Today we left Kendal and headed for Penrith
Today we had no-one walking with us and Roy (a colleague of Mike’s) kindly transported our bags up to Penrith.
Kendal takes its name from the River Kent (the etymology of whose name is uncertain but thought to be Celtic) and the Old Norse word dalr (“valley”). Kendal is listed in the Domesday Book as part of Yorkshire with the name Cherchebi (from Old Norse kirkju-bý, “church-village”). For many centuries it was called Kirkby Kendal: “village with a church in the valley of the River Kent”.
The sun was still rising as we left Kendal meaning it was rather chilly with some mist still surrounding some of the local hills. We walked past the warning sign for Shap Fell – remembering the descent down last year we were not looking forward to the climb.
We took a little detour away from the A6 (more of a short-cut really) and climbed a bit higher to see some spectacular scenery. Four jet aircraft (F-35B I think) flew really low over us heading towards the Lake District peaks and valleys and returned back over us a short while later. Then we finally found a friendly cow, who didn’t run away and seemed to like having her head scratched.
Then it was time for the climb of Shap Fell. In truth it wasn’t as fearsome as expected but it was still pretty brutal going – thankfully the weather, although sunny, wasn’t too hot. Eventually we made the top, going past the memorial stone and the Bothy – converted to a camping barn from an old telephone repeater station, surrounded by moorland with no houses or neighbours for miles around.
After the summit of Shap Fell there was only one way to go and that was downhill for a few miles as we headed to the town of Shap. Here we bought our lunch and then kept heading towards Penrith while enjoying the amazing views of the Lake District peaks to our left and of the Yorkshire Dales to our right.
We sat down for lunch on the grass outside the entrance to Thrimby Farm and then picked ourselves back up for the remainder off the journey, via Clifton and Eamont Bridge. We were really in need of an ice-cream at this stage and find it very strange that most villages we have passed through have no shops (or even a post office). Anyway a petrol station on the outskirts of Penrith satisfied our need as we finally made it to our hotel for the night.
Yesterday’s rest day was welcome and needed but after 43 kms through incredible scenery the rest day is a dim and distant memory.
Tomorrow we head to Gretna (in Scotland)
Keep it going gents. You are doing a fantastic job. Fingers crossed the weather stays kind.