Comfortable in Keld

We walked into Keld at the end of a satisfying day's walk, along the route of the Pennine Way. We think Coast to Coast walkers must far outnumber Pennine Way walkers as the Pennine Way is not for the faint hearted and, although we don't consider ourselves wimps, it has certainly never appealed to us.

Now Keld is a delightful and quiet spot in Swaledale. It was the obvious place to stop for the night and the reality is there are no other realistic options, so this was a happy coincidence. It always amuses us that the smaller the place you stay at, the more likely you are to have to ask for directions. There are only a handful of houses in Keld but we couldn't spot Keld Lodge, our destination, so we asked someone where it was. It was right at the top of the village, but well worth the extra couple of minutes walk. It looked good as we approached and it lived up to expectations.

We had a warm welcome and were invited to take tea and cake in the residents lounge. Our room was very nice but we did little more than dump our bags as we hastened down to have our afternoon tea.

The cake was delicious and the lounge was cosy. As we relaxed and read about the Lodge we discovered it was the former Keld Youth Hostel. Our female minder was shocked that she hadn't realised this as she had in fact stayed at Keld Youth Hostel at least 2 times in the past. To get over the shock she helped herself to some of our male minders cake as she thought he didn't want it - apparently he did!

Back in our room we got ourselves clean and sorted. We can confirm that Keld is the official half way point, so it was time to pack up the St Bees to Keld combined map and guide, and get out, and have a read of, the equivalent map for the second half, Keld to Robin Hoods Bay.

Before dinner we took a beer outside to admire the view outside as it was glorious countryside. Gio stayed outside for a while, drinking in the view faster than his beer, but the human element of our party hastened indoors saying that midges were biting - they can't get through fur though!

Dinner in the Lodge restaurant was very nice. The owners had made a real effort to offer a menu with a bit of class, but which still provided the food and portions you need after a good day's walk.

Breakfast was also great and there was the regular cooked breakfast on offer and also the 'Keld' breakfast which was 'as the regular breakfast but bigger'. We'd seen people eating the regular breakfast and it looked pretty good so we settled for it. We were pleased to see one of our fellow walkers, Michael, who we'd encountered quite a few times since setting off, order it, as we wanted to see what it was like. It came and it was big. We wouldn't have managed it, although Yorkie would have had a good go. Michael, who is a big chap, did pretty well, but we have to report that it did beat him - just!

As we enjoyed our breakfast we saw the Pack Horse van draw up and collect our luggage - it is an early collection from Keld, so we had taken our bags down before breakfast.

Knowing that our bags were safely on their way to our next night's accommodation, we decided we should also get on our way. Back in our room, collecting up our rucksacks and gear, there was a squawk of horror from our female minder. Our map was nowhere to be found and she had the sneaking suspicion that both old and new maps might have been packed into the overnight bag, instead of just the old one. As you know our bags had been collected, so what were we to do? We had to get to Reeth but how would we find the route?

Answer next time.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie, Gio and Wooly xxx

Somme Crossing

We had a couple of jobs to do before putting our red/blue route research into practice. We had to say goodbye to our Suffolk Branch travelling companions, who had been such great company (they were only walking the first half) and wish them bon voyage as they travelled home to Suffolk. Then we had to mark entering the second half of the route with photographs at the half way fingerpost.

This was down by the river right where we rejoined the C to C route. Actually we'll confess our error before the eagle eyed spot it from the photo and worry about our mathematical prowess. We weren't half way in distance but we were in terms of the holiday!

With our reduced party numbers we made quite a quiet start as there was less chatting than usual. We were also a tiny bit worried about whether the route we had on our map would be the right one or if we'd be entirely reliant on spotting coloured markers on an unknown route. 

It wasn't long before we discovered we had nothing to worry about. We came across an information board showing the 2 main routes and by happy coincidence the route shown on our map was the blue route that we needed to take. If it hadn't been we would have been fine anyway as we were able to take quite a detailed photo.

 We'd been assuming the second half of the route was going to be a lot flatter than the first. This wasn't about to happen any time soon though, and it was quite a pull up to the Nine Standards. This is the reason why they are visible from quite some distance away. It was also very windy as we got closer to the top. Wooly discovered this when he posed for a picture with the standards in the background. We managed to capture the exact moment of him being blown off his perch. 

Leaving the ridge of nine standards and following the posts of the blue route we experienced bog trotting in all its glory and we felt like we'd been transported to the Somme.

This was the typical scene for a mile or two, and in places the mud was pretty deep. Trekking poles are essential for the crossing to allow depths of mud and its liquidity factor to be tested. We were a bit sad though when our male minder managed to break one of his trekking poles in the process. He did a good job though and selected great routes for us to follow in his footsteps; we were just like Good King Wenceslas and his page. Somehow (miracle!) we all managed to stay clean and dry and we also enjoyed the crossing and the big open spaces. It was actually easier walking than the narrow, muddy and slippery stream path which took us away from the bog and towards Keld our destination for the night.

We'll pick up the tale there next time.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie, Gio and Wooly xxx

Exotic Kirkby

Distractions over, we now resume our Coast to Coast walk and the special Bed and Breakfast we so enjoyed in Shap.

We stayed at White Gill House with Ken and Barbie (yes really) and they certainly were terrific hosts (nothing doll-like about them at all) with a lovely property and a huge conservatory for us guests to use.

We knew it would be good when we walked up to the entrance and found a slate personally welcoming us and our accompanying party of 'The Smiths'.


Barbie and Ken were keen to usher us in so we could get our boots off and relax over tea and crumpets in the conservatory, but we were so enthralled with this welcome sign we wanted to stay outside a while and enjoy it. The outside became even more interesting when we heard some very loud squawks and discovered blue and gold macaws sitting in a tree just a few feet away. They have apparently gone rather wild after the death of their owner, and while a novelty for the guests, are a bit of a pain for the locals, being both noisy and fruit thieves.


We all found it rather amusing that Gio was reading 'A Parrot in the Pepper Tree' while parrots/macaws were sitting in an apple tree just a few feet away.


Barbie was a little worried about us getting meal as there was a big horse fair on and the town was very busy as a result. She helped us book a table at The Indian restaurant, The Mango Tree, where we'd enjoyed a good meal on the first night of our holiday, before catching the Pack Horse bus out to start the walk. We had to wait until late, but that wasn't really a problem as we'd had our crumpets and a complimentary sherry to keep us going, and it also meant we had time to have a pre dinner beer in the Black Bull.

While in the Black Bull, one of the guides who was leading a party of C to C walkers gave us a bit of a scare, when he started talking about the specific 'Blue route' that we needed to follow over the moor of Nine Standards rig the next day, as opposed to the 'Red route' which is used at other times of the year. We knew nothing about these new erosion control routes, and only had one route on our rather old strip map. We therefore had some internet homework to do before setting off the next morning. It didn't stop us enjoying our curry and a good night's sleep though.

Lots of love, Wooly, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx