Day 21 - Clay Bank Top to Rosedale

Distance Walked: 18.5km,  Time Taken: 5h 14m, # Beers: 1/2 pint Theakston Old Peculiar

Today was definitely a Type 2 fun day, so we just motored along.   Admittedly the weather wasn't as bad as we had feared.  Instead of heavy rain and northerly winds, i.e. into our faces, we had moderate rain and a moderate south-westerly breeze.  Once we got to the top of the initial climb, most of our route was along the track of an old disused railway line so the gradients were very gentle (the yellow bits on the plot).  Paul, our guide, kept asking us if we wanted to stop for a rest or a snack, but we just wanted to arrive at our destination as soon as possible and get out of the cold and the wet.  It was a shame about the weather as, when the mist lifted, you could tell there would have been fabulous views.  However, most of the time you couldn't see much at all.  In fact, sometimes you could only see about 50m in any direction.

 

 

Walking today was particularly difficult for me as I've developed a cold.  A had a sore throat on Saturday but I tried to convince myself it was nothing and would pass.  It wasn't and it hasn't.  I have full on cold.  Sore throat, cough, congested sinuses and runny nose.  How the last two things can be true at the same time always baffles me.  Today, instead of being one of the fastest walkers, I was one of the slowest.  Being able to breathe easily is important for hiking, particularly uphill.  Who knew?

The interesting catering at last night's hotel continued this morning at breakfast.  Our waitress specialised in dry humour.  It was a bit much first thing in the morning before coffee but quite amusing all the same.  However, if I was married to her I have a suspect I would strangle her.  Since we knew it was going to be a cold, wet day I decided to have particularly big breakfast so I wouldn't have to open my pack to get out any snacks for second breakfast.  I ordered porridge followed by eggs royale - eggs benedict but with smoked salmon rather than ham.  I got the eggs first and then halfway through that, the porridge came.  The muffins had been so well toasted you could have used them as a hockey puck.  The poached eggs could have doubled as hard-boiled eggs.  The porridge was lumpy.  

Then we collected our packed lunches.  We ordered the full packed lunch.   This isn't just sandwiches but also includes a packet of crisps, a chocolate bar, a drink and piece of fruit.  We just got sandwiches. After complaints were made a handful of chocolate bars and a few packets of crisps appeared.  When we finally got to eat lunch my roast beef with horseradish sandwiches turned out to be ham and mustard.  At least they were on brown bread as I'd requested.  Aaron dislikes brown bread and always orders his sandwiches on white bread.  They almost always come on brown bread, including today.

We made such good time we got to the Lion Inn at Blakely Ridge at about 12:30pm.  This is an old 16th century inn that has served a variety of different sorts of customers over the years.  I'm amazed it has continued as it is out in the middle of nowhere.  It is a fabulous building with lots of nooks and crannies, low ceilings and exposed beams.  I didn't get a photo of it but here is a drawing of it.

 

These days it is very popular with hikers.  In fact, it was crowded not just with us but about a dozen other people we've seen on our travels.  It is the only spot actually on the C2C trail for miles in either direction.   When we arrived there was a man from the SherpaVan luggage moving service collecting bags from hikers who stayed there last night and dropping of new bags for the latest crop.  This included four American women we've seen often who got to the inn shortly after us.  They are stopping there for the night.  We went on a further 4km (after lunch) and got picked up by Richie, the Head Badger van man, who drove us to our hotel for tonight.  We are all headed for Grosmont tomorrow, but we will have a slightly easier time of it given the extra distance we walked today.  Still, I'm sorry we didn't get to stay at the Lion Inn.  Our hotel here is pleasant but doesn't have anything like as much character.

It is chef's night off tonight here so we drove to another pub in town for dinner.  It was about a 10m walk away but it is still raining so walking was not even considered.  I had a "small" piece of steak & ale pie which You Could Eat followed by their tiramisu.  For a non-Italian restaurant tiramisu it was surprisingly decent.  It had traces of marsala as well as coffee (I'd have used a good deal more of both) and was properly made with savoiardi biscuits.  The biscuit to cream ratio was almost spot on.  A solid 7 out of 10.  Paul was very disappointed to discover none of the desserts were served with custard.  He is having withdrawal symptoms.  Mark said Paul was dis-custarded by it.  Mark has started to display a distressing inclination for making puns.

Day 20 - Ingleby Cross to Clay Bank Top

Distance Walked: 20.2km, Time Taken: 7h 20m, # Beers: 1/2 pint Iron Cross

Today we started our climb up onto the North York Moors.  Our route followed the northern edge of the moors, so you had fabulous views over the moors to your right and impressive views down a steep drop into the valley below on your left.  We also got our first glimpse of the North Sea which is our destination.  The end is in sight!

 

We'd gotten cocky with the ease of the last two days of walking.  While we knew intellectually there would be climbing today, we didn't fully appreciate quite how much.  Instead, we spent the trip from our previous night's hotel back to the trail debating the relative value of different types of crisps.  Every packed lunch includes one.  We were trying to decide how much more valuable a packet of salt & vinegar crisps were compared to just plained salted ones and where cheese & onion rated on the scale.  More to the point, how many crisp "points" would be needed to ensure that Richie, the Badger Van man, would make sure we got a room with a bathtub rather than just a shower at our next hotel.  What naive fools we were.

I have no excuse for failing to realise how much effort would be required today.  I actually walked this section of trail back in 2022, as the C2C overlaps with the Cleveland Way today.  I only thought to re-read my diary for that day this evening.   I see I noted that up on the moors it is windy with a capital W.  If anything, I was understating the case.  The day started off plesantly enough.  It was overcast but not too cold and very little breeze.  Up on the moors it was a howling gale and quite cold.  Below is a picture of us all enjoying ourselves at the top of the 2nd highest peak of the day.   

We have decided that while the day started off as Type 1 fun, it had degenerated into Type 2 fun by this point.  Type 1 fun is when you are enjoying yourself at the time.  Type 2 is when it isn't fun at the time but you have a marvellous sense of achievement when you finish (and get somewhere warm and dry).  Tomorrow is due to be as windy, if not more so, and possibly raining in the afternoon.  We expect it to be Type 2 fun all day.

