Day 10

Keld to Reeth

Today was meant to be a fairly easy day, just strolling along the banks of the river Swale as it descends from Keld to Reeth. It had a sting in the tail though, as the book we were following took us up onto the moors after we reached Gunnerside. So we ended up doing a 300 foot climb after lunch!

Our B&B last night, Butt House, was very comfortable and friendly. The room was excellent with a bath and plenty of hot water. The breakfast was OK. To cap it all, they had an excellent internet connection. Our friends from Dartmouth also stayed in Butt House whilst most of our other acquaintances stayed at Keld Lodge over the road. Mrs "Dartmouth" had filled up all the memory on her camera, so, with the help of the B&B, I made a CD of the pictures so that she could clear the camera memory.

The weather was damp and grey when we got up and the BBC were predicting rain showers all day. Over breakfast we saw several walkers setting off in full rain gear. By the time we left at 09:30 (quite late for us) it had stopped raining so we packed our rain wear in our rucksacks and set off. At about 11am it started raining a little so we sheltered under a tree for coffee and got out the rain wear before setting off again. Thankfully, it soon stopped and we packed it away again. After that the sun came out and it has been a lovely warm sunny afternoon.

We saw loads of wild flowers including pink campion, orchids, rampion (wild garlic), bluebells in abundance, heart's ease, banks of primroses and bugle to mention just a few. Did I forget to mention the forget-me-nots? We saw several live rabbits but also dozens and dozens of dead rabbits and, whilst having lunch, we met a guy carrying a shotgun who was off to shoot more rabbits. They must be a problem around here. In some places there were rabbit holes galore.

We stopped in the Kings Head in Gunnerside for a beer and had lunch on the way up to the moors. At one point, we were following the Salisbury couple and had the australian couple behind us. We followed them downhill past a quarry but the GPS was showing us going well off track. After some discussion and consultation of the OS map, we all turned back and headed up over the top of the quarry to reach our intended way-point. Plus point to the GPS. Minus point to the guide book for not mentioning the quarry.

Liz thought the trip up onto the moors less picturesque than staying alongside the river - because quite a lot of it was on roads. I thought it gave us a very good view of the whole of upper Swaledale.

We completed our 100th mile along the path today, but due to a mis-calculation we only thought it was 99. So when we celebrated 100 miles, it was actually 101!.

We took tea in Reeth before coming up to Cambridge House, our 5* B&B for the night.

Distance walked today (on the GPS) 12.00 miles exactly. Total distance walked to date 106.00 miles.