Today we left Garstang and headed for Kendal
Today we had no-one walking with us and Steve kindly transported our bags to Kendal before heading back down south to work.
After a lift, from Garstang, back to where we finished walking last night, we started on the long slog northwards. Garstang is mentioned in the Domesday Boook as Cherestanc in 1086. The original spelling of Garstang has several interpretations: “‘gore by the boundary pole”, “spear post”, “triangular piece of land”, “common land” or “meadowland”, possibly signifying the site of a meeting-space. The skies were quite ominous and we had fingers crossed they would keep their contents to themselves.
After only a few hours we arrived in Lancaster – a quick stop to get some sandwiches for lunch and then a coffee / muffin / croissant stop and we were on our way again, through the city and then back out on the A6. Although busy the A6 had a footpath for most of our walk today.
A couple more rivers crossed and then with a view of Morecambe Bay (and our first sight of the sea since Cornwall) our 700 km milestone arrived.
Once we left the A6 we were on nice country lanes for the rest of the day, the scenery becoming much more “rolling hills” and then a flock of birds (think they were young Red Grouse) were running along the road in front of us – given the number they must have escaped from a farm somewhere. Those that could tried to fly and there were some funny crash landings. Eventually they all dispersed into the hedgerow or through gates and we walked on.
As we sat down at the roadside for lunch the 4 young cows in the field opposite were curious and wandered over to the wall and watched us eating. We do like to eat lunch with at least two thirds of our days journey done and today was no exception so only a couple of hours left until we walked into Kendal and our stop for the night. It was a lucky day for the weather as the rain that did fall always seemed to be just ahead of us.
Tomorrow is a rest day!
