A good night's sleep and a "Happy Mother's Day" from Steve, and a card Jardine gave to Steve to give to me today made this a start to a nice day.
It felt great not to have to get everything packed up to go to the next B and B -- we are staying here again tonight. The bad news is that because we were out of our routine we forgot the sunscreen for Steve and for me! I ended up with sunburned hands from holding the poles.
We were picked up by Ron's Taxi at 9:30 -- the same nice man who picked us up at Hethpool yesterday. A quick drive back to where he picked picked us up and we were out again on the trail.
It was foggy out but it lifted as we walked. In fact for a few hours we were out in the sun with no chance of shade and no breeze -- it was toasty out there!
A series of ascents with beautiful views!
We stopped and had a snack -- bananas and coffee -- it hit the spot!
We met two nice men from England who stopped and talked with us. It was becoming much warmer and the mist had burned off.
We met a School teacher and his daughter -- who were leading young men and women on a two day one night hike to prep for a bigger hike. They had hiked up to the top of two hill forts with one teacher with the teacher we were speaking with bringing up the rear. He was very kind and talked fondly and with knowledge about the area. The young people and teachers hiked to the top of these two hill forts:
We met a nice couple who have been hiking for over 30 years. They told us they walked the St. Cuthbert's walk when it first opened -- they told us at the time it was very poorly signed and there were very few accommodations to stay in along the way. They also told us there are more sheep in Northumberland than there are people!
We saw a red grouse, Hawks, heard all kinds of birds, and saw hares and of course sheep! The birds singing made me not want to sing but to pray -- and I did! Steve and I also prayed together -- very moving as we couldn't get to church today.
The walk continued on -- long open stretches on top of a ridge. We met a Belgian man who was by himself and quite in a hurry. We met two English women who also didn't stop long to chat.
More pictures from the walk:
We finally got a little bit of shade:
It was a beautiful day! Dinner down at the inn at the bottom of the hill -- Glendale beef and Yorkshire pudding for me this Mother's Day!
Mother's Day here is celebrated during Lent so I didn't have to worry about special menus or menu pricing! The wonderful woman running the place we are staying at made the reservation for us -- we had a great table!
Total steps today: 28,212 -- 10.85 mikes with many boggy spots!
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