We packed up and left quickly in the morning as it was beginning to rain.
We are going to wild camp , part way along the trail today, but the wind was cold and fierce so we walked the roads instead. The high route on top of the hills was not the place to be. I am sure Lady Anne would agree.
It was just heads down and keep walking as it was too cold for much else. At about noon and 20km along, we came to a cute row of houses (actually most of the houses here are cute and in rows).
We needed a place to rest and eat our lunch out of the wind so we went around the back and spied a bench seat that looked perfect. A lady came out and I tried my best at getting her to give us a ride into town by commenting on how windy and wet it was and how we were very cold and wouldn’t be able to camp, so had another 15km of road walking to do.
Wrong lady! She was a tough old bird, a long-distance winter lake swimmer. Needless to say, she gave us no sympathy, so we went on our way.
So when we returned to the road, I put my thumb out, and the second car picked us up. Who told us that no one would pick up hitch hikers in UK?
The driver was a young woman, on the way to the dentist, who told us she had ADHD and she drove way too fast for my liking on the narrow winding roads. It will be Kay’s turn in the front next time!
We couldn’t complain as she took us all the way to Kirby Stephens which would have been another days walk for us. We were able to change our hostel booking, which was good. It took 3 different showers in 3 different bathrooms before I was able to get hot water but I was soon clean, dry and warm again. We are supposed to be in the height of English summer!!
We regularly came across book exchanges and defibrillators, sometimes together.
We went to the next door chippy to buy our dinner. A piece of fish and chips was £9.50, about $20 NZD so I had a battered sausage and a fish cake and chips for £7.50 about $15 NZD Not a cheap meal. Actually, nothing is cheap here. I would say everything costs more than in NZ. They are all hurting economically here, too.
Kirkby Stephen is at the criss roads of the Coast to Coast walk and cycle trail, so their were other walkers and cyclists at the hostel. We gavent met any others walking (Lady Anne’s Way.
The ones who talked to us were a “bit different,” to say the least. I know that we are unusual in that we are carrying our own gear and tents, but I don’t consider us to be “a bit different.” You may disagree.
