Day 10 - Keld to Reeth

It was sitting on the seat behind the church at Keld and looking at the trail going down the valley that really intrigued me enough to consider doing the Coast to Coast walk. Today I would walk down that valley.

As usual, here is a link to the map.

Looking back up to the church and the seat.

It is possible to take a high route to Reeth but I chose the low route which headed right south of the stream at the bottom of the valley. I think there is actually more to see at lower elevations. Yes, you get great views if you are on the mountain top but once you've done a lot of mountain top, you are more than ready for some valley walking.

You can see the other path heading up into the hills.

 The path was quite rocky in parts. My new sandals coped well with the rocks and they have been a joy to walk in.

Today was no where near as nice as the day before. It was overcast with strong cold breeze from the north east. I wore my green rain jacket since the forecast called for possible rain later in the day and that evening.

Even some of the sheep were cowering in a hut.

The creek at the bottom of the valley. Fortunately there had not been much rain in the last few days. I suspect it could be a raging torrent at times.

Inside on of the old semi demolished huts.

I don't know how they get this mown look to the grass. Maybe they do have a mower. All I can say was that it was lovely to walk on.

The guide book mentions that this part of the walk has narrow openings to pass through the stone fences. Some of them caused me a little trouble and I was wondering how some really fat Americans could get stuck. But then again, big fat Americans would not be doing this walk.

Looking back to a muddy area I had crossed. Usually there are enough dry stones that you can use to cross without getting your shoes wet.

I noticed the nice looking wide path on the other side which looked a lot better than the rocky trail I was using. Somehow I must have missed a turn. 

Another of these narrow openings. To complicate things, there is a gate as well.

Eventually there was a very narrow bridge to the north side of the stream.

Of course the lovely wide path disappeared after I crossed over and the rocky path climbed up into some hills overlooking the valley. Since I have been doing so much climbing in the past ten days, these inclines don't bother me too much.

The audience for a nearby rooster who was having a good time doing the old cockle-doodle-do routine.

I was intrigued how obviously modern windows had transformed the look of this old stone building.

It turns out that the couple you can see in the distance are staying at the same B and B as I am. They arrived a bit after I did and we sat around talking for a while while drinking our welcoming pots of tea.

Why anyone would want to climb this electricity pole in the first place is beyond me. That certainly is ferocious looking protection.

Scaffolding on what looks to be a lovely  bridge.

Yes, I sat for a few minutes to check where I was and to have a drink of water. 

The path really started to climb now. While I had seen quite a few other walkers beforehand, now I saw none for quite a distance.

I was intrigued by the pattern of the stone wall on the other side. Why was it this shape?

Commemorative seat in the village of Gunnerside.

Now the path climbed even higher as I left Gunnerside.

The clouds seemed to get lower but fortunately it did not rain.

It was quite windy up here. I remembered at the breakfast table some of the walkers speculating that they might wear shorts today. I was glad I was was wearing long pants. I have worn shorts on a couple of the better days but I also have worn them on rainy days when I know I will be putting on the long rain pants.

This is actually classed as a moor according to the guide map.

Eventually I came to the end of the long exposed section. Civilization appeared in the shape of an empty car.

A little forest. Presumably these hill sides were all covered in trees at one time.

Blue bells in abundance.

The hedge had been pruned.

A welcome sign. Reeth only a mile and a half away. Just half of my regular training walk at home.

I could have walked down by the stream but I chose to stay on the road since that route was shorter.

I presume that the adult sheep shed their wool at this time of year because that is the rattiest wool coat I have ever seen. There were other sheep in almost as bad condition.

A suspension bridge for pedestrians. I now wished I had taken the longer route down by the river so that I could have examined it more closely.

The outskirts of Reeth.

Buildings fronting the village green. I am thinking of going to this pub for dinner in a few minutes.

It was a bank holiday Monday and the English were out there enjoying themselves even if it was starting to rain a little. They were playing horse shoes.

An Alvis and a Morris. The Alvis had a duck tail.

Finally, the B and B where I received a warm welcome.

If you were ever thinking of doing the Coast to Coast walk, this might be a good section to do to see if you like doing this sort of thing. It's mostly pretty easy in comparison to some of the hard parts in Cumbria, but you can get a taste of what it is like.

So I went to the Black Bull for dinner and these were the specials. Not bad for a pub. As I went down the list I kept thinking that I would have that and then I would change my mind again when I read the next item.

So I ordered the last item on the list, the lamb sausage with the giant Yorkshire pudding. Feeling rather healthy I was thinking of picking a salad to go with it but the bloke behind the counter told me I would need vegies to soak up the gravy. It was all really good.