Day 8

Day 8:  Kirkby Stephen to Keld.  About 20km.  525m up.  355m down.  A gazillions steps taken to try (often unsuccessfully) to avoid stepping in the bog.  

Kirkby Stephen is quite a substantial little town.  We took some time this morning to look around a bit before heading out.  I picked up lunch at the bakery (yum!), then looked through the small but well-stocked outdoors store.  We then did a quick tour of the local parish church which is built on the site of a Saxon church, although the earliest feature of the present church dates "only" to 1220. We then crossed the Eden River on Frank's Bridge and headed off for the day.   

Today we (i) passed the halfway mark of our C2C mileage, (ii) crossed the Pennines (aka the backbone of the British Isles), (iii) crossed the watershed which means that from this day on all rivers from here on in flow eastwards to flow in to the North Sea, (iv) passed from Cumbria into Yorkshire.  A big day to be sure, but what we'll remember the most is the number of peat bogs we passed through on the way to Keld.  

The day started out pleasant enough - sunshine, warm temps, walking on a quiet paved road, etc.  The paved road going up the hill gradually gave way to gravel, then to dirt and then to squishy, sinky, wet and largley unavoidable bogs.  We made it up to the top of the hill, where the Nine Standards stood guard - nine differently shaped piles of stones standing over 2m tall each.  Their purpose seems to be unclear - perhaps a border-marking; perhaps a deterent to invading near-sighted Scots who thought they were troops guarding the English territories.  In any case, a lovely gentle climb with great views down from whence we came (and beyond), an interesting diversion and a great lunch spot out of the wind.  From there we headed generally south and east across a pretty wide-open really large bog and tussock filled hilltop.  There weren't a lot of landmarks and it was easy to get off course as we kept wandering from the main path to avoid the mud.  We managed to keep our way, though, although the footing was tough and tiring.  

There were several routes to choose from today and we chose the "red" route; the one recommended from May until July.  The yucky terrain lasted most of the rest of the day (about 4-5 hours in all).  My solution was to give in to the terrain by wearing tevas with neoprene socks and not really caring about whether I got my feet wet and muddy.  It seemed to work out OK for me.  My boots are dry and clean and my tevas just went in the shower with me.  They should be dry by morning.  

We saw some small rabbits today and saw several curlews - a bird that apparently nests on the moors.  Actually - given the lack of trees around today it was surprising just how we constantly heard birds singing and calling.  Lots of sheep down lower, but even they were smart enough to stay out of the high bogs.  

Everyone stayed upright all day and we eventually made it down safely to the Keld Hotel.  Not much else in Keld, but our room is lovely and we had a great dinner here.  That's all for now.  Looks like it will be a nice walk again tomorrow.