We woke up at around 5.45, spirits still pretty low and eager to get going. After some packed lunch breakfast we set off at around 7, glad to see the back of Keld. It was a nice day and a nice walk, walking up a small hill before getting into Grouse territory. The Grouses lives in the moorlands and there were loads of them squawking loudly and they had a flying technique of initially flapping like mad before gliding through the air. They were pretty funny and lifted our mood slightly. A bit later we bumped into some older walkers and explained what we were doing (the coast to coast walk in 9 days). They were very impressed by this and this helped boost morale. I wanted to try navigating today and so carried the map. This caused a good few instances of going the wrong way (especially where the paths were hard to make out) and so shortly later I handed the map back into Chris's much more capable hands. After the tricky navigational bit (in one instance there was no path and it involved clambering up steep shingle until we met the path again), we got to a massive plateau- like landscape where there were still loads of grouse and some shooters too. We didn't witness any shooting thankfully but saw the hunters and hunters lodge on our way. Our path on the plateau was a wide track that was very easy to follow and the surface allowed us to go at a good pace. It was until one of Tom's blisters burst on his little toe. This was clearly very painful and we had to stop and make do with using regular plasters instead of blister plasters (we had used all these up). Anyway so the rest of the way to today's pit stop of Reeth involved some more moorland and grouse before a painful downhill on a road, followed by crossing some fields with very narrow gaps in the wall for walkers to squeeze through. Eventually we arrived in Reeth, refused a bakery as would have probably would have been to expensive and headed straight to the village shop. The shop was small, with limited food and quite pricey so we got the basic essentials of flapjacks and chocolate, and in Chris's case his standard red bull and 20p crisps. After around 20 minutes we were on our way again following the road out of Reeth. This next bit was another adapted section of the route and involved another massive stretch of road. There was a long and steep (in sections) of uphill before a long straight flat section. During this time Chris was counting down the minutes until he could have his next fix of pills (painkillers) - they didn't work very well but it had got to the point where if it helped slightly or if it was an excuse for a quick break it was welcomed. After the pill break we carried on the neverending flat straight road for a while. At the end of this there was a downhill and we walked backwards down the hill as it was a welcome variation from normal walking and used different muscles so gave the overworked muscles a bit of restbite. Our section of road was nearing it's end when we saw a field with some horses. Chris called one and after a few minutes two of them came over and we fed them some grass - a nice 10 minutes or so. Next we had to cross some rather muddy fields. Chris was wearing his running trainers (he had been wearing these for walking on the roads as were more comfortable than his old boots that had virtually no cushioning left). He couldn't be bothered to take off the trainers so inevitably got soaked feet whilst mint and Tom's remained pretty dry. Then there was a brief but very boggy steep uphill where I think we all got at least partially wet feet. After this we just had a few fields, a short section of track and a path through a wooded area before reaching the road leading into Richmond where we were planning to stay. Richmond looked massive compared to the other places we had passed so we thought it would be easy to find a very cheap B&B. We were wrong. The first place we tried wanted £30 per person. The second place we saw looked far too nice/expensive for us but we thought we'd try anyway. They also were charging £30 per person, but understood we couldn't afford that and so very kindly rang around/ googled other B&B's to see if there was anything in our £20 budget. There wasn't. We were ready to leave any try elsewhere when they said we could stay for £20 each- massive result!!! The B&B had just opened and had been newly refurbished to an excellent standard. We were shown up to our room which was amazing (we were the first guests staying in there) and were given a big chunk of flapjack each. We also had the usual tea/coffee and kettle and for the first time hot chocolate sachets too so I was happy. I was the first to go in the shower - the best shower so far with massive shower head/good water pressure, massive shower enclosure and soft fluffy white towels. We all showered then me and Tom went into the town to get food for tomorrow and fish and chips (oh yes) for dinner whilst Chris stayed in the room and spoke to Ellie (his girlfriend). Richmond was such a nice place - everyone seemed to be friendly, there seemed to be everything you needed there and was picturesque. We found co-op in the town square easily and got our food there before going to get our sausages and chips. The Co-op in the town square didn't have any blister plasters so after asking in another shop we were told there was another Co-op a few roads away. We were both on a high and even managed to run around in search of Co-op. We found it soon enough and thankfully we were directed to the blister plasters by a very friendly shop assistant. We then ran back to the B&B juiced up for the sausages and chips. When we got back we were invited to eat at the dining table and were even given plates, cutlery, a jug of water and ketchup - most B&B's would not do this. The sausages and chips were delicious and I could have easily eaten twice as much. After dinner Chris and Tom wanted to watch one of the Lord of the Rings Films that was in the DVD collection available to guests so that went on for a while/until we fell asleep.
Reviews
The Butt house B&B - 3/10: Well overpriced, crap shower. Beds were good and room was cosy but the price killed it.
Lessons Learned
Leave navigating to Chris (especially if time is of the essence), carry more blister plasters, dont wear trainers to walk over boggy fields.
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