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.