We are actually staying in the same hotel as I did back in 2022,  the Wainstones Hotel.   It is as comfortable as I remembered and we all got rooms with a bathtub.  We needn't have resorted to bribery and corruption!

Dinner was a disappointment.  It is Sunday so we'd all ordered different Sunday roasts.  I'd ordered the lamb, as had several others in our group.  Unfortunately, by the time it came to serving our group they'd run out of lamb.  I settled for the pork while most opted for the beef.  Robin scorned her Yorkshire pudding and refused to eat it.  We weren't ordered to leave but it could have been dicey.   However, several of us ordered the treacle tart with custard for dessert only to be told they were out of custard.  I wonder if that was the chef's revenge on our group for not appreciating his Yorkshire puddings appropriately?

Day 19 - Danby Wiske to Ingleby Cross

Distance Walked: 14.8km, Time Taken: 4h, # Beers: 1/2 pint Wainwright Ale

Nothing much to report today.  As Wainwright had said, this part of the walk through the Vale of Mowbray between the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors, is dull.  We walked through fields, down farm tracks and on back roads.  It was flat but on the plus side we had clear skies and virtually no wind.  Whoever blathers on about fresh, country air has not spent much time in the country.  What with cows, sheeps, horses and the occasional pig country air reeks.

The only exciting part was when we were supposed to cross the A19 motorway.  We cheated.  The Badger Van met us at the point where the path met the A19, we all piled in, Richie drove us along the A19 to a point where he could exit, cross over and then drive us back to the path on the other side of the road.  When we got to the van we saw a group of 4 American women who we have seen many times before scampering across the motorway.  It has 3 lanes in each direction.  Even with a median in the middle it still isn't something I would have liked to attempt.

I tell a lie.  There was one other exciting things that happened today.  When we were sitting on a log, having lunch, a squirrel scampered down the tree next to me and ran away to hide in the hedgerow.  We clearly are very frightening.

 

We got to our destination around 2 in the afternoon, so we stopped at the local pub for a pint.  We then piled into the Badger Van again to drive to our hotel for the evening.  Ingleby Cross is too small to have beds for all of us.  Instead, we are staying in a slightly larger village a few miles away.  Again, we are staying at a pub but it has "chalet style" lodgings rather than rooms above the bar.  If you haven't guessed, "chalet style" just means they've built a motel out behind the pub.

We had dinner at the pub of course.  For main I had Korean crispy chicken bao buns which You Could Eat.  It was a risk but it paid off.  For dessert I had a Harmless lemon posset with raspberry coulis and a giant shortbread biscuit.  It would have rated more highly if it had been a bit more lemony.

Tomrrow we have a 20km hike up onto the moors.  Our lazy days are at a end.  Fortunately, the good weather isn't - for tomorrow at least.

Day 18 - Richmond to Danby Wiske

Distance Walked: 24km, Time Taken: 6h 34m, # Times Went Astray: 2, # Beers: 1 glass Malbec

Today's walking was indeed dull but the weather was fine.  It was a bit cool and windy, but nothing that layers couldn't handle.  The main thing was it did not rain the whole day.  It was even sunny in spots.  After yesterday, we considered today to be a good day.  Aaron had been in the tank corp in the army.  He told us of a 5 day exercise he'd gone on.  The 4 crew of the tank had to spend the entire time in the tank, with limited supplies of food and water.  It was to evaluate how long they could be effective if they were trapped behind enemy lines.  He said the only reason hiking yesterday hadn't been as bad as spending 5 days in a tank was because during the tank exercise they didn't know when it was going to end.

You will note that we went astray twice today.  Once was accidental.  The path here through the Yorkshire Dales sometimes has signs identifying the C2C path, other times it just identifies a public footpath, while sometimes there is no sign at all at an intersection.  Also, sometimes, just to tease, there is a public footpath sign pointing to the wrong path while the C2C path is unsigned.  This caused us the first detour.  In the second case, there was a clear C2C sign pointing to the path running to the right hand side of the fence in this photo.  We walked around the other 3 sides of the field instead.

There wasn't a lot to see on the route today.  It mainly went through farmland and one field looks a lot like another.  We did pass a field full of these cutest fluffy horses.  They looked like Clydesdales that had shrunk in the wash and who needed a haircut.  They demanded pats, which we dutifully gave.

Tonight we are staying at a farmhouse a few kilometres from Danby Wiske which is also a B&B.  They had two friendly black cats who I gave lots of cuddles to until it was time for their dinner.  I immediately began completely uninteresting. I haven't managed to see them since.  They are barn cats who aren't allowed in the house.  The family dog is allowed in.  

Dinner was cooked and served by the lady of the house.  We each were given a plate with a huge slab of baked ham (You Could Eat It) and had many dishes of steamed and roast vegetables to pass around.  Dessert was a pavlova topped with lemon curd that was Not Bad.  I wish I'd ordered a ham sandwich for my packed lunch tomorrow now.  I opted for cheese & chutney.  I wonder if it is too late to change my mind.

The forecast is for fine weather tomorrow and we only have a short day planned.  In theory we only have 14km to cover.  It shouldn't take us more than about 4 1/2 hours, even allowing for a lunch stop.  What will we do with otherselves?

Day 17 - Reeth to Richmond

Distance Walked: 18.3km, Time Taken: 5h 6m, # Beers: 1/2 pint Black Sheep

Today can be summarised in one word - rain.  It was either light rain or moderate rain but always rain.  Sadly, it was also a mix of light breezes and moderate breezes - in our faces.  The combination of moderate rain and a moderate breeze is actually painful.  I wore my glasses.  Not to help me see because they didn't.  The outside of the glasses were covered with rain and the inside with steam.  But they did protect my eyes from driving rain.  It was miserable.  On the plus side, we made very good time.  Paul, our guide, did make two attempts to interest us in the native flora but quickly gave it up as a loss.  We just had our heads down and walked as fast as possible.  We made good time.  Normally we do 3km/h but we managed over 3.5km/h today.

