Vale John Bounds
I would like to take a few minutes, before we share in this Eucharistic celebration of John͛s life, to share some memories with you, more than the more public achievements listed in the booklet. You will...
Author: Chris Bounds
Day 12: Glaisdale to Robin Hood’s Bay (31 km), in which the weary travellers wend their way to the Bay, and celebrate in suitable style!
I’m not even going to pretend that this edition was prepared after the walk. By the time we got back to our digs at the top — yes, at the top — of the...
Day 11: Kirby in Cleveland to Glaisdale (30 km), where our cosy partnership is incorporated into a company for the last days
I had to start this post with a Coast to Coast sign, as it shows what a perfect day we have had. Indeed, there is not much to report, other than we walked along...
Day 10: Park House to Clay Bank (20 km)' in which the travellers encounter the Three Musketeers and revise their scrambling skills
When you look at today’s walk on the map, without carefully looking at the contours, you might mistakenly believe that is is an easy day. One thing we learned about Old Man Wainwright is...
Day 9: Richmond, in which our intrepid pair rest for the day
Yes, we cheated, but we should have built this day into hire calculations from the beginning. Walking through Richmond on the way to our B and B, it became abundantly clear that, first, we...
Day 8: Reeth to Richmond (17.5 km), in which the travellers suspect the short distances are to lull them into a false sense of security
We’ve had an easy and beautiful day of walking along the valley of the Swale, to the pretty town of Richmond. Our worries about the weather turning have been proved unnecessary, as the forecast...
Day 7: Keld to Reeth (17.5 km), in which our heroes' attempt to turn their hands to industrial archeology requires more scrambling than hoped!
There are two roads to Reeth. One goes along the river Swale, sweeping down to celebrate the rural and domestic history of the dale; the other trudges and scrambles up the valleys to where...
Day 6: Kirkby Stephen to Keld (21 km), in which our heroes choose the low road
We left Kirkby Stephen along the Eden river, walking through the little woodland to the hamlet of Hartley — strange how the names reoccur as we walk — and then the long pull past...
Day Five: Shap to Kirkby Stephen (32 kms), the pair become a band of travellers across the trackless wastes
Trackless is a lie, but the band of travellers isn’t. For the longest day, we had wonderful company in the form of a mum in her seventies partnered by her forty-ish son. The irony...
Day 4: Patterdale to Shap (28 km), in which the heroic pair conquer, but seek knee replacements
Last night I was just too bushed to string a sentence together, such was the exhaustion we both felt at the end of the thirty kilometres we had climbed, scrambled, slipped, plodded and crawled...