A dry and scenic day nearing the Lake District
I woke up later than expected, probably because of sleeping in a nice quiet dorm. I got my things together and left the Hostel, pausing only to pick up some lunch from the shop over the road. Today's weather forecast was to be mainly dry all day and thankfully after the previous day's rain, today would be mostly dry, and tshirt weather at times. The start from Kirkby Stephen was uphill through farmland but not that steep, or maybe I've just got used to hills. Having said that, I seemed to walk uphill for ages but the views behind me made up for the ascent with my tired legs. To the right of me I could see Smardale Viaduct.
After descending down to cross the old railway track at Smardale and then back up the other side, I followed the wall before crossing it and along the other side of it to Bents Farm. When I walked the C2C in May 2014, the section here was rutted by tractors and very muddy but today the ground was hard, to my relief. After some moorland walking and some road, I saw another walker who was walking in the same direction as myself, I caught him soon after when he had a break and I noticed his C2C guide book, this is the first person I've seen doing the walk the same way as myself (it would be the only person I'd meet on my walk doing it in the same direction as myself).
More moorland and roads and country track followed before I started heading through fields towards Orton. Unfortunately some of these were full of cows who didn't want me in their fields so Plan B meant going through neighbouring fields, with no cows. I don't like cows in fields so I'm happy to avoid them using roads or other fields if I can. More fields followed before a steep grassy climb up to the road that leads out of Orton, and I had my lunch just before the road admiring the view down over Orton and the surrounding hills. From here to Shap was only about 9 miles and pretty good ground to walk on so there was no rush to get away.
After lunch, a bit of road walking led me to open moorland, miles and miles of gentle walking, nothing too steep and not a single gate or stile, just the way I like it. I love walking like this where the miles pass in perfect peace and quiet but eventually I knew it would change and the nearer I got to Shap, the more I could hear the traffic on the M6 motorway. The noise would get louder and louder as I headed downhill through farmland with more cows that wouldn't move and then soggy land took me to the bridge over the motorway, a bridge just for walkers but it feels strange walking so close to all the traffic thundering below you on the motorway. It always feels strange after a week with so little traffic to suddenly face a wall of noise and traffic.
Soon the path would take me over the railway line and into the village. I would be staying the night at the New Ing Lodge which was at the far end of the village, so I picked up something to eat for my tea from the shop as I passed and headed for the Lodge. I'd stayed here a couple of times, the place does B&B but also has 2 Dorm rooms that are cheap and you have a kitchen, so that's tea sorted as well as showers and bathrooms. Even better was being told that I would be the only person in the dorm so after a shower I made tea and relaxed in the nice quiet dorm before falling asleep.