Aaron and Robin walked the first section today to Marske before being collected by Richie, the Head Badger support van man.  We ate our lunch huddled under the opened rear door of the van before waving them goodbye and heading on our way.  Sue, Liz, Mark and I are determined to walk every single step of the way.  

Tomorrow we walk to Danby Wiske which is 22km away but along terrain that is basically flat.  Wainwright describes this section of the route as "dull" and "off little interest".  We will be content with dry.  Robin & Aaron are spending the day in Richmond sightseeing.  They are actually going to have a hot meal at lunchtime, sitting at a table, indoors.  We are all deeply envious.

We are staying at a pub again here in Richmond.  Each room has a different layout.  Mine has twin beds and the tiniest bathroom I've had the entire trip.  One advantage of my bathroom is the radiator works. I have it festooned with all my damp laundry.  It is so crowded I have to move things out if I want to use the loo.  Mark scored a large room with a large bathroom which has an actual bath!  He went out and bought a big bag of Epsom salts once we got here.  One of our previous hotels supplied them and he has become a convert. 

We had dinner at the pub here.  I had shepherds pie which was Harmless.  You couldn't tell the meat was lamb because the filling was made with such a strong red wine (no complaints from me), however there wasn't enough mash on top to give it a You Can Eat It rating.   For dessert I had lemon and honey marscapone cheesecake which was Not Very Good as it managed to be completely tasteless!

They are predicting fine weather tomorrow except for when it is raining.  A very English forecast.

Day 16 - Keld to Reeth

Distance Walked: 18km (est), Time Taken: 6h 2m, # Beers: 1/2 pint Black Sheep

The distance we walked today is only an estimate as I was messing with the settings for recording Hikes on my Garmin watch.  I had auto-pause enabled and it was very quick to pause and very slow to start recording again.  It claimed we'd only walked 13.5km but measuring our route on the map later put it closer to 18.5km.  I've not included the elevation plot as it just looks all wrong.

We had two options for the route today - the high and the low.  Wainwright describes the low as being "along the lovely banks of the Swale [river] and ... especially beautiful."  He then goes on ignore this option and to give detailed route guidelines for the high route that climbs the hills above and goes past many abandoned lead mines.  Of this route he says "expect little of beauty in this section."  We took the low route.  We did pass these two examples of the lead mining industry.  We are reasonably confident the ruined building is an old lead smelter.  We have no idea what or why the cart (?) was left behind.

The weather today was OK.  It was cloudy and very cool in the morning but cleared around lunchtime.  As we started off Paul, our guide, kept wanting to stop and describe what we were seeing - a kestrel, large red mushrooms that looked straight out of a picture books, gorgeous views back along the river valley, how the valley was opening out as we went downstream and so on.  I was freezing and just wanted to walk briskly so I would warm up.  We weren't the best audience.

Aaron walked with us in the morning but got a lift from Richie, the Head Badger van man, when we stopped in Gunnerside for lunch.  We also met up with 4 American women and an Australian couple who all set out from St Bees on the same day we did.  Mary, one of the American women, cadged a lift from Richie too.  The other 3 women headed off in a completely different direction to the rest of us.  One of them is always talking to random people at her B&B or at a pub and then telling us how They say to do something other than the standard route.  She talks non-stop so I'm glad they don't walk with us.

We went faster in the afternoon as rain was predicted.  Depending on which forecast you read it was either going to start at 4pm or 6pm. We got to Reeth at 3:30pm avoiding the problem entirely.  The rain has set in well now and is predicted to continue all day tomorrow.  What fun.

We crossed the Pennine Way near Keld.  Paul, our guide, mentioned over dinner that he had competed in a foot race along their entire 268 miles (431 km) length of the Pennine Way in winter.  He carried all his own gear - tent, stove, food and took brief rests wherever he could find them - ruined barns, a bird hide or just a sheltered spot to pitch a tent.  He got 4 hours of sleep a night and ran the rest of the night using a head torch.  It took him 6 days to finish.  Apparently, the hallucinations induced by sleep deprivation just added to the experience.  He did this for fun.  We thought we were weird walking from one coast to the other.

Day 15 - Kirkby Stephen to Keld

 Distance Walked: 19.5km, Time Taken: 7h 15m, # Beers: 1 pint Butter Tubs Golden Ale

 

We were fearful of bad weather today so we set out completely covered in our wet weather gear - waterproof jacket, waterproof over-trousers and gaiters.  We had fine weather.  It was cloudly in the morning but cleared in the afternoon, not much wind and NO RAIN.  This was a blessing as today was tough.  

We started the morning climbing up to Nine Standards Rigg.  These are 9 large piles of stones on a hilltop.  They've been there for hundreds of years but no-one knows who or why they were built.  They are two or three times the height of a person.  The climb up to them wasn't too bad.  Most of the route was on a road to a quarry so it was easy underfoot and the gradient was gentle.  The last little bit was steeper but still not too bad. There was one interesting bridge over a stream on the ascent.  I posted this picture on the C2C Facebook group and immediately got topped by someone who had done the route in June.  It was much further underwater that day and was misty to boot.

We met about a dozen people on the route today.  We didn't see anyone yesterday which was unusual.  Most of the days up till now, particularly in the Lake District, have had a constant stream of other hikers on the route.  I'm not sure if the lack of people yesterday was because all the people we'd met had been hard-core hikers who hadn't split the Shap to Kirkby Stephen leg in two as we did, or else they'd just left before we did or if they had more sense than we did and took the bus yesterday.  We started quite late yesterday as we had to be driven to Orton to begin the walk and got stuck behind farmyard Ferraris (aka tractors) twice.

Back to the day's walk.  Once at the top of the climb it got worse.  We had a good 5km of hiking through bog.  It added a 1.5km to our distance for the day as we had to keep zig-zagging to find (reasonably) solid ground to walk on.  I have become quite knowledgeable on bog flora.  I can't name any of the plants but I can tell you which ones have (reasonably) solid roots and which ones are just floating on top of the muck.  We did well and never ended up more than up to our ankles in the mud.

