Friday 10th July

Didn't sleep very well last night and neither did Lucy. Up at 7.30 and had fried egg butties for breakfast again. Packed up and set off about 8.45, the pack felt really heavy after walking without it yesterday. The feet felt really sore too, it was hard to get any pace going. We set out back up the road toward Steel Rigg again, we could have walked straight up the back of the farm to Winsheilds and up on to the wall but we didn't want to miss any out. So we had walked about a mile by the time we had got back on the trail and from there it was all uphill to the trig point. Still behind pace, my feet were very sore, I told Lucy to go on ahead and I would catch her up as I could. She waited for me at each stile. Dropped down off the crags for Caw Gap, then straight back up the other side to Cawfield Crag. Not steep but a long drag up. Went through Great Chesters but really struggling to keep going. Didn't stop to look at much, although once we had left the crags and were crossing farm land the view wasn't that exciting. Lucy was getting further and further in front, she stopped to wait for me at a stile that led into a wood. It was flat walking through the wood; what a relief! Then back up to Walltown Crags, except we got a bit lost and couldn't find the path. Back on track eventually over Walltown Crags, then lost the path again. Stopped for a picture- or rather Lucy did. This is a self portrait taken whilst waiting for me to catch up yet again, and this is a really good photo of Walltown Crags

The reason we had lost the path was the wall went straight over a cliff, just as well it wasn't foggy or we would have followed it. The path turned back on itself and went straight down a hill at about 45 degrees, murder on the toes, then took a right half way down the hill on to a gravel path and continued down along side a new lake that had been Walltown quarry.
The path led down to a car park where my brother Andrew was waiting for us. Originally the plan had been to meet us at Greenhead which was about a mile further along. I can't say I was particularly bothered the way I felt at this moment. We had covered about six and a half miles or 10 kms. Andy drove us to his house at Carlisle for tea. Mum was coming down from Dumfries as well, because Andy had made plans for us to stay there. Mother duly arrived but said she wasn't taking us to Dumfries, she was taking us home! So our holiday ended rather unexpectedly on Friday instead of Sunday!

We decided we would come back and finish the rest of the walk soon, here is a picture from Friday showing the happy wanderers (or not in my case- just look at the wan smile)

More 9th July

We decided we would have a pub meal tonight as a treat and went to the Twice Brewed Inn again. We had another jug of Pimms, although it wasn't as good. The fruit in it was a bit lacking in variety. then we looked at the menu. I ordered a vegetable curry and Lucy ordered a vegetable fajita. The meal duly arrived and it was awful. The other choice on the menu was pan fried Mediterranean vegetables, and that was what we got, except mine came in a lumpy curry sauce mix (out of a packet) and Lucy's was wrapped in a tortilla. It was inedible. I complained and we didn't pay for it, but we were offered no apology or an alternative, and the meal was left congealing in front of us for 20 minutes before anyone came to clear it away. I wrote and complained to the owners of the pub when I got home and they didn't even have the courtesy to acknowledge my letter. So be warned you vegetarians out there! We are moving on tomorrow luckily, so we just finished the Pimms and left. Seven and a half miles today. Image of sky on way back to Winsheilds