Due to my cancer treatment last year we have not done any more sections of the Coast to Coast walk so decided it was time to remedy this.
On Friday 25th April we set off with the caravan for Green Farm in Shap. We had to wait for the bin men before we could leave bu tonce they had been and the bins brought in, we set off, only for John to not remember whether he had locked the front door, so I had to run back down the road to check it - he had. We had a very good journey with no hold ups and even managed to get into a caravan bay at Charnock Richard for a spot of lunch. Most of the caravan only bays were taken by cars and vans!
We arrived at Shap at about 3 and set up camp. We are staying at Green farm, opposite the Greyhound Inn. We stayed here last time, and although it is close to the road it has good views of the hills and a field of sheep and their lambs to watch. After a cup of tea we went for a walk over the fields to the Gogglby stone, where we found a cache and then walked through the village checking out the shops and pubs.
Saturday 25th April
We were up quite early and after breakfast John went to the butcher to get us some dinner (prize winning cumberland sausage) and I made sandwiches for our walk. We drove to Orton and then along a very narrow lane (a cycle trail really) to Sunbiggin tarn, we went the wrong way first and had to turn round and go back along another very narrow lane - good job we didn't have the caravan behind us! We parked at Sunbiggin tarn and walked back to the point on Tarn moor that we had left on our last Coast to Coast section on July 2007.
We walked down the road following the c2c and turned off onto Ravonstonedale moor. We had a bit of additional exercise here as the wind grabbed the map from my hand and we had to chase it for 50m or so. We walked across the moor and through lots of heather until we came to a bridge over a very wet area. The heather gave way to grass and we enjoyed an easy stroll along a very soft surface -it felt just like carpet. After about a mile we crossed a narrow track and carried on past a reservoir and beside a stone wall until we got to Bents farm. We had good views of the Pennines ahead of us and through the binoculars got our first view of Nine Standards Rigg. As we stopped for a biscuit a walker came towards us. She was from Maine and doing bits of the c2c. We crossed the wall at the stile and contined along past Severals village settlement - an ancient monument where now only lumps in the ground can be seen.
Once past here we walked down a steep bank, round railway cottages and over the disused railway line to work our way down to Smardale bridge.
We sat on some stones here to eat our lunch. Two herons flew past as we sat and a wagtail bobbed on the wall.
We enjoyed our break and then set off along the valley bottom towards Friars Bottom farm, playing chicken with the lambs. They always gave in first! We crossed the disused railway and continued to Brownber where we crossed some fields to a lane. We followed the lane to Rig End and then followed a path across Ravonstondale moor. This was not signposted and we went through a rickety gate tied up with string. The path was shown on the map but was not visible on the ground so we followed the gps to keep us on the right path. It started raining here so we stopped to put our coats on. We finally made our way back to the bridge that we crossed on the moor earlier and then retraced our steps back to the car, soaking wet after 14.8km and having done another 4 miles of the c2c.
On Friday 25th April we set off with the caravan for Green Farm in Shap. We had to wait for the bin men before we could leave bu tonce they had been and the bins brought in, we set off, only for John to not remember whether he had locked the front door, so I had to run back down the road to check it - he had. We had a very good journey with no hold ups and even managed to get into a caravan bay at Charnock Richard for a spot of lunch. Most of the caravan only bays were taken by cars and vans!
We arrived at Shap at about 3 and set up camp. We are staying at Green farm, opposite the Greyhound Inn. We stayed here last time, and although it is close to the road it has good views of the hills and a field of sheep and their lambs to watch. After a cup of tea we went for a walk over the fields to the Gogglby stone, where we found a cache and then walked through the village checking out the shops and pubs.
Saturday 25th April
We were up quite early and after breakfast John went to the butcher to get us some dinner (prize winning cumberland sausage) and I made sandwiches for our walk. We drove to Orton and then along a very narrow lane (a cycle trail really) to Sunbiggin tarn, we went the wrong way first and had to turn round and go back along another very narrow lane - good job we didn't have the caravan behind us! We parked at Sunbiggin tarn and walked back to the point on Tarn moor that we had left on our last Coast to Coast section on July 2007.
We walked down the road following the c2c and turned off onto Ravonstonedale moor. We had a bit of additional exercise here as the wind grabbed the map from my hand and we had to chase it for 50m or so. We walked across the moor and through lots of heather until we came to a bridge over a very wet area. The heather gave way to grass and we enjoyed an easy stroll along a very soft surface -it felt just like carpet. After about a mile we crossed a narrow track and carried on past a reservoir and beside a stone wall until we got to Bents farm. We had good views of the Pennines ahead of us and through the binoculars got our first view of Nine Standards Rigg. As we stopped for a biscuit a walker came towards us. She was from Maine and doing bits of the c2c. We crossed the wall at the stile and contined along past Severals village settlement - an ancient monument where now only lumps in the ground can be seen.
Once past here we walked down a steep bank, round railway cottages and over the disused railway line to work our way down to Smardale bridge.
We sat on some stones here to eat our lunch. Two herons flew past as we sat and a wagtail bobbed on the wall.We enjoyed our break and then set off along the valley bottom towards Friars Bottom farm, playing chicken with the lambs. They always gave in first! We crossed the disused railway and continued to Brownber where we crossed some fields to a lane. We followed the lane to Rig End and then followed a path across Ravonstondale moor. This was not signposted and we went through a rickety gate tied up with string. The path was shown on the map but was not visible on the ground so we followed the gps to keep us on the right path. It started raining here so we stopped to put our coats on. We finally made our way back to the bridge that we crossed on the moor earlier and then retraced our steps back to the car, soaking wet after 14.8km and having done another 4 miles of the c2c.
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