Danby Don't be so far

     We walked out of Richmond, headed for Danby Wiske, on a sunny Sunday morning. We had Fourteen miles of mostly level walking through farmland before us.

      I struck an optimistic note by wearing sunglasses.  I'm convinced that probably only a small minority of people in Northern England even own sunglasses.  What would would be the point?

  England has a plethora of footpaths, the wonderful heritage of towns built before cars became the dominate mode of transport.  But some are just the safest way home from the pub after a few pints, some are the way to school and some go to the next village.  Huge thanks to the people who went around tacking these signs to fence posts and gates so we can easily find our way across the country:

     The farmers put in styles and gates accessing the footpaths that traverse their fields but they don't necessarily like it.  Yesterday we opened the gate to find the farmer had elected to put the cattle feed right at the point the path came through.  We had to make a our way through the beasts gathered there and through the mucked up, pooped up ground.  Kind of funny. 

Not a real wide gate

Crossing a style in style 

      

                   

      Speaking of cows, did you know they hate dogs?  One of our British walking friends is walking the C2C with her dog, a collie. It's a real problem for her, getting through a field of cows. She says they turn murderous at the sight of a dog. 

      Spotted a road sign for a deer  today.   I think it was just wishful thinking.  We've walked two thirds of the way across rural England and haven't seen any deer, or squirrels either. ( Of course, we have more than enough  of those in our own back yard. ) Honestly, there don't even seem to be many birds.  I have seen (dead) badgers and (dead) rabbits.  What has become of all the wild animals here?  There's plenty of woodland. And don't they have "gamekeepers" or something? Where are they keeping the wild life? 

       It was an uneventful day, kind of restful, really. Most exciting picture I have to leave you with is tombstones in the churchyard where we sat on a bench and ate chunks of cheese on oat cakes, and almonds.  If you've never had oat cakes, good sharp cheddar makes them almost palatable. Almost.