Smuggler’s Trod Challenge Walk 2018 – Yorkshire Coast LDWA

I thought it’d be a great idea to spend a weekend in Whitby and also complete the Smuggler’s Trod 25-mile challenge event which is held nearby as part of the adventure. Five other people from Norfolk & Suffolk LDWA came along and we were rather lucky with the perfect weather for the event, no rain and not too much sun.

The walk wasn’t particularly challenging in terms of hills, but there was a hill climb straight from the start at Robin Hood’s Bay. The total ascent for the entire walk was 657 metres though, which was hilly enough for me.

The early section of the walk went along the official Coast to Coast path as we went inland.

The colours along the route were beautiful and the whole walk was along a varied landscape with numerous wooded areas, moors and along riverbanks.

Bev trapped in ferns.

The food selection was wonderful throughout and the doughnut type things were particularly delightful and very moreish. One checkpoint was kindly making up sandwiches to order, so I quite happily waited there whilst eating jelly babies.

We went through a farm with some interesting pieces of ironwork dotted about, including this fine looking soldier.

Approaching Robin Hood’s Bay again towards the end of the route.

The last part of the route was along the former railway line from Whitby to Scarborough. It’s a great shame that this line has been lost, but it is now a popular cycling and walking route.

The end of the challenge event today leaves the railway line just before Robin Hood’s Bay so that entrants have to walk up the hill to the former railway station, which is the end point of the event. For those who are running out of time, the organisers allow them to just walk along the railway line to the end, which I was tempted by anyway, but that would have felt like cheating….

This is what I had to deal with….

We walked around the challenge event in two groups of three and I won’t go into details into what went wrong for the group of three that I wasn’t in. But I will say that Maria, Jane and Ray clearly weren’t able to navigate as well as me, as I didn’t end up walking four miles extra by mistake…..

Everyone is rewarded with a pie at the end of the walk, and I was so brave that they let me have two. Actually, they let me have two without the bravery bit, but if they had known have brave I was, they’d have given me two anyway, so that’s the same thing…

They were selling flasks from the 2017 event for £1, which seemed a bargain to me as another reminder of the event.

I thought that the whole event was well run and the volunteers from the Yorkshire Coast LDWA group were all friendly and had a great sense of fun. I hadn’t intended before the event to repeat this one, but having completed it, I’m pretty sure that I’ll do it again in the future.