Coast to Coast day 6: Shap to Kirby Stephen

Overnight it started to rain. we had been lucky with the weather so just suited up in our wet weather gear and trudge off at 8:30am, fortunately after a substantial breakfast.

Once again I had maintained a relatively light pack although still much heavier than most. I won't put Thingy in our transferred luggage so have no choice but to carry it.

Today was a 20 mile walk. That's 32km for us Aussies. The elevation gain was supposedly a mere 150m ... yes, and the rest. I keep being surprised at just how inaccurate the elevation gains have been. They only seem to consider the significant climbs and completely ignore all the rest.

A granite factory that we paased near ... belching out smoke

The persistant drizzle tended to block out much of the scenery except for the sheep and cattle. Sheep must be the shitiest animals on the planet if our experience over the past few days is any indication.

Today we left the Lake District and entered Yorkshire. We had a change of rocks, too, although I'm not all that keen on the limestone that appeared with gay abandon along our path. Much of our walk was across farmland, hence the sheep dropping problem. With the constant rain it became increasingly wet underfoot. By the time we arrived at our overnight acommodatiohn in Kirby Stephen, The Jolly Farmer Guest House, we were a very wet and bedraggled lot indeed.

As our route carefully avoids almost all points of civilisation we were really challenged to find places where we could releive ourselves. The men certainly had it better than the women. In the late morning we were fortunate to pass a farm that offered hot drinks. There was no way that the group was going to pass up such an opportunity and then we discovered that it came with a toilet!

We ate our lunch huddled against a stone fence that provided some protection from the wind.

Lorraine, after a call of nature, accompanied by our guide Dave, trudging up a slope attempting to catch up with the rest of the group.

 32km is a long way to walk in the rain when it is muddy or sluggy underfoot for much of the time.

When we arrived at the Jolly Farmer we were greeted with "off with the wet things first then upstairs to have a shower then back downstairs for a cup of tea". The tea was accompanied by scones and fruit cake. A very warm welcome after quite a miserable day. Hopefully in the morning our boots and wet weather gear will be dry.

Todays photos were very lean as I did not take any and Trevor took just the two that I have included.

During the course of the day wehad passed through numerous gates all with unique fastening methods. No two were the same!

We also negotiated quite a few stiles. Some of these were challenging in the wet.

Distance today: 32km. Elevation gain: 746m (much more than the expected 150m!!!)