Once past the (worst of the) bog we reached Ravenseat farm.  This apparently has become quite famous - in the UK at least.  The family that owns it has been part of a reality TV series called Our Yorkshire Farm.  They have some excessive number of children - 9 I believe.  We passed a old stone house+barn building that was being renovated and got chatting to a woman there.  She lives down the road and her husband is the builder who is renovating the property for the Ravenseat family as a home for one of their children, Miles.  We saw Miles driving a tractor with a collection of building materials up to the site.  He looked all of 15 or so.  I wonder if he will stay once he finishes school.  There is to be a TV series called Our Farm Next Door about the renovations.  The film crew were due to show up tomorrow, so we just missed our chance at TV fame.

We got met by Richie, the Head Badger support van man, in Keld.  It turns out Keld is tiny.  It does have 1 pub with rooms but was fully booked.  We are staying another pub about 20 minutes drive away.  This one has heated towels rails that are heated!  They have good food too.  I had smoked salmon fishcakes that You Could Eat and a lemon posset that was Not Bad.  We stay here two nights and I'm trying to decide if I have the lemon posset again or try the Eton mess next time.  Important decisions.

Day 14 - Orton to Kirkby Stephen

Distance Walked: 18.9km, Time Taken: 5h 45m, # Beers: 1 Malfy Blood Orange Gin & Tonic

 

 

We had proper English weather today.  That is, when it wasn't raining it was drizzling.  We made good time at least as it was too cold and wet to stop for many photo opportunities or other frivolities.  Which was a shame as there were a couple of really good views I would have liked to have photographed.  However, we did take advantage of a patch of light drizzle to have lunch in the lee of a wall.  If it had just been me I would have walked as I ate.  Goretex can only do so much so I was damp through by lunchtime.  I was warm enough when I was walking but got very cold when we stopped.  I didn't feel like I could complain though.  Aaron walked 15km with us today.  I was just cold and wet and miserable.  He was in pain and he didn't complain.  Annoying sod.

 

Today was easier terrain underfoot than in the Lake District.  None of those horrid paths made up of slippery stones.  Instead, we had wet grass, mud and sheep shit and all possible combinations of those three.  Fun.  Tomorrow's forecast is for much of the same only with a lot more mud.

Richie, the Head Badger van man, met us about 4km from the end where our path crossed a road.  Tim, our kindly support van man from last week, had always walked along the path towards us when he met up with us.  Richie stayed (sensibly) in the warm, dry van.  We amused ourselves by pointing our all the ways he doesn't take as good care of us as Tim did.  I'm not sure if we are improving or fatally destroying Tim's future employment possibilities.

We are in the same hotel tonight as last night.  When we got back, we shed our wet, muddy boots by the fire and begged (successfully) for the radiators in our rooms and bathrooms to be turned on.  We got 2 hours of heat, so all our gear might get dry enough to wear again tomorrow.

Yesterday we all had a Sunday roast for dinner.  For lunch we had sandwiches with leftover roast beef and very good they were.  For dinner tonight I had the best steak & ale pie of my holiday so far.  You Could definitely Eat It.  It was a proper pie, not a casserole dish of stew with a puff pastry lid.  What would have made it Not Bad would be if they'd used a suet crust pastry rather than one made with butter.

I've introduced the group to my food rating scale.  They haven't really grasped its meaning and have insisted on adding a higher rating of Really Yummy to the top of the scale.

Day 13 - Shap Abbey to Orton

Distance Walked: 15.4km, Time Taken: 5h 18m, # Beers: 1/2 pint Ravenstoned Ale

Nothing much to report today.  It was a relatively short walk without much ascending and descending. The landscape was much easier underfoot too. Mostly grassy paths, if at times a little boggy.  We are into limestone country in the Dales, rather than the stark fells.  Although, the reason the fells are so stark is because all the tree cover has been cut down.  They wouldn't been so imposing in their natural state.  We actually saw the first wild animal that wasn't a bird today.  It was a rabbit.  Apparently there are deer and red squirrels in the Lake District but we didn't see any.

Today's walk started with us being driven back to Shap Abbey to do the last few kilometres we skipped yesterday.  The abbey must have been very impressive in its heyday.

 

We also said goodbye to Tim, our friendly support van man, today at the Abbey.  He is going home to Dartmoor and we will be looked after by Richie, the Head Badger (i.e. the company owner) from here on.  We will miss Tim. He had a great sense of humour, had a endless list of stories and really made everything run smoothly.

I was heartily pleased that today's walk was so short and flat.  Normally, I have no trouble walking at the start of the day.  It only becomes work well into the day.  However, it was work from the very beginning.  The standard program for the C2C walk has you doing yesterday's walk from
Patterdale all the way to Shap - all 24km of it along with the 800m of ascent and then walk all the 20 miles! (32km) from Shap to Kirkby Stephen today.  There is no way I could have done that.  Tomorrow is going to be around 18km and I'm not looking forward to that.

 

Our hotel for tonight isn't in Orton. There isn't much in Orton - except for a chocolate factory.  Even though it was Sunday, their shop outlet was open.  Richie, our chief support van man, then drove us to our hotel which is the King's Head in Ravenstonedale.  We are using all 6 of their rooms. They are a friendly, cheerful pub that brews its own beer and has a friendly pub dog.  It would be perfect if only the heated towel rail in the bathroom was.

Day 12 - Patterdale to Shap Abbey

Distance Walked: 22.1km,  Time Taken: 8h, # Times Went Astray: 1(!), # Beers: 1 pint Loweswater Ale

I broke the weather.  The first 3 days of our hike we had clear sunny skies with very little wind.  I'd just packed wet and cold weather gear so when we got to Grasmere I bought some short sleeved tops.  I wore one yesterday.   Today, the sky was completely clouded over and there was a howling gale on the tops.  Below is the view from High Raise.  This was the highest point on our walk today.

This morning we had Tim, the friendly support van man, drive us back to Glenridding where we had breakfast at a hotel there, as ours here in Shap didn't start serving early enough.  The Glenridding hotel had a breakfast buffet, which we descended on like a swarm of locusts.  Tim then drove us to the start of the trail in Patterdale (Glenridding is a kilometre or two off the trail) and we began our long ascent.  We basically spent 3 1/2 hours climbing up and up and up.  The little jiggle in the elevation chart at about the 5km point is where Paul, our guide, picked the wrong path at a fork!

