Day 5. Patterdale to Shap. 16.93 Miles (68.67)
Time to say " goodbye" to Alan today, as he is heading home, in Sue's car as original plans were changed due to the bad weather yesterday. Andy will now have the job of getting all the girls home safely. We enjoyed our brief stay in the bunkhouse at Noran Farm and our DIY breakfast and the best packed lunch yet.
The weather today was quite cold with the occasional sprinkling of rain, meaning coats on most of the day. I walked in waterproof trousers and gaiters all day.The first part was straightforward with the walk up to Angle Tarn, but we just carried on going up until we bagged Kidsty Pike, the highest point of the entire trek. This took forever, but so did the scramble down to Haweswater, and then the never-ending trudge along the edge of the reservoir up and down crags and all on shingle or through streams. Thinking we now almost there, once we reached the dam, we still had another six miles to go to Shap. The only excitement today was getting my first phone signal for four days!
We were all feeling tired and weary and several of our feet are suffering. Between us we are using every variety of foot care on the market. Personally, only one sore toe which has Compeed and foam on it, but the stones were hurting my left foot. We were passed again by "Frank and Nancy", a couple we first met on the stretch into Grasmere. It turned out they were staying at the same venue as us, when we chatted to them in the pub later. Red squirrels and Golden Eagles were all in hiding, or. We were too busy to see where we were putting our feet to actually spot them.
Today's walk seemed to take forever. It was about half past seven when we finally reached The Hermitage, a 17c house, which would be worth exploring if time and opportunity allowed. We
dumped our bags and hobbled to the nearest pub in search of food of any variety. Liver and bacon
with dumplings and chips followed by rhubarb crumble, washed down by a couple of pints, did the job for me. Shap is not the most desirable of places but has good facilities including a Co-op where we intend to get sandwiches ready for our first twenty mile day tomorrow. Heading back to Kirkby Stephen, where we started.
Accommodation: The Hermitage, Shap. Grade 2 listed, boots taken to be dried...and returned just as wet! Food from local yokel pub in village.
dumped our bags and hobbled to the nearest pub in search of food of any variety. Liver and bacon
with dumplings and chips followed by rhubarb crumble, washed down by a couple of pints, did the job for me. Shap is not the most desirable of places but has good facilities including a Co-op where we intend to get sandwiches ready for our first twenty mile day tomorrow. Heading back to Kirkby Stephen, where we started.
Accommodation: The Hermitage, Shap. Grade 2 listed, boots taken to be dried...and returned just as wet! Food from local yokel pub in village.
Your meal sounds far more appetising than what was on offer at the Summer Ball! I assume you'll still unable to add photos.
ReplyDeleteCan't work out how to add photos and even if I old, they are on my camera. I am not carrying this iPad around with me. Some photos will no out make it to Facebook later.
ReplyDelete