Cleveland Way: Day 1 - Helmsley to Kilburn
2016 was a bad year for celebrity deaths. David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Prince, George Michael, Victoria Wood to name just a few. 46 in all. The most famous person to leave my life in May 2016 was my mother. From diagnosis to death was just a short three weeks, rocking my world almost as abruptly as the sudden death of my father, 16 years earlier, aged just 65. If ever I needed to take a long walk, the summer of 2016 was the right time. Essentially orphaned, and having just been promoted to a full-time management role, the longer the walk the better. At 109 miles (175 km) the Cleveland Way fitted the bill nicely. Starting out from Helmsley, North Yorkshire, this National Trail is a long distance route of two halves, crossing the North York Moors in a north-easterly direction to the sea at Saltburn then heading south, hugging the spectacularly beautiful coastline down to Filey Brigg. Of course, it’s perfectly acceptable to walk in the opposite direction, from Filey to Helmsley, b