We had a great Breakfast at the nice B&B Fletcher’s House which set us up for the day. We set off at 08:45 for our walk to Keld which we were both a little apprehensive about given the forecast, so it was water proofs on and off we set. There are 3 routes over to Keld and we opted for the green route which is recommended in poor conditions, this unfortunately meant we would miss the nice standards rigg today.
As we left Kirkby Stephen we started to climb up past the quarry up Hartley Fell, as we did the wind and rain began to become more aggressive to the point where we took shelter behind a dry stone wall, and we were both becoming more concerned not only for safety but navigation as we had not seen any other walkers at all so far this morning which was unusual for the coast to coast route. But we pressed on after Sarah had somehow managed to have a cigarette to calm the nerves in possibly the wettest conditions outside the sea! We had someway to go and had to climb to 1600ft before the green route would descend to the B6270 road, as we trudged on we noticed two figures walking behind us, relief, as I could just make out it was Joyce and John, we were quite pleased that we were no longer alone in what could be best described as hellish conditions, and I had more confidence in my navigation skills once again.
The four of us continued checking our maps regular as to get lost in these conditions were not something we wanted to contemplate. As we finally found the B6270 road we knew we could follow this all the way to Keld, so soaked right though to our smalls that’s what we did, by this time the wind was so strong the rain was hurting our skin through our coats as walked.
We descended in to Keld for 14:30, with no picture taking, or stopping for lunch we’d actually made really good time. We arrived at Park House Bunk House and Heather who ran the bunk was really nice and made us feel welcome showed us round, it was heaven, lovely bedrooms to ourselves, the best drying room ever, they did food and they even had a licence to sell alcohol………..result. And even better we were sharing the living area with Martin, Kerry, Sharon and Paul so had great company also. After a tea of chip buttie for Sarah and chillie con carne for me we spent the night sharing stories of the horror weather we’d all walked through that day, but walk through we did, unless your Sharon and ran it!!
And here we were in Keld day 6 done, and now half way. Sharon noticed my limp from my knee and offered to help, this involved the “rolling of my IT band” lets just say it worked, but it was pain on a whole new level………
We’d have to say Park House Bunk Keld was our favourite accommodation of the trip, do not miss this place if you walk coast to coast, a real gem.
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| the view from the bunk house |
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