Day 6 - Plumbing the depths of Nine Standards bogs

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18km - Kirky Stephen to Keld -

Nothing like a full English breakfast to get motivated and it stopped raining! Ying is back, though not completely convinced she has taken the right decision... until I sink in a bog up to my knees and crawl back out on all fours, she wouldn't have missed that for all the tea in China ;-)
After Nine Standard Riggs with its 9 raised cairns, very atmospheric in the fog , we head for Ravenseat, make good progress and are in Keld shortly after 2pm. I am in such a state, the field where to camp doesn't look like much and anyway Keld is MID WAY between the Irish Sea and the North Sea, so let's celebrate! We book into East View, a very cosy B&B, where Margaret makes us feel very welcome, doesn't even seem to mind the state of me and serves us tea and homemade biscuits. At dinner we meet Ken and Janet, a couple from Peterborough doing the Coast2Coast East to West, so we exchange tips on the places we've been to, around a delicious Shepherd's Pie and a Rhubarb Sponge cake. We enjoy every minute of this luxury and Ying even goes to bed at 8pm to make the most of having a bed! Making me feel again slightly like a bully... I sit a bit longer talking to Margaret, and this quiet night reminds me a lot of this Summer many years ago in Cordes-sur-Ciel in France, the stone houses, the hospitality, the good food, the river running at the bottom of the garden, so mellow...

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