Dales Way, Day 2, Burnsall to Kettlewell

Yikes, milling around the riverside park and the pub here in Burnsall were people with swords and tunics and horned helmets. Turns out there is a Viking Festival here this weekend. In the Church of St. Wilfrid, we visited a wonderful display of local history, going back to the Vikings. In this part of the country the Norse invaders settled rather peaceably with local people. The Viking past is reflected in lots of words, including the “thwaite” suffix on many of the towns – such as Stonethwaite, where we will be in about a week.

Our companions opted for a rest day, so we two walked by ourselves through wonderful, open, rolling, empty moorland. Ah! We love these bleak places, the wilder the better!

The end!

Well, there you have it! We hope you have enjoyed this bare bones account of 18 wonderful days. (We omitted our two in-England travel days, although gliding through the countryside on trains is also one of the great pleasures of the trip.) Maybe you get a bit of the sense of why it is our favorite thing in the world to do.

Actually, there is one more section of the Cumbria Way, from Caldbeck to Carlisle; it is mostly along a river and through farms and we had planned from the beginning to skip it. We took a taxi from Caldbeck to Carlisle, saw a few of the sights there and then journeyed by train to Manchester for our long flights home (the worst part about going to England).

If you want even more photos, and you are on Facebook, more will be posted there on Mickey's page (but you will have to become her friend to see them!). Whether you befriend her on Facebook or not, we both thank you all for the friends that you are. You're another of the great things in our lives!

Cumbria Way, Day 9, Keswick to Caldbeck

Our final day of walking - how sad! And, while the day had some spectacular views, it was not the most pleasant of walks. We began our ascent out of Keswick in rain. The day stayed at least partly socked in all day, so we did leave the area without ever seeing Skiddaw. We did, however, walk much of the way around its bottom. The route went through some very bleak and uninhabited moors; the rain continued off and on.

As we approached a lone building in the middle of nowhere (now a youth hostel), a walker was sitting alone under a striped umbrella eating his lunch. We were wet and cold and getting hungry. Barb's comment: "If he had had Coleman's (mustard), I'd have been right there under that umbrella." As it was, we found a minimally protected spot to eat a hasty lunch before we froze our fingers.

We had to abandon the day's high route as it remained lost in fog. The alternative route was longer by a couple of miles (making it a 17-mile day, much of it on roads). But the descent into the Dash Valley was stunning and was even accompanied by a bit of sun. Judi had chosen the taxi route that day, so we met her in the pub in Caldbeck where we made the delightful acquaintance of a dog named Alfie. That's one of the greatnesses of English pubs - dogs are as welcome as humans!

Cumbria Way (yes, truly), Day 7, Stonethwaite to Keswick

Today was a short and easy walk from Stonethwaite to Keswick, mostly along the shores of Derwentwater. It was drizzly and gray, as it was to be for much of the rest of our time in England. We had a tea and scone stop in a small village. The lake and surrounding fells are obviously popular with walkers and bikers, even on a not-so-great day.

Keswick is a somewhat dreary market town (maybe it was only the weather?) in the shadow of Skiddaw, a peak we actually never saw the top of while we were there. The market was in full progress when we walked into town and the streets and restaurants were full of people. We did not take great advantage of it - had showers, a light meal, and early to bed.

One of the things we love about the long-distance walking is that each day can be so different. This was quite a contrast to the day before. We seem to have taken only one photo the whole day - Sheila checking out a large wooden sculpture of a pair of hands along the lake shore.

Cumbria Way alternative, Day 6, Grasmere to Stonethwaite

All walking days are wonderful, and then there are those that are truly superb. This was that day for us. Although the route is not part of the Cumbria Way, it was part of our original plan. We had always intended the detour to Grasmere, partly to see some Wordsworth history and also for this particular day's route which we had done in 2001 (in the other direction) as part of the Coast to Coast walk.

The weather was ideal - mostly sunny, cool, somewhat blustery on the heights, dry. We gently climbed away from Grasmere through a wide draw between two fells. We were definitely in Herdy country all the way, but no more so than about 2/3 of the way up. We became aware of the sound of dogs and voices and movement ahead of us. Several men and about eight or ten dogs were rounding up the sheep from this valley to move them down toward the town. We got to stand right in the middle as they streamed by us and beyond, watching the amazing work of the dogs keeping the sheep on their path. It was so exciting!

Up and up we continued until pausing briefly at the top and beginning the steep drop down into Stonethwaite and the Borrowdale valley. We descended into evening and a night spent on a working farm; they raised Herdwick's and one other kind of sheep. As we arrived, our host was separating the lambs from their mothers (they would have been together since last spring); they would now be fattened up separately. This is not a part of the sheep scene that we particularly want to know about. But, truth is, if they weren't being raised for market, they would not be on the hillsides at all. Dinner was at the lovely and remote Langstrath Inn - wonderful, fresh vegetables and salads.

Could there be any better day?

Cumbria Way alternative, Day 3, circular walk from Ambleside

Having agreed the night before on Plan D, we hopped in Alan's taxi at 9:00 in the morning for a quick ride to Ambleside, not far from our lodgings in Coniston. Ambleside (on the north shore of Lake Windermere) turned out to be one of our favorite towns of the trip - and we would have missed it entirely with Plan A! We wandered the stores a bit (many great outdoor shops, and a couple of bookstores, as well as a great coffee place). Then Sheila led us on a wonderful up-and-over-a-pike loop walk. The view from the top was spectacular - the lake and many of the hills that we were to have walked or would walk - and the weather cooperated with some sun and only a little rain. We missed the opening hours for the mid-walk tea stop, but were just as happy with a post-walk latte.

Ambleside and this day's hike planted a seed in our mind: a return to England to stay for a few weeks in a self-catering cottage and climb many of the Lake District pikes and fells. We'll let you know!

Cumbria Way, Day 1, Ulverston to Coniston

This first day turned out to be a bit longer than we had thought, and we seemed a bit slower in covering territory. (After the first three and a half hours we had only covered three and a half miles; what were we doing?) So...about nine hours of walking took us from the fields surrounding Ulverston well into the Lake District and the shores of Coniston Water. We did quite a bit of up and down, and we were all getting a bit tired. We knew that once we made it to the shore of the lake there was the option to catch one of the lake launches and ride the last couple of miles. We also knew what time the last launch was available to us! We missed it by five minutes. But, the walk along the forested shore of the lake was actually quite lovely, and I would have been sorry to miss it. (The small lake pictured here is Beacon Tarn, not Coniston Water, and the distant shimmer of water in the previous photo is Morecambe Bay, near Ulverston.)

It was on this segment of the walk that our motto became "Keep Calm and Carry On." Apparently this motto was developed during World War II as a potential campaign should Britain be invaded. It did not have to be used, and has been recently discovered and exploited for commercial gain. We had heard that there are t-shirts, aprons, journals - whatever - and we began our search for something with this message on it. It was not until almost the last day of the trip that our walking friends located a plaque with the slogan and gave it to us as a gift. Right after that, I found a 2011 pocket calendar with the motto on the cover (along with the British flag); it will be my guide next year! We have since found no shortage of goods sporting the message at http://www.keepcalmandcarryon.com/.