A Rest and Recovery Day?

We had a long day yesterday but our guidebook said not to lose heart. Even though today was to be even longer (32 km) it’s easy going and so it should be considered a rest and recovery day. Well we made it ok after 8 1/2 hours and were pretty tired when we arrived at the Old Croft House in Kirkby Stephen. we didn’t feel rested and recovered. We took a slightly longer route today to see the town of Orton and our Old Croft B&B owner actually spotted us there while he was there visiting at noon, so knew we were on our way. We saw some interesting things today. This is limestone country so we passed a few quarries and farm buildings and fences built with limestone rocks. We saw limestone pavement which is limestone with cracks between blocks looking like paving stones. We last saw this in the Alps. We passed several stone circles and pillow mounds, which are a bit mysterious and used to be called “giant graves” but people now think they were used for drying bracken. We passed a few Neolithic settlements but there wasn’t much to see; just ridges and mounds in the ground. There were a few monuments we passed. One is called “Robin Hood’s grave” but look as we might, we couldn’t find it. We passed a disused railway line with a viaduct still standing. A steam train passed us tooting it’s whistle with black smoke pouring out. Kirkby Stephen was a welcome sight after a long day. The owner Nick was very welcoming and we have dinner lined up at the Black Bull hotel tonight.Read more