After reaching the top, we ate our packed lunch, huddled in the lee of the cairn on High Raise.  It didn't do much to protect us from the wind.  We then spent about an hour descending from all that height we had laborously gained.  I've discovered it is actually easier on your feet to jog down a slope.  By jogging you pick up your foot again before your toes have had a chance to bang up against the end of your boot.  I jogged a good part of the way down with this odd high-stepping mincing gait.  My feet appreciated it, even though I must have looked absurd.  It all went well today but I can just imagine the day when one of my feet slide out from under me and I come crashing down.

Our climb up out of one valley and down into the next today has taken us out of the Lake District and into the Dales.  You can tell this, in part, because the landscape has changed from stark high fells to gentle, rolling hills.  You can also tell because we are now seeing signposts like this one.  They have been very sparse in the Lake District.  In fact, sign posts or cairns or any form of waymarking is sparse on the fells.  There is feeling amongst hardcore fell walkers that you shouldn't be up on the fells if you don't know how to navigate with a map and compass.  They will even remove stones from cairns.  I guess it keeps the Mountain Rescue Service occupied.

We were supposed to walk all the way back to our hotel in Shap today but Tim, the kindly support van man, meet us at Shap Abbey about 2km away and ferried us back to the hotel so we wouldn't be late for dinner.  They still haven't fixed the heating in my wing of the hotel.  They did provide me with a large black spider on my bath towel.  I discovered this as I grabbed it to dry off after my shower.  I did beat it to death with a shoe, but I left our my usual "while screaming hysterically" part of the process as I was just too tired.

We've been promised an easy day tomorrow with light clouds and a gentle breeze.  Here's hoping.

Day 11 - Grasmere To Glenridding

Distance Walked: 13.5km, Time Taken: 5h 2m, # Beers: 1 pint Wainwright Amber ale

Today we actually walked a little bit further than we needed to.  We've split the standard 3rd day of the route into two pieces.  The standard route plan would have had us ending in Patterdale yesterday, but we broke the day in two and only reached there this afternoon around 3pm.  We then walked a kilometre or so north to Glenridding for tea and cake (Harmless).

We saw a good 20 or 30 people on the route out of Grasmere today.  Grasmere is a popular base for people wanting to walk to some of the most famous Lake District peaks such as Helvellyn.  Only about a dozen are walking the C2C.  Still, it feels a little like walking in a city park rather than being out in the countryside.  We saw even more people on the trails yesterday, but there was some sort of competition on with 250 entrants.

Walking today was easier than yesterday and Aaron had chosen to ride in the van.  However, our speed was much the same as yesterday.  Not an issue for today but it will be tomorrow when we have to walk to Shap.  We are actually staying 2 nights in our hotel in Shap, having being driven here in the van.  We will be driven back to Glenridding/Patterdale to walk back here.  So far, so good.  However, the distance we have to cover is 25km, which at our speed will take over 8 hours.  They don't serve breakfast here until 8am and it is a 40 minute drive back to our starting point.  We are also booked in for dinner at 6pm.   The math just isn't mathing.  The current plan is to leave here at 7am (!), drive back to Glenridding and have breakfast in a cafe.  We will then do our last climb up over the eastern most fell in the Lake District and down into the valley in the Dales.  From there our trusty Tim, the support van man, will pick us up and drive us to Shap.  This will shorten the trip by about 6km.  We'll have to add that into the walk for the day after tomorrow.  Most of us are (currently) still determined to walk every step of the way.

I'm afraid I've broken the weather.  The first 3 days we've had fine sunny days with barely any wind.  It has been so warm I bought 2 short sleeved tops yesterday.  I wore the less hideous one (in burnt orange) today.  As a result, today was significantly cooler with almost total cloud cover and a strong breeze, particularly up high.  Tomorrow I'll be back in my long sleeved warm tops.  I might even break out the beanie and gloves.  Hopefully not the waterproofs.

Our hotel here in Shap, the Greyhound Hotel, is a sad letdown after the 4 star luxury of our previous night's accomodation.  Admittedly, I've got the largest room so far on this holiday.  However, the heating doesn't work and there is an odd smell.  Not quite drains but not exactly pleasant either.

For dinner, I had the sausages and mash, as did several others.  The gravy was a little too salty and the mash needed more butter, but we agreed it was Harmless.  I didn't bother with dessert as I'd had cake for afternoon tea.  

We had fun at breakfast this morning.  All the staff at the hotel were non-native English speakers and had quite a strong accent (Polish?).  When the waiter came to take our breakfast orders Tim thought he was asking us if we were ready full breakfast, i.e. did we want the Full English breakfast.  He actually was asking us if we were ready "for" breakfast, i.e. ready to make our order.  Tim then tried to order a bacon and mushroom sandwich.  The waiter said "right you want Full English with bacon and mushrooms".   Tim then corrected him, which got the waiter saying he understood and Tim was ordering the Full English with bacon and mushrooms. They did several rounds of this before Tim realised the waiter was teasing him. 

Day 10 - Seatoller to Grasmere

Distance Walked: 16.2km, Time Taken: 6h 26m, # Beers: 1 pint Ambleside Gold

We actually only spent 3h 43m walking today.  The rest of the time was spent admiring the views, taking photos, eating and just waiting for others to catch up.   Robin was working on her 2nd set of blisters today and her husband, Aaron, has a problem with his feet that makes walking more than 10km very painful.  Why they chose to do a holiday where the shortest day is longer than 10km and most days are around twice that is not clear to me.  They did gets lifts in the van at the start and the end saving them 4km and 2km respectively, but the hardest bits - the climb and descent - they just had to do.  Aaron has decided to skip walking altogether for tomorrow.

 

 

I was particularly anxious that we get to Grasmere at a reasonable time.  Firstly, because there is a famous gingerbread shop here, the Grasmere Gingerbread Shop, and I am very fond of gingerbread.  The second reason is that we've been having pleasant sunny weather all week and this is predicted to continue into the middle of next week.  I'd packed plenty of wet weather and cold weather gear but nothing for warm weather.  We've all been given polo shirts with the Badger Adventure logo on them.  I wore mine today but it is made of heavy cotton and I think I was hotter wearing it than if I'd worn one of the my long sleeved tops.  I wanted to get to Grasmere before the shops shut so I could by some short sleeved hiking shirts.

