On to Richmond

We walked from Reeth to Richmond today, which wasn’t too far (16 km) and only 260 meter ascent. The weather spit rain a few times, just enough to make us stop and put on our jackets before it quit. It’s amazing how the laws of probability work on the trail. You stop for a pee just as people show up. You stop to eat a snack in an inconvenient spot and then find a nice spot around the corner. You meet a traffic jam at the narrowest spot in a road. But the good luck balances the bad all in all. At one point today we met a sign saying the path was closed with no indication of where to go. So we decided to follow a bridlepath down to a paved narrow road which went past farm buildings. We got off track - luckily a farmer came out to tell us that we were about to go into a field with a bull. He set us on the right path, so that was an example of good luck, especially since Bob was wearing a red shirt; but it was a little awkward trying to figure out the way around old farm buildings, passing a dead sheep, avoiding stinging nettles and thistle. There are bridlepaths everywhere but most are badly grown over and poorly marked. I guess people don’t walk much anymore and certainly don’t take bridled horses. We got back on the Coast to Coast path at Marske, the ancient home of the Hutton family, with a big obelisk on the hill dedicated to a Hutton from 1816. The trail was great from there to Richmond. We arrived early (around 2:30) and had coffee at Costa, and visited a nice pet shop. Then we checked into our B&B (Williance House) - beautiful room with a window seat! Our limbs are tingling from going through stinging nettles today when we were detouring.Read more