The Facts

We had planned to wild camp most of the route, although we new that this may not be possible in places, so we will use official camping sites. we needed to average 14 miles a day to complete this challenge in 14 days. Some days were going to be longer, anything up to 22 miles so that we can either finish Early or have a rest day mid walk. This has been a lifetime wish of mine, ever since i read " A walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson. We had no idea if we could complete this as so many factors come into play, my fitness being one but the weather can also play a big part in dashing our hopes of finishing. All i know is that I believe this will be my only chance to attempt this (not getting any younger), also it would not be fair on my lovely wife Michelle to expect her to put up with me gallivanting out for weeks on end in the countryside, while she is stuck at home. Sadly due to a Fall i had and a suspected Cracked rib, we had to end our attempt at Richmond. we do plan to finish it off though.

Saturday 11 May 2013

Day 8

Day 8

Keld to Reef

Today was a new day, the turmoil of yesterday a fading memory, things can't get any worse than that (or so i thought). Today's journey was to take us through some old Mining quarries,with a little bit of climbing but no heavy boggy marshes, so i was looking forward to today 



 The Weather was a mixture of rain and Cloud
 Still quite windy so James grabs a bit of shelter to make himself a rollup.
 It's strange that even though this scenery is left over from man's interference, it still has a look of beauty about it
 It is fascinating to thinks these old buildings were in every day use not so long ago.
Could do with a lift right now


















As we made our way through Lownathwaite Lead mines, it was chucking it down with rain and while attempting to cross Gunnerside Beck, I slipped and landed face down on a large rock hitting my chest, I felt a sharp pain, let out a yelp and once again had to be rescued by James, the weight of my pack had me pinned to the rock with the water from the Beck rushing by me. I eventually got up and said a few choice words but felt ok other than slightly embarrassed. James suggested we stopped here for a while and have a coffee, (James love his coffee). So we spent 30 minutes or so drinking coffee and checking the route to see where we have to go next.  The rest of the Journey to Reef went uneventfully and apart from a slight ache in my left chest from my fall, we seemed to be doing ok.

We got into Reef about 4:30 pm and bought some supplies from the local shop and off we went to look for a camp site. On arriving at the camp site (only one in Reef is near the playing field),we met the owner Peter, who asked straight away if we we doing the Coast to Coast, on reply yes he offered us a lovely caravan for the night for the same price it would of cost for the tents, £5 each. Great I thought a lovely warm night in a soft bed, perfect. 
That night was probably the worst night sleep I had the whole trip, my chest was hurting a lot now and every time i moved in the night a shooting pain went through me, it was a pain I recognised as over the winter I slipped in the snow and cracked a rib!, This was very similar, the same area, was it the same rib?. 



Video of Day 8



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