Day 7 Kirkby Stephen - Keld 103 miles

Keld Marks the half way point of our coast to coast walk and this is one of our shortest days, and wettest so far.

This short day just 12 miles begins in dry conditions but as we walked uphill from the start we could see threatening rain clouds where ever we looked. But the views were pleasing to the eye.

As we took on a tough 4 mile uphill journey over the Pennine Mountains Kirsty found a great seat to rest her legs.

Here we were still in warm dry weather but as we reached the the sign post where you have to decide if you want to climb to the Nine standards or not, the weather started to close in. The cloud was on top of the mountain but nothing was stopping us and Steve was confident of being able to navigate  so off we trotted. As we approached the 9 Standards they seemed to suddenly jump out the mist.

 Soon we reach the top of the mountain line where the 9 Standards are. The 9 Standards are just a series of man made rock cairns all in a line, pretty cool, but no one seems to know why they are here.

 

And we are not the only ones up there so we manged to get a team photo.

 We then walked to the trig point  and on to the sign post that shows the different routes for different times of the year to reduce erosion

Moving the sign might help erosion or even some stone slabs like they use in the peaks.

This is were it gets REALLY boggy. We had to take the slightly longer blue route that starts  in August, so it made navigation a little harder as it had not been used for some time and was not obvious. There were poles showing the way once you got going so not too much difficulty finding our way.

Now the heavens opened and we had torrential rain for quite a while, Steve decided to run straight into a boggy section up to his knees , much to the amusment of Jane and Kirsty and believe me bog smells terrible. From here we followed the posts all along Whitsundale beck.With it raining we were very lucky to find shelter for lunch.

   Our luxury dining suite!

From here we walked in torrential rain and hoped to get a cuppa at Ravenseat Farm but sadly it was closed.

From here we track along the engorged chasm of Whitsundale Beck

 we passed many fully restored but unused stone barns or 'laithes' which are a feature of Swaledale we soon reach the road and it is an easy walk into Keld. we pass the Wainwath force.

We reached the Keld Lodge, our accommodation for the night, in pouring rain and pretty much soaked, thank goodness for the drying room.

We are now halfway and our feet are holding up well. Jane and Kirsty are suffering slightly with painful knees but nothing to hold us back.