COAST-TO-COAST WALK Day 7

Who is God? God is our Father

                                                                       Jesus said,

"This then is how you should pray:

'Our Father in heaven, 

hallowed by your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.'

Matthew 6:9-13

Our New Home

I am happy that Toowoomba's White Ibis enjoy the ponds and waterways rather than our home gardens!  

The Great Outdoors
Memories of England's Coast-to-Coast Walk   Friday 15th July, 2005 
How good it is to meet kind people.  If I had not stopped to chat with someone I did not know, then they would not have offered the great favour of transporting our back-packs for us in their car! Walking 10 miles with no load was a real treat!! 

Here is hubby's daily diary.....  
Day 7    Patterdale – Shap 

Our first ascent for the day was a gentle one

We listened to the gentle patter of rain on our tents over-night.  However, it was dry when we got up although the sky was overcast with low mist.  We hiked back past Side Farm and into our first ascent for the day.  This was quite a gentle ascent, following the path up between low bleak hills. Brothers Water came into view and we stopped in a sheltered spot when Angle Tarn was visible to cook breakfast of porridge and eggs.  The walk continued up and around Hayes Water, then a new climb started which took one and a half hours – grueling with a pack on!

The spectacular view of Haweswater 

We arrived puffed at the High Street, then we ascended further up onto Kidsty Pike.  

The view was spectacular but the wind was blowing cold.  We needed a rest but couldn’t stop for long because of the cold.  We tackled the descent to Haweswater, this taking a further 2 hours of ankle-wrenching balancing to reach the bottom at 5.00 p.m. only to be faced with another walk of equal distance to Shap.   

Wow! No bags to carry for the last 10 miles of today's hike.

Denise, however, got chatting to a man out for the day in his car with his wife – and he offered to take our bags into Shap, leaving us to walk the next 10 miles with no load.  He offered us a lift to Shap along with our bags, but we declined!  We were sincerely challenged to complete this walk on our feet! Denise, with very sore feet by now,  kept up the pace as we hiked, carrying only water, for  another 3 more hours of hiking through some lovely countryside. 

We could not have hiked all the way to Shap carrying our bags!  
Without help, we would have simply pitched our tents somewhere!  
We arrived in Shap totally sore and exhausted. 
However, we were very thankful for the help we had been given in the transport of our bags. 

We ordered a great meal at the Bull’s Head pub – lamb in England is absolutely delicious.  The meal made up for some of our despondency. We chatted to the young chef, expecting his third child, about his family life. And we shared hiking tales with another couple in the pub whom we had met some days earlier, also on the hike. The wife was having trouble with her hiking boots falling apart. 

Disenchantment with English camping grounds continues!
We had a patch of grass and a toilet inside the pub,
only available when the pub was open!

We set up our tent on the back lawn of the pub, with the only facility for us being a toilet which was available only when the pub was open!  Back to our dis-enchantment with English camping sites. We paid ₤5 each to pitch our tents.         

What a treat it is to eat good food! And have a toilet that is open!

from Robyn

painting of robin by Brenda, my mum