Day 7- Bampton-Orton (15+ miles)

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More true Coast to Coast experiences....first time getting really lost so our mileage is a couple of miles longer than expected. We found ourselves in the middle of beautiful farmland and clearly off track. Despite two compasses and two maps and five brilliant women, we still weren't sure how to get where we wanted to go. We finally turned on one of the women's phone with GPS with an app where she had downloaded waypoints of the C2C route. We then were able to find our way back to the route. Tomorrow we plan to make use of this technology as soon as we question where we are!

A highlight of our walk today was a visit to Shap Abbey.....the original tower from the 13 century still stands at the original height and the ruins still clearly show the rooms. There was a lot going on in the town of Shap today....8000 people were in town for a Warrior competition with several hundred competing in a race through mud, streams, climbing roofs etc.

We arrived in Orton just in time to visit the chocolate factory, which we had read about in the guide books. There were lots of chocolate delicacies but I was more interested in getting to the hotel and getting a hot shower. We had a steady rain and very cool weather for the last hour and a half of our walk. Fortunately the heavy rain held off until after we knew we were headed in the right direction.

We were greeted at our hotel by a woman who took our wet boots and all our wet clothes to a drying room....and then we had a wonderful dinner in the pub in the hotel. Orton is another very tiny town.....our hotel has fewer than 10 rooms and is the only eating establishment in town. All the Coast to Coasters were here for dinner.....though we didn't see any of them while walking today after the first few miles!

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