Tuesday April 4 – 18.8 km (158.8 km)
Normal services are resumed after a day with my feet up! I decided blisters on the soles of my feet and the feeling that I may be catching Dan’s lurgy were reasons enough to have a day off. Dan tried valiantly to find a route from Shap to Kirkby Stephen by bus, luckily there was only one bus a day going through Shap and it didn’t go near Kirkby Stephen, so a taxi was my only method of transport. If I required proof that a day off was necessary I didn’t need to wait long as the taxi driver asked me if I had kids, then looked sideways at me and added ‘grown up and left home no doubt?’ before adding insult to injury and asking ‘grand kids?’…I tried to tell myself I simply looked tired and 24 hours off would soon bring back my youthful glow…
This morning I woke invigorated and revived and so we left Kirkby Stephen over Cross Frank’s Bridge with a spring in our step (well me anyway) and shortly afterward passed through the pretty little hamlet of Hartley. We climbed up from there on a quiet country lane so easy on the blistered feet. After an hour or so the Nine Standards appeared on the skyline; we had never heard of these prominent stones piles. As a unit it is known as the Nine Standards Rigg and lies on the watershed of Britain, the north-south divide sending waters one way to the Irish Sea and the other to the North Sea. The history of them isn’t clear but there is one notion that they were built to persuade marauding Scots that an English army was camped up there…seems a bit ridiculous as the stone cairns stand 12ft tall, at least. Anyway whatever the history they look pretty impressive on the skyline. The rest of the day was a pleasant amble across boggy moorland populated with numerous grouse (getting fat for the shooting season 🙁 ) and fields until we arrived at Keld, at around 2:30…we feel like we’ve had a rest day. I stayed here at the Keld Bunk Barn when I did the Pennine Way, with Joanne last July. I booked it again but this time booked a yurt as I thought they looked lovely when I was here before. When I told Dan he asked where the toilets and showers were in relation to the fancy yurt…I had overlooked this detail and so changed the booking back to the bunk barn…we are definitely going soft in our old age and would rather have an ensuite than have to trudge across a field to the nearest facilities!
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