C2C Day 8 - July 21 - Keld to Reeth - 12 Miles

We woke up to sunshine and beautiful blue skies and a gorgeous view of Swaledale from our room at Keld Lodge. We must be getting better at this since a 12 mile walk felt like a light day (we did take the low level valley route). We are now in the Yorkshire Dales National Park and the scenery has changed once more. Lush green rolling hills, meadow land, farms with stone barns, miles of stone fencing and the beautiful Swale River which we were never far from all day. It is a very dark brown/reddish colour due to the peaty soil in this area. Had a great lunch at the Punch Bowl Inn in Low Brow, a small village of 20 or so buildings where we watched the cows meander down the road at their leisure. We arrived early in Reeth, checked in to The Cambridge House Country Inn and updated our Blog. Now we are off to one of three pubs in town for dinner and a pint (or two)!

East Gill Force, Keld

Swaledale (Swale Valley)

Swaledale

Peter going through one of many squeeze stiles

Swale RiverThe village of Gunnerside
Lunch at the Punch Bowl Inn

C2C Day 7 - July 20 - Kirkby Stephen to Keld - 12 Miles

You've probably noticed that our posts have become shorter and less detailed. There are two reasons for this 1) we've had to rely on the generosity of our B&B hosts and since it takes a fair bit of time to upload pictures, etc. we've tried to keep it short and 2) exhaustion after a long day of walking! As well, we have only been uploading the pictures from Francine's camera. Peter's photos (larger files to upload) will come later.
Today was a welcome break at only 12 miles. We hiked up to Nine Standards Rigg which is the so called watershed of England (water flows either west to the Irish Sea or east to the North Sea - sort of like a continental divide). However, crossing miles of boggy, peaty moors (hilly swamps in a barren landscape), we felt like all of the water was simply staying up there. Worst day for the boots yet! This was the first day that we had no rain but the wind on top was biting and cold. We walked today's whole section with Sean, our new friend from Northern Ireland, and the conversation enriched the day. Arriving in Keld, we had a pint at our B&B (Keld Lodge), to celebrate reaching the half-way point!
Some Observations:

• Peter has a couple of blisters but is keeping them in check with second skin and blister pads.
• Francine's scraped knees (from a day 2 tumble) is healing well.
• We must be burning off the calories because we have been polishing off pretty significant evening meals.
• Sticky Toffee pudding is our new favourite desert.
• Our boots are looking quite disgusting at this point - thank goodness for drying rooms found at most places that we have stayed at.
• Initially we tried to avoid sheep/cow droppings, now we just don't care!
• Peter now knows how to recognize stinging nettles (a weed), after a major encounter led to a sleepness night of burning legs!
• The black slugs found everywhere are huge!
• Days are incredibly long. Sunrise is at 5:00 AM and it is still light out long after we go to bed at 10:00PM.
• We go to bed every night exhausted and sleep like babies.
• This is by far the most challenging thing that we have ever done and we are loving every minute of it!

Note to Barry and Jane - re: Roys, our middle names are Thomas and Lynne.
Note to Pat - The Lake district fells make the Boulder Flatirons look like child's play!
Note to Louis and Lise - you would love Geo-caching along this route.

Thanks to all of you for your comments. They help keep us motivated.

Kirkby Stephen

Nine Standards Rigg

Sean and Peter

Peat bogs everywhere - a real challenge to negotiate

Moorland

Near Ravenseat Farm

One of many stone barns used to store hay and shelter cattle and sheep