DAY 27 - GPS CONFUSION & WIFI FRUSTRATIONS ....

DARLINGTON TO THIRSK

I wasnt too sure what to expect from Thirsk today as when i looked it up on the internet, it seemed its only interesting feature was the James Herriot House (that is from All Creatures Great & Small for those of you old enough to recall that far back! Apologies if there is anyone younger reading!?)

However, we have had a delightful day here and our walk has been wonderful!

We left this morning (breakfastless!) in time to catch the 9.44am train (12 minute journey!) to North Allerton (where???!!) and then had a 9 minute train ride to Thirsk where we walked from the train Station to find our overnight B & B - Oswalds Church Farm actually located in Sowerby - it is a beautiful looking place and we are in a twin room in the Stable block complete with study and small sitting area. We were able to check in straight away at 11am so after unpacking a few things we went straight out to walk and decided to manage without any guidance or directions and do a Caroline Special and just follow the footpath!!

Well, needless to say, it all went a bit pear shaped half way into the afternoon as the path ran out and eventually led nowhere! So we made a detour and headed into another woodland (only to come out next to the local rubbish tip!) & eventually found our way into Thirsk Town centre more by luck than any judgement, which was lovely. We stopped in the Weatherspoons (for mum to eat her roll!) & for me to have a soda water and lime and then once refreshed we carried on another mile or two along the canal.

On our way back to the room, i double checked on the buses for tomorrow only to find that instead of going 1/2 hourly as i thought when doing my research, they actually go every 2 hours!! We have earmarked a 10.10am bus but I just hope and pray its not like in Otterburn where not everyone gets on!!! Hmmmm!

It was lovely to relax in the room for a couple of hours as we had covered another 11.5 miles and mum had got blisters coming up on her heel.... not sure why i am the only one to have suffered so badly on my little toes but I've not had a repeat of this problem so i have probably tempted fate with that comment now!!

We were pretty hungry by 5.30am having only had a yoghurt and piece of fruit for breakfast so we went down to Oswalds Restaurant for dinner and benefitted from their lunchtime set menu which was still available til 6pm. Thankfully we were the only diners at this time as it took an hour and a half to progress through our meal as the service was quite slow, but all the food we did have was really nice and the service very friendly so at least there was no indegestion over our meal!

We needed to finish by 8pm as we had a date on the computer to book mum's Pilates class for next Thursday but alas, i after spending over an hour trying to connect without any luck, we missed mum getting her class and i was unable to do anything constructive for work other than bits on my iPhone (HOW ANNOYING IS THAT??!)

I eventually got so exasperated i went down to the bar area only to be told they had given me the WRONG code - it has NO 'S' on it if you ever do come here! Uggghhhh! Hey Presto! All working now but mum has no Pilates class now as its full and i have wasted an evening pratting around being unable to do what i needed to! 

(I think i must have a bit of mild sun stroke as i am way more irritated than the situation warrants so hopefully a good nights sleep will sort out my bother boots! Or maybe its 'swimming pool withdrawl' symptoms - there is one in York that i can use - another David Lloyd epicentre!)

PS Also, thank you to my lovely neighbour at Number 47 for sponsoring me today! Cant wait to be home and thank you for keeping an eye on my house! :)