Coast to Coast Gary's Comments Day 8 Copyright © Barry Smith 2012. All Rights Reserved. Having returned alive from day 8 of the mighty venture, I thought you may like to know that the boys are doing well!  I also finally managed to meet Mart at the hand over in Reeth (good to put a face to a name). The boys are running an interesting system - any guest automatically gets to navigate! As they are the ones who planned this thing it seemed a strange idea, maybe they want to get lost? I tried very hard; most questions as to route choices were answered with 'probably' or 'looks reasonable to me', this was because it was my day off and I didn't really care. It worked well, no complaints and we got to the required destination in good time. I managed to join them for a very pleasant stroll (10½ miles), in lovely weather, with not much uppity stuff, a relaxed lunch by a babbling brook, chatting with the various other C2C folk en route (they make Graham look VERY young!). Fellow walkers on the trail are very chatty and an interesting bunch - just ask about "the girls" - Dorothy and Valerie (the latter possibly the only person we have come across who could give Jay a run for his money in the talking department!). Barry got very excited as we came close to Richmond - we came across a breed of sheep new to him, much joy and happiness. I looked forward to visiting Richmond, Yorkshire, only for the reason that I come from Richmond, Surrey. It's a very pretty market town with lots of squaddies (Catterick Camp being next door). We had an enjoyable stroll round town, a pint or 2 in a local hostelry, managed to buy a new rucksack (Barry's fault), a new memory card for Graham's camera (existing one filling fast) and consume a delicious Thai meal - all this and I was still home just after 9pm! The boys were heading for an early night when I left - they had wangled breakfast for 7.30am so they could get cracking for the next days' long haul. Suspect however, that it may not have been such an early night if the bottle of wine purchased earlier was consumed - not sure if the whiskey stocks had run out; think they had, given the amount Graham is reputed to have drunk so far ...  Both Graham and Barry are feeling some effects from the walk - Barry is recovering from the tail end of a cold and is coughing like a mule, Graham has slight leg problems (ligament?), but is managing to walk through it. The following day's walk was going to be very long and very boring - 23 miles mainly on the flat, ending at Ingelby Cross. ;