We woke refreshed after a good nights sleep in the youth hostel and had breakfast of cereal for me and yogurt for Sarah, strangely my appetite had not what it normally is for the past day or so.
We set off at 09:15 and called at the Patterdale village store for some lunch and very nice short bread cake first thing. The nice couple who run the store warned us about the wind forecast and advised us of another low level alternative route around Kidsty pike standing at 2559ft & the highest point on the coast to coast it was going to be blowey up there, however we decided to press on over the planned route as it was dry and didn’t want to hang around too long. The views climbing to Kidsty Pike were fantastic back to Patterdale and the rain was holding off, even if the wind was gaining strength as we climbed. We met up with Hayden and Roe as we climbed Kidsty Pike and got to the summit for just after mid day, the highest point on the whole coast to coast walk and a great moment for us, Hayden took a picture of me and Sarah together at the top.
We pressed on as the wind seemed to be getting stronger and staying on our feet was getting more difficult, as we descended down to Haweswater I discovered my first blister starting on the bottom of my foot, but managed to get a compeed on it before it got any worse. As we made the long walk along Haweswater toward Shap the heavens opened and stayed open until we arrived in Shap at 17:30, by this point my knee was really sore and we were both soaked through. We were staying at New Ing lodge in Shap which was really nice, and we were made to feel more than welcome by Scott who was running things there, the fire was roaring away and it was great to dry off and instantly felt better.
We noticed Martin was camping out back with the rest of his team at New Ing lodge, Sharon who was running the coast to coast, Kerry and Paul who was the support driver for their team and Pedro the guide dog. I went out for a quick chat then we headed of for dinner. And as the wind and rain continued we were sure we’d made the right choice to upgrade and had a lovely meal at the Crown Inn in Shap, Steak and Ale pie with chips umm umm ummmm. Martin, Kerry, Sharon and Paul arrived and ate there also, we would recommend the New Ing lodge and the Crown Inn highly, very nice. We also met another nice couple over dinner, Joyce and John, again some new friends we would keep along our journey to Robin Hoods Bay, and we were starting get a real good feel and atmosphere to this walk now
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