about 1:15 at Black Sail Hostel for lunch. It was a beautiful place. A bunch of mountain bikers came. We heard that you could get wine/beer and curry dinner if you stayed there. We really didn't believe it because it was out in the middle of nowhere.
I took off my shoes and socks. It felt so good. They felt so tired and sore. I had a nice rest and unfortunately, we had to more on.
The next section was very difficult. First of all, because we had a hard time finding the corrert trail and we got separated from Richard and slo because it wasw so steep.
Richard had gone ahead of us and Laurie and I felt we were on the wrong trail. Especially when we saw others going a different way. Laurie and I turned around. Richard saw us turn around, but we never saw him follow us. Laurie and I were both worried that we wouldn't meet up again.
We eventually did, but it was about three hours later. My feet were hurting from the rocks. I felt blisters on the tops od my toes. I didn't want to go too much further. We found a hostel, but they didn't offer camping. They suggested a place up the street. We were able to call to see if we could camp. They said there was no problem. We didn't et to the campsite until about 6:00. It was a long day. We were suppose to do about 14 miles and we only did 13. I had forgotten how tough it is to carry all that weight on my back. Tomorrow we are suppose to do 17 miles and it is even a tougher climb. We might split it up in two days. We want to break our bodies into this slowly.
I cooked my dinner. It was a nice night out but when the sun went down it got cool and the midges came out. I promptly crawled into my tent. I hate biting insects.
I have kids outside my tent playing bocci ball. They are a little loud and they have hit my tent with the balls. Hopefully they will go to bed soon. I want to sleep. That is one thing about it being so light out, you think it is earlier than it is. Well, I am going to try to sleep.
June 29, 2003
We started walking about 7:45. The weather was good. We had a good climb up. Richard and Laurie were ready to call the pack horse service. It really isn't a pack horse. It is called that. The service brings your stuff from place to place. We are the only ones that are doing the coast to coast carrying large packs. Some people are going to B & Bs and don't have the tents, sleeping bags, cooking gear, and food that we have. The only thing is, the B & Bs are expensive for our pocketbooks. Our tenting last night only cost 4 pounds as opposed to 20-22 pounds for a B & B. That comes out to 36-50 US dollars per person. The rate on the dollar gets worse day by day.
The trail has been really frustrating to follow. We have two books and one map and we still can't find our way. Besides the trails not being marked, the trail seems to disappear. We have been lucky that people have come by and helped us. I feel like I am not enjoying the scenery because I spend so much time reading the book and looking at the map. Then once you get going you just want to move. I did get a chance to enjoy some of the scenery and it is beautiful.
All of us are feeling tired and sore. The book wanted us to do 17 miles, but we weren't up to it. We did nine miles. We are in Grashmere and are staying at a great youth hostel. It serves dinner and breakfast for a small fee. We decided to go for it. For dinner we had a choice of chicken or roast beef. The meal was delicious and was topped off by Sticky Toffee Pudding with cream. Here I was thinking I would lose weight on this hike. The hostel has beautiful grounds and the inside is nice with large comfortable sitting rooms. It must have been someone's house preiously. It looks it anyways.
We walked into town before dinner to check out the village. It was the biggest village that we have been in so far since we have been hiking. It was a cute little village with lots of B & B's.
June 30, 2003
We had the hostel breakfast. Laurie and Richard had the English breakfast. I had the "healthy choice" of jogurt, fruit, roll, and cereal. We ate with Andy, a man that we met last night. He is out hiking for eleven days. He has done the coast to coast previously. He was heading out the way we were so he helped us to a certain point.
We got on the path after a road walk. From the distance I could hear what sounded like a mob of people rioting. Of course that is not what it was. It was a mob of sheep. Two men and about five dogs were shepherding the mob of sheep down the mountain pver a foot bridge to another pasture. We had to wait for them to get through. The sheep were bottlenecked at the footbridge and a few tried to get away. The dogs would chase them back. Some sheep would keep trying to get away. The men carried crooks and would hook the sheep and carry it back. Now all the sheep were in the low pasture. There were two routes up the mountain; the high route and the low route. All the sheep were on the low route so we took the high route, which was harder.
As we climbed up it got very windy. It looked like it was going to rain so I stopped to put on my pack cover and my raincoat. On top it was windy and cold with sprinkles. From there Andy went off in another direction and he pointed out where we were to go and it was all downhill. The majority of the day we were out in the open. The rain came down harder. Good thing it was a short day. We only did eight miles.
We got in to Pattendale Youth Hostel about 1:30. We opted for the hostel instead of camping in the rain. It gives us a place to hang out when it rains.
We walked up to the store to pick something up for lunch. I could smell fresh bread when I went in. There were loaves out so I picked up a loaf. I also picked up a can of chili for lunch.
After lunch I laid down for awhile. There is a school group here so it is a little noisy.
I met a guy last night from England. He was in the TV room repairing his torn map. He and his friend were also doing the coast to coast. His friend had gone to the pub where Laurie was and they met. We both were talking to them about the tail and the hiking. They also have had troubles finding their way.
