Day 7 - Shap to Orton

Today's walk at eight miles and no high hills was the shortest and easiest walk of the whole Coast to Coast. The young and fit combine it into one day with the next stage of 12 miles to Kirkby Stephen.

But first, a few pictures from the Brookfield Guest House at Shap. One of the other guests described it as the perfect B and B of yesteryear. Yes, that is the toilet paper.

The breakfast room with the old chinaware, rose pattern of course. Margaret made me a delicious omelette for breakfast.

The bar. The beer I gratefully gulped down the evening before was a Carlsberg Lager.

The lounge room.  Margaret is absolutely the ideal grand-mothery type of person to look after you when you stagger in from your walk. Highly recommended.

So on to the day's walk and you can see the map here.

First thing is a tunnel under the train line.

Past what looks like a cement factory.

Yes, it had snowed the night before in the mountains to the west of Shap where I had hiked the day before. There would have been no way that I would have walked that section through snow. Even a light dusting would have made some parts of the walk very dangerous.

The temperatures are cooler in this area. Even the daffodils are still lingering on.

A large bridge for walkers.

It crosses the M6, the motorway to Glascow.

There were a few steeper parts but most of the walking was fairly easy.

Occasionally I would see other walkers.

It was easiest to just walk on top of these curiously shaped rocks.

Fifty-three million people live in England. They just don't live here.

Advertising for where I was staying that night.

It started to sleet. Notice the angle at which it is falling.

The village of Orton has some lovely houses and gardens.

Orton also has a chocolate shop called Kennedys. I would say it is more like Bomboys than Chocolarts. No I did not buy any.

If you have looked at the map you can see I detoured down from the trail to visit Orton. As I walked up to Scar Side Farm, it suddenly started to pour with sleet. My trusty orange umbrella came to the rescue.

When I arrived at the farm with sleet falling all around me I could see two people huddled in this tent drinking something. I was greeted by the proprietress who welcomed me and asked if I would prefer to have my welcoming pot of tea inside or out in the tent! Hmmmm, what a choice.

If you ever start thinking about doing the Coast to Coast walk, this short version should give you a taste of what it is like. Orton is worth a visit and the Silver Yard Cafe is supposed to be a lovely tea shop. I walked past it but other hikers said it had a marvelous selection of pastries.