Manchester

We spent the day in Manchester touring downtown and shopping for souvenirs. What a striking difference between rural hamlets and downtown Manchester! We took the tram or Metro from our wonderful guesthouse (formerly a maternity house) downtown, shopped, toured the John Rylands library, had a last pub lunch then took the tram back to the guesthouse. We've packed our bags and are ready to go home.

Final tidbits from the trail:

The last day's trek went through Grosmont, where they still run a steam engine - purportedly the train and station used in the Harry Potter films. Unfortunately for us, it was a 33% grade uphill through and out of town for the next 2 miles.

Local beer is called bitters which is very hoppy beer. None of us are big fans of hoppy beer so it was easy to resist drinking at the pubs. Pub food is hearty fare, meat, potatoes (fried) and maybe some 'salad' - a few lettuce leaves, a tomato slice and one or two cucumbers. WE NEED GREEN VEGETABLES!


The full English breakfast:  start with a full continental breakfast of a choice of cereals, yogurt fruit, juice, coffee, tea, toast and jam along with porridge - really good oatmeal (the secret is to cook it with whole milk rather than water). Then you order the hot plate of eggs, bacon rasher, sausage, grilled tomatoes, sautéed mushrooms and more toast with baked beans. Believe it or not you're still hungry at lunch after consuming this breakfast and walking miles. Our hosts were offended if we didn't eat the full breakfast!

When we planned the trek, we believed the narrative that said average walking skills would suffice. As we read the fine print, we began understand that all times were approximate (didn't include time for rest or recalibrating with maps) and, finally, on day 11, we saw the warning in the front of the book that this was a strenuous hike. It was nearly impossible for us to walk more than 2 1/2 miles an hour even though all of us had trained at 4-5 miles per hour, and the terrain was amazing. We had only 3 if 13 days of the kind of rolling hills, scenic trails we expected.

Are we glad we did it? Yes. Will we do it again? No. No reunion tour for these chicas. Will we travel together again? Yes. We'll keep the blog alive and regale you with tales on future exploits. Feel free to suggest future treks - no more than 15 miles per day, please. Until then,

Carry on.

Stage 13 Finis!

Hiya! A common greeting on the trail and in the villages. We finished. We trekked the last 20 miles in typical British weather: downpour rain, walking through the bogs on the moor. Our fabulous hiking shoes, praised in previous posts, failed us all.  We had squishy soaked feet and socks, wet trousers up beyond our knees, and  only stayed dry above the raincoat/backpack rain cover level.  There were still wonderful aspects of today's trek: the tea garden (with plenty of rain awnings) at the waterfall in the Littleback wood - the perfect time for lunch and a respite from the rain! Meeting up with the young brothers from Newcastle who helped us get through the mucky moor.  The wood or forest was magical - we now understand how the enchanted forests showed up in so many stories from the UK.  Coming up to the 2 1/2 mile mile marker at Hawsker and rejoicing in the fact tht we were almost done. Only to learn that it was 2 1/2 miles by road, but 4 miles by path.  The path was stunning - right along the edge of the coast, but still mucky and slippery. We were in awe of the cliff top views of the North Sea but humbled by the slippery rocks and path that took us to our destination.

In Robin Hood's Bay we performed the requisite rituals of dipping our boots in the North Sea and throwing our pebbles (collected at the start in St. Bees) into the sea.  The tide was low and the town was small.  We had our picture taken by several people who congratulated us on our feat. We had dinner and a pint and signed the book  at the Wainwright bar on the seashore then trudged back to our B&B where we waited to get in. Finally, another guest let us in and informed us that our host had gone out to dinner. Needless to say, we were outraged - even more so because we were so tired and ready to collapse.  Finally, we got settled, showered off the moor muck, and collapsed into bed.

More musings on the trek:

The dead sheep in the stream gave us pause.
Other walkers are a godsend. We all work together to interpret the maps and find our way.
The locals depend upon walkers to drive their economy.
We traveled by taxi, train and foot to tonight's guesthouse which is the best yet and are tired and ready turn in.
We'd go back to the Keld Inn, to Shap where Margaret took such good care of us (my goodness, she washed our socks!) and to this guesthouse in Manchester.
We're already listing potential destinations for our next trek.

Tomorrow we'll tour Manchester by Metro then fly home to Minnesota and return to our real lives. Perhaps our feet and legs will return to normal as well.

