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.
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