We got to Grasmere by 4:30pm so I stopped at the first outdoor gear shop I could find. However, they hadn't been expecting fine weather either and had sent all there summer gear back to the warehouse and only had cold weather gear in stock.  Fortunately, there was another outdoor gear shop in the village.  They had packed up there summer gear too but hadn't sent it back yet.  They kindly rummaged through the boxes and turned up two tops.  Sadly the colours are burnt orange and pale blush.  Neither colour is particularly flattering.  However, given that when I'm hiking in this weather, I'm red in the face and dripping with sweat it probably doesn't matter.

Again the scenery today was wonderful.  However, our enjoyment of the dales and the fells was hampered by the over-flights of pairs of F-something-somethings.  There is an airforce base nearby and the pilots like to practice flying over the passes, then dropping down into the dales (relatively) low before climbing sharply when they get to the other end.  They are clearly having fun, but they are so loud.  They made pass after pass after pass after pass.

I know I said I liked last night's hotel the best but I take it back.  Their breakfast was not very good.  The cooked food was all very Dull and the jugs of milk on our table had all curdled!  Fortunately, I drink my coffee black.  We'd ordered 8 packed lunches, each of which was supposed to come with a sandwich, piece of fruit, packet of potato chips, chocolate bar and bottle of water.  They put out 8 pieces of fruit and 8 chocolate bars but only 7 sandwiches and 3 bottles of water, although we did get 9 packets of chips.  As we were leaving we saw our waiter from last night walking down the road to the bus stop, wheeling his suitcase behind him.  The poor sod's first night was clearly also his last night at that job.

Our hotel here for this night, the Wordsworth Hotel, is definitely more upmarket that last night's.  Not only do I have a very comfortable room, my bathroom has an actual bathtub!  After showering off my sweat and grime, I soaked in a hot bath, eating my gingerbread.   For dinner, we ate in the hotel restaurant.  Tasty food was served promptly and correctly.  I had a lamb roulade on a bed of polenta for main and an blood orange & almond cake with chocolate orange ice cream for dessert.  You Could Eat both of them.  I have high hopes for our packed lunches from here.  The packed lunch today was Dull.  I had cheese and chutney, which was made with stale bread, which was tasteless.  I can understand tasteless cheese but serving tasteless chutney takes effort.

 

Day 9 - Ennerdale Bridge to Seatoller

Distance Walked: 23.6km, Time Taken: 8h 14m, # Beers: None

 

 

I actually enjoyed today which I think puts me in the minority.  It was challenging enough to give you a good sense of achievement when you finished it, but not so challenging you wanted to give up.  The first stretch along Ennerdale Water was fairly uneven underfoot.   This made it more interesting to walk that just trudging along a lakeside.  Robin would disagree as she slipped and sat down hard at least 3 times.  She is a tiny little thing.  She is fit enough to keep pace with us all, but lacks the muscles to keep her balance.  I look at her and want to tell her to eat more food with iron and/or calcium or just eat more food.  Ennerdale water was lovely to look at, when you could spare a moment to look at the view rather than looking at where you were putting your feet.

 

The middle section was a reasonably gentle slope up forest logging paths to Black Sail Hut.  This lulled us into a false sense of security as the climb up out of Ennerdale into neighbouring Borrowdale was anything but gentle.  Below is a photo taken about 10 minutes from the very top of the pass.  We started from the river that is running from left to right in the top third of the photo and climbed more or less straight up.

 

The descent was worse.  Again, it was slippery rocks.  These can be an interesting challenge on the flat, but are pure evil on steep descents.  Tim had parked the van at Honistor slate mines, halfway down the descent, and met us at the top of the pass.  Once we got to the van Robin, and her husband Aaron, decided to call it quits and get a lift the rest of the way.  The rest of us walked on to Seatoller.

I really like our hotel for this stop, the Langstrath Country Inn.  It was originally a cottage dating from 1509, but has been considerably extended and altered since then.  It's not nearly as posh as last night's hotel but it has individually controlled radiators in the bedroom and bathroom (cool for sleeping, warm for showering) and a shower that I can use without an instruction manual.  These are more important features when you want to get a good night's sleep while your laundry dries.

We ate here at the hotel.  I had the steak and ale pie which was sadly Not Very Good.  The filling was overcooked and very dry, while the pastry was burnt.  For dessert I had the apple crumble with custard which was Harmless.  The most entertaining part of dinner was the waiter.  It was his first day, both here and as a waiter.  He got our dinner order wrong, in spite of writing it down.  Next, he cleared away half our dirty plates and then got distracted and wandered off to do other things for 15 minutes.  Finally, when he brought out 2 plates of cheesecake, he announced it was apple crumble.  We didn't see him again after that.  I don't know whether he was hiding in embarassment or had gotten the sack.

 

Tomorrow is a relatively short day.  We are headed for Grasmere which is about 18km away.  At our pace, included time for photo opportunities, lunch and just the occasional rest, it should take us 6 hours.  Timing is important as we want to get to Grasmere before the gingerbread shop shuts.

Day 8 - St Bees to Ennerdale Bridge

Distance Walked: 21.3km, Time Taken (elapsed): 8h 11m, # Beers: 1/2 point Stonewall IPA

Today we set of for the first of our 16 days of hiking, after having our picture taken at the start, all wearing our spiffy Badger Aventure t-shirts.  Our guide, Paul, is on the right in last year's t-shirt.

The route first took us north and west to get views of the Irish Sea before turning east and starting our journey to the other coast.  The start with the sea views was lovely, but we spent a lot of time stopping to admire the view, which I found a little annoying given how far we had to go today.  Luckily, it turns out we all walk at much the same pace, which is convenient.  It's dreary either panting along at the rear, desperately trying to keep up, or waiting impatiently for stragglers to catch up.

The first three-quarters of the walk were relatively easy, which lulled us into a false sense of security.  The last bit involved a steep climb and an even steeper and more hair-raising descent.  Two of the group fell over on the way down.  Fortunately only egos were bruised.  

