We were woken at 6:20am
by the sound of heavy rain and water overflowing from the gutters and crashing
down outside our window, not the nicest of wakeup calls, but a wakeup call all
the same. I got up and started to prepare our things for the day, packing all
the bits and bobs away and made us both a cup of tea.
We headed down for
breakfast at 7:30am with our bags now ready to go upstairs. We sat chatting to
Ian and Charles over breakfast, and met a lady called Wendy who was walking her
second C2C on her own whilst also camping much of the way, only upgrading to
the bunkhouse (also available at New Ing) due to the poor weather
conditions.
After breakfast we
got our boots on (mine were still a bit wet from yesterday) and hit the road,
destination Kirkby Stephen. As we walked through the village there was a bit of
a C2C parade, Ian and Charles, Dave and Val, (orange and green coat) and some
other familiar faces all heading for the M6 foot bridge.
The rain had stopped,
however it was very wet underfoot we headed out across Hardendale Nab past the
stone circle (which we didn’t stop to see on this long and weather threatened
day). As we walked along our attention was continually drawn to fine views of
the Lake District skyline, Kidsty Pike from yesterdays walk looking surprisingly
far away, and also towards the Shap fells. Amongst the fine views, pockets of
rain showers were also visible which would continue to pester us all day.
We pressed on past
Orton, through sties, gates and walls meeting various farm animals along the
way, including some lovely small ponies we stopped for a chat with, before
stopping for lunch perched on a dry stone wall near Sunbiggin Tarn.
Looking back we’d
lost sight of the other C2C walkers we’d set off with earlier that day, given
the weather and the 20 miles we had to cover we had a good pace about us,
although not quite as good as the Australian who always headed off first thing.
We pressed on past
Orton, over Ravenstondale moor (where navigation needs to be watched closely!)
before eventually arriving at Smardale Bridge and started picking up the first
signs for Kirkby Stephen. Today just seemed to go on forever, whether it was
the Lake District or the weather taking its toll on the legs, or perhaps the
anti climax in views after leaving Lakeland, or maybe the anticipation of
arriving in our first town “cash machines, shops, launderette, food and beer”
we didn’t know, but it went on and on and on.
Frustration began to
set in for me as the heavens opened once again, and once again the water proofs
were on, and once I had them on, it stopped and.........you get the picture, on
off, on off and so on.......... After a little throwing about of my rucksack,
along with some colourful language aimed at the weather, we regained composure
and pressed on the final few miles which seemed like 100.
We eventually
arrived in Kirkby Stephen at about 17:45, suitably dishevelled, very muddy and tired.
As we checked in to the Black Bull Hotel we walked in to a pretty rowdy bar
area to confirm our booking, we were of course asked to remove muddy footwear
which I was happy to do.
After a brief chat
with two blokes who were walking C2C (who would become Tony & Peter) who
had walked from Orton that day we headed up to get organised. Sarah quickly
gathered the dirty clothes, including our waterproof pants which looked like
they’d been dug up and headed off to the laundrette.
I had a much needed
shower, which felt like the best shower I’d ever had after today’s efforts. In
fact, the rooms at the Black Bull are really nice and good value for money; we
even had a jar of complementary jelly babies in our room, and a TV which is not
as common as one might think on the C2C route.
Once Sarah returned
she got showered and changed and after quick brew we headed out to buy some
lunch for tomorrow, collect our laundry and get something to eat. After sorting
lunch and the laundry we headed for the Kings Head Pub over the road. We’d
remembered this from our C2C a couple of years back being a really nice pub
with good atmosphere for C2C walkers. However, when we walked in it was like
something out of a western film . . . .empty, with the exception of a dog and
one or two locals looking at us like we were aliens. The best thing about the
place was the beer, Spitfire ale on draft, very nice!
After the further
disappointment of discovering they now didn’t do food due to kitchen
renovations we drank up and went in search of a meal, following our noses to a
Chinese restaurant, which turned out to be really nice.
After our meal we
retraced our steps, bumping in to the Australian, who was soaking up the Kirkby
Stephen nightlife, which didn’t take long. We called back at the Kings Head for
another nice but awkward pint of Spitfire, before going back to the Black Bull,
where we should have stayed in fairness, as the food looked really nice and
they had Wainwright Ale on draft.
We headed to bed
about 9:45pm, and watched the weather on our intermittently working TV, which,
guess what...said the weather was not only improving but getting warm, dry and
sunny later in the week!
And another long day
complete, we fell asleep dreaming of a day’s walking without waterproofs, and
maybe even wearing our sunhats and sun cream, imagine that................
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