Stage 12

Today we honor those who gave their lives for freedom on 9.11.2001.

We had a lovely walk, a slow descent into Glaisdale; a short day of 10 miles that ended with a slow, winding trail through the town and down to the river where we ended at the Beggars Bridge B&B around 1 pm.  We were early - arrived before our rooms were ready and before our luggage had arrived. So, we had tea, crumpets and shortbread in the garden. Wow. Such gardens we'd give our eye teeth to have this growing zone in MN.  We caught up on rest, correspondence, and foot care. Our B& B is wonderful, near the river and beggars bridge - a local legend about a young man who was too poor to cross the river, went abroad to make his fortune and returned to marry his wealthy sweetheart and built a bridge across the river so no other pauper had to suffer the same heartache he did.  We see a Walt Disney movie from this story!

Reflections on the trip:

At times it has seemed insurmountable, we've been challenged physically and emotionally to complete each leg of the trip, and it's hard to comprehend we have only one day left on the trail.  We've met some wonderful people along the way and tonight we saw two young brothers who made the trek and will also finish tomorrow. Fun to see them and glad to see they'll complete the trek tomorrow too.

Stage 11, Monday, Sept 10

LONG DAY! On the trail by 8 am, with a hearty English breakfast, pack lunches and a patron saint medal each for our pockets from Ann who showed us a shortcut to the path that was actually shorter! The first 15 miles were up and down to 4 different "tops" named bank top or ridges don the maps. Followed by 9 miles of relatively flat, wide path; the last 6 1/2 on disused railway that seemed to go on forever and was high enough in the moors to be very windy the whole trip. We walked at a very nice pace-clipping along as Kay would say-until the legs started to go.  Betsy's lower leg injury flared up again and Kay's inner thigh spasmed.  After that, we slowed to a stroll, or sane pace per Kelly.

We staggered into the Lion Inn (the only building for miles around) at 6:15, an ancient building that has served as a way stop for centuries. We were immediately identified as coast-to-coasters by our zombie like stares and wind blown appearance. Had dinner - another filling dinner of vegetable lasagna and chicken Kiev seriously lacking in vegetables that aren't deep fried or mushed)  and called for a ride from our B&B host. Mike fetched us to the August House (about 10 minutes away) and regaled us with stories and jokes. We found Michael to be very entertaining, his wife Mary puts up with him even though she's exasperated by him! Mary was very gracious attempting to show us the features of our rooms, but we were stupefied by the days walk and finally she just said good night. Kay and Betsy hit the pillow and were out, Kelly had a lovely foot soak before turning in.

Just a note that we haven't been without injury on this trip. 

Kelly bruised her two big toe toenails on the nearly straight downhill on the first day. Solution: Betsy's magic tape.  Tape them up and carry on! 

Betsy had a huge blister on her heel the second day that blew on an uphill. Terry, the guide with the California group, gave her a blister bandage and commented to his group that she was done and would not finish the hike. He doesn't know MN women!  Solution: Compeed and carry on.

Kay has several large blisters that have a tendency to move to new and different locations all over her feet. In fact, she has more square inches of blister bandages and padding than skin on her feet. Solution: Compeed and silicone toe sleeves.

Theme for the day: all of our hiking boots have failed and we have spent the greater part of the trip in our hiking shoes.  Too bad we have to carry the boots!

Note to future hikers buy this fabulous Compeed blister bandage stuff by the caselot. 

Sunday, Sept 9 stage 10

Our 10th walking day was a 21-mile walk along roadways. Many of the guidebooks and local people advised us it was a tedious walk so we opted to take a taxi for part of the path.  Met up with a young man from Arkansas who is walking most of the UK as a honeybee researcher and an older British couple walking the C2C. We had a nice rain while we walked, so actually got to use our "waterproofs". We walked about 4 miles beyond the C2C path to reach Osmotherly where our B&B was reserved. Ann met us at 4 Belle Vue, her cozy home, with tea and cake even though it was nearly 5. She makes great coffee cake - brown sugar cake with coffee flavored icing, num!

Had pub food dinner at the Queen Catherine Inn, built in the 1600s.  Tried to wait for the blues band to start playing at 8:30, but gave up at 9  so we could rest up for the long hike the next day. Kelly, our experienced band groupie, warned us they'd never start on time, but we didn't believe her - until we saw the band members still drinking at tables at 9. 

