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.
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