Our support person, Tim, meet us 2 times along the route, with offers of extra water or lifts if we were tired.  They were very anxious we had enough water as it was a mild (17C?) day and very sunny.  Tomorrow it is going to be much the same.  I threw in a sun hat and sunscreen at the last minute, never thinking I'd need it.  I'm still lugging around all my wet weather gear, just in case.

This initial section, before the climb up Dent hill and getting into the Lake District proper was rather ordinary - mostly.  For some reason, here in this part of Yorkshire they only have grey sheep in the family.  Also some rather odd birds.  Somehow I don't think he's a local.

When we finally got to Ennerdale Bridge Tim met us for a 3rd and final time and drove us all to our hotel.  A lot of people set out on the C2C today and there wasn't enough room at the inn in Ennerdale for us all.  Tim drove us all the way back to the coast, to a hotel just on the top left of the map.  It took around 20 minutes to cover a distance it took us the best part of 6 hours to walk.  Very demoralising.

Our hotel, the Moresby Hall Hotel, is an historic building.  The first building on this site dates back to the time of William the Conquerer.  Most of the current building dates (I think) from around the 17th century.  All the rooms are different shapes and sizes and are fitted out differently.  I just have an enormous bed, while Liz has a 4 poster bed.  We all have different bathrooms with different fittings too.  My shower was so elaborate I had to get the receptionist to show me how to turn the water on.  Liz struggled to fill her jacuzzi bath and only discovered by luck how to drain it.

We had dinner here at the hotel.  I had steak and chips which was Harmless.  We all had dessert.  I had the raspberry creme brulee which You Could Eat.

I'd post more about how the day went but I'm just too tired.  We have much the same distance to cover tomorrow.  Wish us luck.

Day 7 - St Bees

Distance Walked: Don't know, Time Taken: Don't care, # Beer: 1/2 pint of Wainwright Amber Ale

Today I headed to St Bees to meet up with my tour group.  Tomorrow we start the C2C walk for real.  There are six of us in the group - Aaron and Robin (an Australian couple from the Sunshine Coast), Mark from the USA, Liz also from the USA, Sue from Yorkshire and me.  Our guide is Paul and our luggage wrangler is Tim.  Can you believe I've remembered everyone's name?!   Below is a photo of the most important piece of kit for this holiday.

 

Today involved a lot of waiting around so not much to report.  I had to wait for my train from Carlisle, then I had to wait to check in at my hotel here, then I had to wait to meet up with the tour group for a briefing on how this was all going to work.  Now I think of it, we had been promised tea and cake at the briefing.  I'd complain about missing out but dinner was enormous.

The only notable events in my day were my meals - which were generally bad.  I had breakfast in the hotel restaurant and had my first really bad cup of coffee (a real ciofeca).  Most of the coffee I've had up until now has been decent as it has been plunger coffee and that is typically OK if you use enough coffee and it is fresh enough.  This morning it was barista made and the barista was not very competant.  For breakfast I had eggs benedict but with smoked salmon instead of ham.  For some reason, the chef decided to season this with a good sprinkle of sea salt. That seasoning, along with the saltiness of the smoked salmon, made it all Not Very Good.

 

I had lunch here in St Bees at a seaside cafe.  I had the quiche of the day with chips and salad.  I didn't ask what the flavour of the quiche was.  It wouldn't have mattered if I did, because whatever they told me would have been a lie.  It just tasted like a massive hunk of baked eggs.  All in all, very Dull.

 

We all had dinner together in the hotel.  All meals are included in our tour price.  We were told we could have all 3 courses if we wanted, but we all just opted for mains which provided to be wise.  The servings were massive.  I began as I mean to go on and had the pie, but with mash, rather than chips.  It was Harmless.  Paul ordered the lamb chop and got 3 huge ones along with mash and peas.  Aaron ordered the steak and chips but asked them to leave off the extra trimmings.  When they brought it out they had omitted the mushrooms but still included grilled tomatoes (a whole branch (?) of cherry tomatoes) and a bowl full of onion rings.

 

After dinner we eventually levered ourselves up from the table and went outside to watch the sun go down.  Tomorrow we will climb up this headland, gratuitously heading a good way west and north before finally heading east towards the opposite coast.  Tomorrow is a middling day.  The distance is 22km but only one significant climb - right towards the end of course.

 

 

Day 6 - Carlisle

Distance Walked: 7km, Time Taken: Didn't Bother Measuring, # Beers: 1 bottle Cobra beer

As today is Sunday, and the sparse train-bus links to Hadrian's Wall are even sparser than normal, I just spent the day ambling around Carlisle.  I particularly wanted to visit this city as a favourite book series of mine is the Sir Robert Carey books by PF Chisholm.  He was a real person.  The grandson of Mary Boleyn, and if the rumours were true, also of King Henry VIII.  Mary was his mistress before Anne appeared on the scene.  The English-Scottish border at that time made the American Wild West seem tame.  Sir Robert was made Deputy Warden of the West March and was sent here to try bring peace and the rule of law to the border.  The books are loosely based on his life and are excellent.

I spent the morning wandering around Carlisle Castle.  This is where he was based so I had fun comparing what exists now with what would have been there in his time.  Sadly, the tower he had his rooms in has been demolished.  I tried to buy some souvenirs about the Border Reivers and that time in Carlisle's history in the Castle shop but there was nothing.  For some reason they don't want to dwell on that part of their history.  Plenty of stuff about Roman times and the Wall of course.

For lunch I went to the Cumbria Roast Company.  Here I got a Yorkshire pudding, that served as a plate, and was filled with a roast meal with all the trimmings.  It is Sunday after all.   A thoroughly Harmless meal.

After lunch, I visited the cathedral.  There was a vicar/parson/religious person right by the entrance.  He was handing out laminated guides to the cathedral and he made of point of showing all the possible places you could make a donation to its upkeep.  After suitable admiring the ceiling and stained glass windows (both spectacular) I waited until he was busy showing a group of people something off to one side, stuck my laminated sheet back on his pile and slunk out the door - without donating.

