However, 2 things happened to lighten the mood. A flock of sheep came strolling down the road completely unattended. We think they had heard that Wooly was in town and were looking for him. They'd got the address wrong though, and before they'd spotted Wooly through the window, they'd gone up next door's drive and started tucking into the garden flowers. Needless to say the owners weren't too happy, but it did give all of us a really good laugh.
After the sheep came the ducks who arrived during our breakfast. As the gates were shut (presumably as a precaution against marauding sheep) the ducks either limbo danced under, or flew over the gates, then made themselves completely at home in the garden. It all made for a very entertaining start to the day.
As the final day's walk got underway, the rain continued and the going for the first few miles was extremely muddy. It was so hard trying to stay upright that we gave up and decided our time could be more usefully spent road testing the waterproof bear porter which had been acquired earlier in the week.
This did the trick, and no sooner had we taken cover, than the rain stopped. We didn't realise for a while as we were all talking so loud, but then Isaiah asked us to be quiet and listen, and we realised we couldn't hear raindrops. He volunteered to pop his head out to see what was happening, then gave us the go ahead to emerge.
It stayed dry for the rest of the day. By now we had left the Lake District behind so the walking wasn't too exciting, but there were compensations e.g. a conveniently placed hostelry for a pub lunch.
The last mile or so were into the heart of Carlisle, and we felt a bit out of place with with our rucksacks and muddy walking boots. The end of the Cumbria Way is a bit strange as there's no clear end point. Some people say it ends at the station, but we walked on past the station to the town square. There we found a market cross and the former town hall, now a tourist informartion office. At neither was there an acknowledgment that the end of the Cumbria Way had been reached. This is a bit of a shame after all the effort that goes into the walk.
We treated the Tourist office as the end point, and did a celebratory conga round the building. Wooly is looking very proud in his 'I've made it picture' and rightly so, as he had just gone into the record books as the first sheep to walk the whole of the Cumbria Way in one go. Well done Wooly, and well done all of us for that matter. To walk the Cumbria Way in 5 days is no mean feet, but there are few challenges we have enjoyed as much.
Lots of love, George, Isaiah, Yorkie, Dale & Wooly xxx
1 comment:
Three cheers for us! Wooly hasn't mentioned that his high jinks in celebrating reaching the end of the Cumbria Way included an impressive back flip from the balcony where you see him pictured to the waiting crowd (of minders) down below, whereupon he had an extra hill to climb to get back into position for the photo! He's clearly a more refined sheep than his mates from breakfast as he left the flowers well alone and wasn't even tempted to have a nibble! Isaiah, Dale and Tiny
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