13.26 miles in 6 hours 46 minutes…
Today I deviated a bit from the track. “A bit” is an understatement. I took a side trip to Muker, a cute little town with a wool shop and a small town store where you can get tea and dessert if you desire. The fields of Muker are full of wild flowers that are absolutely amazing! I spent a lot of time taking pictures there. I never really made it back to the trail, I followed a different trail along the creek for most of the afternoon with a brief bit on the road. The roads here make me nervous, they are super narrow and windy and people seem to drive really fast. I added 2 miles to the trail today, oops.
While on my altered course, I ran into some wildlife. First I encountered a family of weasels, one adult and 3 juveniles. They were really fun to watch, chirping and playing around a bunch of rocks. Later in the day a lamb ran right up to me, sniffed the air and then squared and peed about 4 feet in front of me. That was quite weird behavior for a lamb. Usually they startle and run away anytime a human is close by. Finally, I watched two beautiful black and white cattle dogs rounding up a herd of sheep and moving them from one area to another. They were pretty impressive.
I had dinner at the Copper Kettle in Reeth, just sweet potato and squash soup and bread. I needed something a bit lighter today. The food on the trail has been better than I expected, but I have never eaten so many eggs in my life. Scrambled or fried or scrambled on toast in the morning, egg salad sandwich at lunch. I have started trying beans on toast in the morning to skip the traditional eggs. They are not bad actually, nothing I would have thought to have tried in the past, but a nice option.
I stayed at the Buck Hotel in Reeth and I have to say it was the worst accommodation so far on this trip. My room was tiny, smelled of mildew and had very loud plumbing.