I then took refuge in a bookshop with an attached cafe and spent a pleasant hour or so browsing among the books before having a pot of tea and a slice of cake (sadly stale).  I had planned to do more roaming around the streets admiring the historical architecture but it had been grey and drizzly all day, so I gave up and took refuge back at my hotel.  At which point the clouds cleared and the temperature increased.  Grr.

One thing I did notice was the large number of op shops (I counted almost a dozen) and the number of empty shops.  All of which suggests the economy is not good here in the north and perhaps in the UK as a whole.

After finally finding decent Italian food in Cumbria, I decided not to push my luck any further and settled for a traditional English meal tonight.  That is, I went out for a curry at the Masala Bazaar.  I had the lamb biryani, which I foolishly ordered at the normal level of spiciness.  They did offer to make it mild but I was too proud.  Fortunately it came with raita and I also ordered a beer so I survived.  I further cooled my mouth with a dessert called matka, which was kulfi flavoured with saffron and cardamon and topped with chopped pistachios.  All in all a perfectly Harmless meal.

 

While I was eating I got to see some dining habits of couples.  One young couple spent all their time while waiting for their food on their phones, not looking at each other, never mind speaking.  They appeared to be on a date.  When the food arrived the woman accidentally dropped her fork on the floor.  She picked it up, handed it to her boyfriend and helped herself to his clean fork.  He gave her fork a quick rub with his fingers and then ate his dinner.  A middle-aged couple also ignored each other.  They insisted on being seated at a table for 4 rather than one for 2.  They then sat side-by-side, not speaking.  He managed to get through 3 pints of beer by the time they finished their entrees.  She did speak to him briefly when he ordered the 3rd pint, trying to talk him out of it, but he ignored her.  If I want to be ignored, I'll just get myself another cat.

Day 5 - Housesteads

Distance Walked: 9.3km, Time Taken: 2h 30m, # Times Went Astray: 0, # Beers: None but 1 small glass red wine

Today I did the bus-train shuffle again but this time I went to Housesteads Roman Fort which is actually part of Hadrian's Wall.  Vindolanda, yesterday, was about 2km south of the wall.  I've decided I've "done" Hadrian's Wall now.  I had planned to walk the whole route from Newcastle to Bowness-on-Solway but the wall is actually out in the countryside a good 1 or 2km from anywhere.  To get to a B&B for each night would involve either long walks or lifts to villages, which I don't like.  Also, most of the wall is either in poor repair or just doesn't exist any more.  I walked the best bits yesterday, so I think I'll just tick this off as done.

 

 

 

Today is a Saturday and the Hadrian's Wall tourist bus was busy.  Yesterday, there were only a handful of us.  Today it was standing room only.  At one point, on a steep, narrow uphill road, we had to stop to give way to a car coming down.  The engine really struggled to get us moving again.  I was wondering if we were going to have to get out and push.  If we did, how on earth would we get back on?

The bus ride was a fun experience.  At each stop there were so many tourists who didn't know which bus they wanted or which ticket they wanted or where they wanted to get off or some combination of all 3, each stop took a long time.  The driver tried to make up for it by going flat out on the narrow country roads between each stop.  You wouldn't have wanted to be prone to car sickness.

I got to Housesteads Roman Fort around 10:30am and first went for a hike along the Wall to the east until I got to a beacon and then back west on the northern (barbarian) side of the wall.  You can see how imposing a barrier it must have been with that line of wall across the hill tops.  And the wall in Hadrian's time was much higher.  Many of the stones have been souvenired to build other walls or structures over the years.

The wall itself follows the rise and fall of the hill tops, so lots of steps.  Fortunately, the average Roman wasn't much taller than me so it wasn't too bad.  Practice for the hills in the Lake District next week.  I also discovered today why the Coast-to-Coast walk goes from the west to the east.   The prevailing winds here are south-westerlies.  Today's weather wasn't nearly as pleasant as yesterday's.  It was cloudy and drizzled on and off.  Never enough to make you need to break out the waterproofs at least.  However, it was windy and the wind picked up in the afternoon.

I got back to Housesteads fort around 1pm and had a quick scamper around the site itself.  I didn't explore it as much as I had planned as I was just too cold.  Instead, I took refuge in the museum and then the cafe where I had a Dull cream tea (scone was stale).   

I caught the 2nd last bus of the day back to Haltwhistle railway station. I was the only person waiting at the Housesteads stop and the bus was only half full.  I don't know if everyone else were hardier souls who were planning to make a full day of it and catch the last bus back, or else pikers who had already called it quits.

The bus-train schedules don't match up well, but when I got to the railway station, the train that was supposed to have been through 5 minutes earlier was just arriving so I hopped on.  I had a ticket for the next train but it wasn't for another 45 minutes and I didn't want to wait.  I took the chance there wouldn't be a ticket inspector this close to the end of the journey.  There hadn't been one yesterday.  Of course, there was today but he chose to be kind and just scold me rather than fine me (it is a 100 pound fine!).

Carlisle on a Saturday night is loud.  Just down the road from my hotel are two pubs, across the road from each other.  They are holding duelling karaoke competitions, indoors.  You can hear them both from down the block.  At the restaurant where I had dinner tonight there was a party of women on a girls night out.  They were very cheerful.  So much so, I had to shout my order to the waiter.

I went to a Sardinian-Italian restaurant tonight called SannaS.  I finally got to eat good food.  To begin with I had a traditional Sardinian dish called pane fattau.  It was described as a traditional thin bread topped with a paste made from tomatoes, parmesan cheese and garlic.  I was imagining crispy bread with a thin smear of a tasty paste, but got mostly paste/sauce with some pieces of once-crispy bread in it.  Harmless and apparently the traditional way to serve it.  For main I had a pasta called malloreddus campidanese which is a traditional shaped pasta with a sauce made from spicy sausage, tomato, garlic and cream.  This definitely rated You Can Eat It.  The right amount of sauce on properly cooked pasta.  The only drawback was the serving size.  It was huge, twice as large as it needed to be.  I wasn't able to test their tiramisu, but from the look of it (someone at a nearby table ordered it) I don't think they got the cream-to-biscuit ratio right, so perhaps it was for the best.