17.51 miles in 9 hours 45 minutes…
Today was a tough day with a lot of ascent and descent. I fell on a grassy descent, but no worries, my bum survived. Once again, if it was rainy, I probably would have been on my bottom every 15 minutes or so. I can’t even imagine. Today was relatively warm and I ran out of water. I was eyeing the lake and creeks knowing that I had my steripen and iodine tablets, but seeing all the sheep and cow poop around really made me wonder if the steripen and pills would be enough. I decided to wait a bit and luckily there was an honesty box with snacks and drinks next to a stile on the trail. Thomas, a 13 year old boy stocked the honesty box for weary travelers. Thank you Thomas!
We arrived at the Greyhound hotel exhausted and hungry. We had a wonderful meal with Donald from Scotland. He is a 71 y/o man who decided last minute to walk from St Bee’s to Shap because the weather so good. He introduced us to the silicone toe condom for sore toes. Thank you Donald! I had a wonderful beef stew dish. Just what I needed after a tough day of hiking. Rachel ordered what she thought was a beef steak, but it ended up being a pork steak. Oops. I guess she wasn’t paying attention when we looked up what Gammon steak was in Ennerdale Bridge.