On a Mission - Messengers of God's Gift of Love - Lindisfarne 2009

Day 2: Lastingham to Danby

A coach delivers us to Lastingham where we join in the Sunday service in the parish church, which is on the site of the monastery founded by St Cedd from Lindisfarne. Lastingham is at the southern edge of the North York Moors National Park, and we are soon heading north over Staunton Moor to Rosedale Abbey for lunch. The afternoon walk follows a river valley then heads across high moorland reaching 1342 feet above sea level: the greatest height that we will achieve on this pilgrimage. We drop down to our hall at Danby in Eskdale, in the heart of the national park.

Everyone gathers for prayers before we leave.

Danny shares the starting prayer to set us off for the first walk.

Boarding the coach for Lastingham.

View of St Marys church in Lastingham where we had our morning service.

Pilgrims nice and early for mass.

The beautiful historic interior of St Mary's church.

We visited the crypt where we celebrated our final service of the 2002 pilgrimage.

The sermon emphasizing "chat, tea and history".

"The grumpy old men".

The epic journey begins.

The Lastingham monument that officially marked our departure.

Pilgrims strolling through the outstanding beautiful moors.

Of course there were a few obstacles...

This may not appear very steep but this was the first of many deadly drops.

A midday pitstop having lunch in the beer garden.

Happy faces after the challenging hill.

Ellie the new frontmarker, we recruit them young.

Pilgrims make picture perfect poses.

Peter bores the frontmarkers with an "interesting" story.

Philomena and Catherine enjoy their Yorkshire puddings.

Ania, a new pilgrim, finds a nice spot for her lunch.

After lunch we headed to Rosedale Priory for a prayer stop.

Then the pilgrim train set off once more.

Mark and Sarah catch up while they walk.

Julia clambers over a stile...

...but Bruce tries to find his own way over the fence.

Much needed and appreciated replenishment stop.

On our trail we revived an old railway track.

Braving the moors through wind and rain.

John takes a picture of the Velociraptors.

Trekking through the jungle...

...past a waterfall...

...to a picnic spot by a stream.

After an unscheduled stop, we set off once more.

Off the moors and onto a road through a little village...

...where we found some horses...

...before arriving at our final drinks stop of the day.

The final part of the walk.

Which took us up one more hill...

...before descending into Danby.

The frontmarkers still seemed to be enjoying themselves after the long day.