Today we left Penrith and headed for Gretna
Today we had Will and Toby walking with us and David (a colleague of Mike) very kindly took our bags up to Gretna.
We left Penrith with a slight chill in the air but the promise of a nice day ahead weather wise. Penrith has been noted for its numerous wells with well-dressing ceremonies taking place on certain days in May. Three miles south-east of Penrith, on the River Eamont opposite Ninekirks are the “Giants’ Caves”, with a well dedicated to St Ninian.
After a while we passed an interesting blue plaque – Francis Percy Toplis (22 August 1896 – 6 June 1920) was a British criminal and imposter active during and after the First World War. Before the war he was imprisoned for attempted rape and during the war he served as a private in the Royal Army Medical Corps, but regularly posed as an officer while on leave, wearing a monocle. After the war he became notorious following the murder of a taxi driver and the wounding of a police officer who attempted to apprehend him. The manhunt was major news at the time. He was tracked down and killed in a gunfight with police.
We continued along the A6 – not a whole lot to see really, mainly arable land and sometimes views of the Lake District peaks in the distance although these faded as we got closer to Carlisle. The only thing of real interest was a huge machine digging up potatoes with one person driving and one on top presumably sorting through he potatoes as they were harvested. Farmers certainly have some great machinery to operate.
We walked into Carlisle via the same route we left it one year ago after our rest day. A quick stop for a coffee and to buy some lunch and we set off again. As we crossed the River Eden (with very low water levels) we passed our 500 mile / 800 km milestone.
Then it was a moderately long walk alongside the M6 where the most interesting features were a n active wind turbine, some fencing between us the the busy motorway and the crossing of the River Esk estuary. We found the Welcome to Scotland sign but our Gretna hotel is in the “no-mans land” between the welcome to England / Scotland signs. This apparently counts as England so we have to wait for tomorrow before crossing the border.
Tomorrow we continue up towards Glasgow, stopping at Moffat for the night.
