Lord Nigel's Travels - A walk across England - Day Five

It's Day Five - My legs are burning, my calves are hard as rock and my feet are on fire! You simply can't beat the feeling of freedom and being alive that comes from a 9 hour walk in the rain.

Welcome back...join me as I continue my recount of the time I walked across the whole of England.

It took 16 days of solid all day hiking to travel from coast to coast. My chosen route took me through 3 National Parks, i.e. Lake District National Park, the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and the North York Moors National Park.

If your just starting to follow me and/or considering doing the journey yourself, you can read about the previous day(s) here:

here:

[https://steemit.com/travel/@lordnigel/lord-nigel-s-travels-a-walk-across-england-day-one](Day One - St Bees to Ennerdale Bridge - 25KM)

[https://steemit.com/travel/@lordnigel/lord-nigel-s-travels-a-walk-across-england-day-two](Day Two - Ennerdale Bridge to Rosthwaite - 23 KM)

[https://steemit.com/travel/@lordnigel/lord-nigel-s-travels-a-walk-across-england-day-three](Day Three - Rosthwaite to Grasmiere - 14.5 KM)

[https://steemit.com/travelfeed/@lordnigel/lord-nigel-s-travels-a-walk-across-england-day-four](Day Four - Grasmere to Patterdale - 19 KM)

Here is my recount of Day 5 - Patterdale to Shap 33KM!!

Today was a huge 8 - 9 hours on my feet. Ouch!

There are a couple of ways to get to Shap from Patterdale. Most take the track and head over the large Kidsty Pike. You can see on my prepared map below (Note: today the weather was so bad, I didn't go this way - I took the path to the left):

There was a major weather front moving in and after nearly losing my life on day 3, I was feeling a bit unsure. I decided to have a chat with a local I met while scratching my head and looking at the map at breakfast.

The local gent was scared for me, he made it pretty clear it was a suicide mission and a cab would be needed today...I told him, I have no choice, I have to walk every step across England!.

Not really understanding my need and determination to walk every step, he scratched his head and we looked at the map together. I felt revealed to hear that not too many people knew about this workaround to the left, however I was disappointed to calculate it was a much longer distance. Still, It would be relatively safe to walk it in a thunderstorm.
The walk started relatively easy, there were a number of small waterfalls as you leave Patterdale and pickup the track.

It was really raining, but the waterfalls were so nice and really made up for it - although at times they were quite loud.


Today would be a massive 33 Km walk no less! The weather was really bad, so it wasn't a difficult choice to turn left and leave the Pike for the bold, it was definitely the right choice. While my chosen path was really isolated in parts, it followed along a lovely lake I saw birds and a red tailed fox.

It was a little steep and rocky in parts, but it didn't feel unsafe - if sheep could do it, so could I :)

and best of all there was even a cafe! getting a hot chocolate in the middle of a rain storm was a rare bliss!. It was called the Lowther barn and it was brilliantly positioned about 1/2 way for my days walk.

I also managed a few extra short cuts, by weaving in and around some farms here and there.

Using these small mostly unused pathways that surround most farms, you can make your own track...

When you are on your feet all day and with limited options you often face a choice - be up to your knees in a bog, spend several more KM's dodging cars on a narrow hard road or highways under foot

Taking the little side pathways is best, in the end you must protect your feet as best you can when your on them for so long.
Coming into Shap was bliss, Shap was a suprisingly large town, much larger than any previous to date.

There are plenty of large farms near Shap and you can cut through them among life stock to cut down on steps if desperate - I was :)

Tonight I would stay at a privately owned B&B and dinner would be a walk down to the Kings Arms; unfortunately it was way down the road I had just walked into town - ouch!.

Thus ends my recount of day 5 - if you would like me to continue with each day of the walk, please show your approval in the usual way - exclusive for Steemians of course :)

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