Some more British phrases we've found interesting:
Kerb is curb to us
When you need to relieve yourself in the woods you go "drop some weight" or "drop a pound" and gas is delicately called "wind"
Haggis is actually considered food: sheep or lamb stomach filled with oatmeal, fat and other various leftovers. 
More interesting bits tomorrow!

Planned layover day

We spent the day in Richmond, a moderate size market town, on a planned layover day in preparation for the rest of the trek. We wandered the market, poked in and out of shops around the market square and had tea and scones in a tea shop.

We started the day by touring Richmond castle. There was an interesting interpretive center to start then we climbed round the keep (the tall part) and met a couple from Minnesota! We had great views from the top and took some awe inspiring pictures (you'll have to trust us on this as we arent going to try to post until we are back in the states). Then we poked around some antique stores and walked to the visitor center. The public bathroom had a unique feature: one machine, recessed in the wall, has a button for soap, a button for water and a button for air dry! Very efficient.

We then walked down by the river to The Station, a restored train station that now has shops and a cinema. We had ice cream outside in another day of perfect weather.  As we started back to town, we checked the cinema and saw the new movie Anna Kerinina so decided to see it. Fabulous movie, very well done with a melding of the story as stage play and as real life. Of course, you cant go wrong with Kiera Knightly and Jude Law!

As we Mosied back to the market square, we met Ann, one of our trail friends from Cambridge. We chatted and had tea together then wished each other well for the remainder of the trek.

As we sit in the lounge of the B&B, we are listing the highlights and accomplishments of the trip so far. For Kelly, the people along the trail and the sheer physical accomplishment is the highlight;for Kay, the physical accomplishment of the Lake District and the 23 mile day; and for Betsy, being able to keep up with long-legged Kelly and Velcro woman Kay make me happy. Velcro woman zeroes in on a hiker ahead on the path, catches up and stays in their back pocket. You should see her when she smells the barn - zoom thar she goes on to the destination without regard for Kelly and I. It's ok because Kelly has the compass and Betsy has the maps. Kay eventually waits for us. It was a bit satisfying to learn that the guide for the California group didn't believe Betsy would make it past day 2 (when she blew a big heel blister going uphill) and who now has said to his group that he has to admit that he would actually help us if we ran into trouble on the path.

Indeed, we're ready to go back on the trail. Our feet are rested and the swelling has gone down so I guess it's time to walk some more.

Stage 9

Today, day 9 on the trail, we started with the best breakfast yet: bubble & squeak (a mashed concoction of potatoes, cabbage, carrots and whatever vegetables you have on hand) rolled in eggs then whole 'meal' (grain) bread crumbs, then lightly fried in olive oil; eggs, beans, mushrooms and toast with homemade orange marmalade. Then we hit the central market and bought fruit to take on the trail for our short (12 mile) day to Richmond. We learned some new lingo from Bob and Denise at the B&B: Bob can really 'pull a face' when he's displeased, and their last couple of years have been 'higgledy piggeldy' or not quite orderly due to many family changes.

We saw the California tour group and our English friend, Steve, along the trail. We told them it was good to see them as we were worried about them! Saw the Las Vegas group who take a more leisurely tour and split off at the tea house in Marske. The walk today was wonderful, what we imagined our trip would be like- it was scenic in the best sense of the word, not the longer and higher type of scenic! We saw hills and valleys and moors and forests - the perfect blend.

Hit Richmond mid-afternoon, checked in to the Old Brewery Inn, the home of Sherpa Van our bag transport company, showered and hit the town. Had Thai for dinner which was great until we added chili sauce. We'll have clear sinuses until Halloween. Tried a couple of different gins in real English gin & tonics and met up with the California group. Now we're back at the Inn preparing for our rest day in Richmond tomorrow.

Phrases of the day:

Yaya: said when the listener gets what you're saying and is ready to answer before you're finished explaining.
Carry on: used often-just keep going
Whilst: used often, when we use while
Hiya: familiar greeting when you meet on the street like we use hi or hello
Eh: Esther than 'huh'

Big news: we just met Mr & Mrs Sherpa Van in the sitting room of the Inn while we were blogging! We were able to share our positive experiences and compliment them on a job well done. They just got back from a trip to Iceland.