Day 15 Danby-Wiske to Osmotherley This was supposed to be one of our short days of only 10 miles. I was quite happy until mile 10. Anyway back to the start. Our LITTLE room at the White Swan has one window about 15X18 inches in the ceiling and the bathroom was down a hall and down a set of stairs. That didn’t work well when I had to go at 3 am. I usually have a limited amount of time to make my way to the bathroom on a straight route but this one was tricky (I did make it or would have if the unthoughtful male before me had put the seat down). Anyway we didn’t need to set our alarm as we could hear everyone’s door opening as closing as they went off to ... read more

Day 13 Richmond So nice to sleep in and put on real clothes instead of our layered walking gear. You begin to feel human right away. We had the best breakfast yet and that is something because we have had quite the spreads lately. Choice of 6 cereals with nuts, dried fruit, fresh berries, kiwi, oranges, grapefruit, spice selection, juices, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, toast, croissants and scones. Then you order your hot food off the menu. I had the best porridge ever (made with cream and stirred continually for 6 minutes). I almost need to be forced to walk just to roll off the chair and stop eating. We said good-bye to Simon and Jane and as they headed off the rain stopped. It was a cool day but mostly sunny. Off to the surgery ... read more

Day 6 Grasmere to Patterdale First off, my apologies on the frail old lady remark earlier. Today a group passed us several times (they would stop for snacks or pees or pictures and then overtake us again). There was a Park Ranger as leader and the last person of the nine was keeping them on pace and watching out for laggers. She was at least 70 and cheery as anything. This was a tortoise and hare episode where the hares definitely won. At breakfast we took our time as the walk was not supposed to take long. Already you know that it was long just by me saying that. We put on our rain pants, gaiters, rain hat, and rain gloves. We spent a long time trying to get rain proofed. Didn’t help. We started walking ... read more

Day 4 Stonewaithe to Grasmere I was all hepped up for a nice easy day. At breakfast our white-haired little landlady with a frozen shoulder said the day was an easy one. “It’s just an 8 mile zigzaggy stroll through the hill and I’ve done it many, many times. You’ll have no trouble finding your way just stay right when you get to the top.” Again my ears are not picking up ALERT words like ‘top’. We started out early and didn’t bother with a packed lunch since it was only 8 miles and we have been averaging around 2 mph on the normal walks (in town, mall type). The first mile wasn’t bad and the day was overcast but not on the mountain tops. We followed along the beck (river) and saw many small waterfalls ... read more

Day 2 Up for a full English breakfast. Humungous. After having starters of cereal, fruit and juice out comes a plate of Cumbrian sausage, bacon, grilled tomato, baked beans and a poached egg - oh and of course all the toast and coffee you want. So far all the English people we meet never have this for breakfast but that is the norm for B&B’s. At 9:00 am we were at the beach where we started yesterday and we waited for the bus which came at 9:07 (exactly as stated on the bus timetable Ross had downloaded from the net). The bus took us to the bus stop we had waited at yesterday in about 10 minutes time. We continued our walk from there. I am so glad we broke up the first part of the ... read more