L Tritan Flip
Lid water bottle
Black Diamond Trail Pro
trekking poles
Salomon Quest 4D GTX boots
Bridgedale Hike socks
Saxx Quest boxers (brilliant!)
Alpkit Gamma III head torch
Harvey Maps British Mountain
Map: North York Moors
Suunto 7 GPS smartwatch
The Lyke Wake Walk Guide
by Brian Smailes (£5.25,
lykewake.org)
Blis-Sox (£12) and Blis-Toes
(£6), zurego.com (godsends!)
Portable charger with cables.
Insulator, waterproof,
warm layer, hat, gloves.
Map, compass, whistle,
dry bags, iPhone with OS Maps.
Sandwich, 3x crisps, 3x apples,
8-pack of Penguins, bag of
Haribo Tangfastics for final miles.
Packable soft shoes (the late
lamented Hi-Tec Zuuk, £30 –
a few left at greatoutdoors
superstore.co.uk)
Mini shower gel and deodorant,
change of socks, shirt and pants
(for overnight stay before
returning to Osmotherley).
Plan your trip
WHERE TO STAY
The night before, I stayed at
YHA Osmotherley Cote Ghyll Mill
(0345 260 2870, yha.org.uk), which
is housed in a converted linen mill
half a mile from the start. Private
rooms only due to Covid
restrictions; c£48. Breakfast
available for £7.50 but I left at
4.30am, so no bacon butty for me.
LOGISTICS
Sadly there is no direct public
transport link between Ravenscar
and Osmotherley. Options include
a taxi (likely to surpass £100 given
the mileage), car sharing with a
fellow walker (with two repeat
journeys) or three bus journeys via
Stockton and Northallerton. Or
forego private cars entirely: get a
train to Northallerton and a bus/
cab to Osmotherley; at the end,
get a bus/cab from Ravenscar to
Scarborough, and a train home.
Alternatively, just walk back. ;-)
i
MORE INFORMATION
The New Lyke Wake Club is a
mine of information and resources:
lykewake.org. The ‘old’ club
website is worth a look for context:
lykewakewalk.co.uk. Go to
yorkshire.com for general tourist
information. And to see a video of
Nick recording some thoughts en
route, plus a 3D fly-through of the
route on OS Maps, take a look at
walk1000miles.co.uk/lykewake
APRIL 2021 COUNTRY WALKING 51