DAY SEVEN

We woke in Hawes to find a grey miserable day. We had not drawn the curtains last night and the windows were open as it had been really warm yesterday. 

We stumbled down to breakfast after I had tried to flush the toilet sixteen times and had to open the cictern. My feet and legs were aching so I was thinking to myself this was going to be an awful day, especially knowing that tonight would be spent camping with no pillow or ground mat.

For a brief moment I felt cheery as I realised there was freshly pressed raspberry and apple juice, a welcome change from concentrated orange. We were sat at a table in in the bay window overlooking the garden bursting with agapanthus and lupins. 

For a moment things were looking up especially as I was able to have my egg poached rather than fried, but it was short lived upon pushing the plunger too hard on my over filled cafetiere. I quickly mopped it up and hid the flood of fresh coffee under my placemat which was covered in very bad illustrations of garden herbs. 

After breakfast we quickly departed before the sediment of coffee grains was found on the antique table cloth and they realised Richard had stolen all the butter scotch crunch biscuits.  

Just around the corner we stopped at the bakery. We each choose a pasty and some quiche. The friendly lady gave us an extra piece of quiche. I thought this was lovely but little did I know, a few hours later I would be scooping soggy quiche from the bottom of my day sack. I hinted to Richard to choose a cake as well, he choose two. However Richard's heart sank as he realised he could only carry one so we opted for Yorkshire curd tarts.

On the way out of Hawes  the clouds were starting to lift and it was getting warmer. Either that or I was getting hot from the uphill. I stopped to remove my fleece and an old man was doing the same. The man was in his 70's and was called Trevor. We stopped and talked to him about the pennine way. Trevor had completed the pennine way just 8 weeks ago and had come back to Great Shunner Fell as he loved the views so much. He had brought his wife with him in a caravan and she had let him out for the day whilst she went into Hawes shopping. We had been chatting to Trevor for quite a while so we all started the ascent up whilst we continued. Trevor told us about his worst days, best days and gave us some advice...   

"Do you swear lads?"  
We nodded and smiled.
"When you get to the grand canyon, make sure you don't take the wrong f@€¥!?& footpath to ...oh I forget what it's called"
A shocked Richard chipped in and reminded dear forgetful Trevor that it was the footpath to 'Dufton' he should have taken.

Somewhere near the top we said goodbye to Trevor and took a photo of us all in front of a pennine way sign. We promised that we would look out for his broken walking poles that he had thrown in a ditch near Kirk Yetholm and we would also look him up in the Pennine Way log books at Tan Hill and Kirk Yetholm.

The views from the top of Great Shunner Fell were shortened by the cloud and mist although there was an odd patch of blue sky here and there. It was fairly windy so we only stayed long enough for a handful of nuts and a starjump.

On the way down the clouds shifted and the sun began to shine. We could see at the bottom of the valley, the little village of Thwaite surrounded by bright yellow fields. We knew that our destination Keld was only a few miles around the corner from Thwaite so we took our time and took photos along the long lane into Thwaite. We also spent some time looking for flowers to complete our wild flower spotting book that our friend Colin gave us "in case we got bored" , because wild flower spotting is just so interesting! 

Upon arriving in Thwaite, Richard wanted to go to the tea room for you've guessed it more cake. I reminded him of the freshly baked pasties and cakes in our day packs so he quickly walked on in search of a picnic spot. Past only a few cottages we were out the other side of Thwaite and into meadow upon meadow of buttercups. After passing through them taking more photos we climbed up the hillside on the way to keld and perched in the hot sun for lunch.

Whilst eating our lunch a lovely Australian couple came over the style and along the footpath. They stopped to say hello and we chatted about the weather for a bit. The couple were walking from Lands End to John o Groats and had picked up the Pennine Way for a stretch. As they left I thought that it was fantastic that they had taken 3 months to come to the UK to do this. I hoped I would meet them again and find out a bit more.

After lunch we walked the last 2 miles to Keld. In our minds we had imagined the rest of the way to be buttercup meadows and grassy footpaths. Just around the corner the landscape turned very rugged. Lush grass turned to ankle breaking gravel, stone Walls turned to bolderous foopaths, buttercups turned to thistles and pleasure turned to pain. The next two miles seemed very long and was hard work especially on our feet.  It started to feel like the real backbone of England.

Before reaching Keld, Another old man stopped us with a puzzled expression on his face. He was lost but was sure that he was going the same way he did a few years ago. The man was looking for Crack Pot House. We pointed him in the right direction and showed him the map. The man laughed that he was 'cracking up' so we giggled and wished him well on his way.

By Keld we were ready to stop having hobbled the last mile or so.  Our campsite was about 1/2 mile out of the small collection of houses. On arrival, Heather the owner gave us a big welcoming smile and showed us around. She asked us what we wanted for breakfast and packed lunches and said we could pitch anywhere. I dropped my bags at the nearest pitch and collapsed on top of them in the evening sun.

Our evening was spent pitching the tent, cooking a basic pasta and eating local Wensleydale cheese and crackers with a bottle of wine we chilled in the river. Heather's hens soon came and ate up all our crumbs before nesting down for the night. We took advice from the hen's and got an early night as another walk waited for us tomorrow.