Day 8 - Keld to Reeth - 11 1/2 miles

Last night we heard from a Dutch couple about the American women we met at the start of the walk. To recap, Margie the Mall Walker who quit walking after day two and is being ferried around by the baggage van and Deborah the Determined who kept on walking…unfortunately Deborah went out walking on her own and got a bit off track. She thought that the waypoint numbers used for GPS tracking was a phone number for Search & Rescue and tried to call it!! Fortunately, someone came along the path and was able to help her. Not seen or heard of since. I'm hoping we'll bump into her again soon so we can get caught up with their adventures. They're becoming a legend among the other walkers.

No photos of today's walk I'm afraid. I took some but when I tried to download them, there was nothing there. Damp phone maybe? Anyway it seems fine now. Will just stick random pics in as filler!!

We started the day with porridge,  and then it was out into a cloudy morning, with heavy rain promised in the forecast. We put on our waterproof gear so we wouldn't have to mess about later. Our route took us down through the little village and onto a fairly level path along the River Swale.

River Swale near Keld

We saw tons of grouse and pheasants on the path and though the rain started fairly soon it was good walking. We made a detour into Muker to go to the wool shop and the very welcome public conveniences. Back on the road, we crossed the river and the rain started to get heavier. Anyway, on we went. The main highlight of this part of the walk other than the beautiful river and lush green pastures was the very narrow stone stiles we had to squeeze through at regular intervals.

Old farm buildings, falling down

Finally we saw the houses of Gunnerside via a field full of cows and their calves - we don't make eye contact with them and pass as quickly as possible. A man shouts out of his window that it's not  a very nice day for walking so we stop for a chat. He has a giant garden gnome perched proudly on the wall of his little garden.

One of the guidebooks said there was a pub called The King's Arms which had catered to walkers but that now it was closed. You can imagine what a welcome sight it was to see the open sign. So in we went, putting on little plastic overboots to keep the mud out and shaking out our wet rain gear. We'd just ordered our lunch before tons of wet walkers started to appear.

Eventually, it's back out into the rain and in typical Wainwright fashion the route takes us up into the fell side above the village, not fair!

We don't have that far to go but it's a bit of a slog in the rain. We pass some lovely cottages and a couple of imposing estates complete with gorgeous Shorthorn cattle. I had a lovely photo of the big bull but lost it somehow. The end of the walk takes us down by the rive again and from there into the lovely little village of Reeth. We're staying at The Manse B&B tonight - the room is great with a lovely hot shower. We mess it up.

Our room in Reeth

Not sure what I did here!

After getting cleaned up and a bit of a rest we head out to The Buck Hotel for dinner and a little live music - Jen has a chicken burger and I have steak pie. The place is crowded with walkers and their dogs. Later a group of inebriated but cheery young men arrive, one of them dressed in full sheep costume. I have to ask…it's his stag, he's getting married in 2 weeks. All he can manage to say is "I'm Shaun the Sheep, welcome to Swaledale". 

The groom to be aka Shaun the Sheep