Shap to Kirkby Stephen 20 miles
Had a leisurely breakfast catching up with Bob and Alan who were also staying at New Ing Lodge. Gwen and I left at about 10am and as we stopped off at the Co Op to buy our chocolate supplies for the day my eyes were drawn to the newspaper headline on the billboard outside which read, “Gales batter the Lake District!”. Gwen and I of course didn’t need to be told this news, we had lived (and walked) through it.
The path out of Shap leads down the main street, the A6. This was, a lifetime ago the main route to the Lake District and further North before the M6 took the traffic, the noise and unfortunately the money away. Shap is a quieter, but perhaps poorer town now. We leave the road and head off through a succession of farmers fields, through gates and stiles until we reach the footbridge crossing the aforementioned M6.
Since 1987 when I first walked the Coast to Coast, I have bored everyone who has happened to be in a car with me as I drove under this footbridge with the words “I’ve walked across that Bridge”. As we crossed over the footbridge and finally leave the Lakes behind, I told Gwen that she now has that dubious honour as well. After the footbridge the trail turns sharp right and after a few hundred metres we eventually leave the sound of the motorway and its constant noise behind. Peace returns to our walking and the countryside starts to open up in front of us. Past Oddendale we headed across Ravensworth Fell and the moors and Limestone escarpment, different land and Geology to the Lake District starts to appear.
We pass by a number of giant Granite boulders, a feature of the landscape here. Dropped in place by retreating glaciers, these massive stones remain where they were left, monuments to the Ice Age. Who knows, with climate change maybe in a thousand years these Granite boulders will be picked up once again by fresh sheets of ice. The trail drops down towards Orton village and, although the main path bypasses Orton itself Gwen and I decide to walk into the village and have some lunch not knowing when the next stop would be. We were glad we did as Orton is a lovely village and is well worth visiting in its own right. I’m sure it suffers from being close to the honey pot of the Lakes but far enough away for people to bypass its charms on route to what they perceive are bigger and better things. We have lunch in the George Hotel and then, suitably refreshed set off again at about 2.30pm. Because we had left the trail there was a bit of road walking to be done out of the village and we rejoined the way after negotiating a couple of footpaths across farmers fields. We arrived at Sunbiggin Tarn at 4.30pm and stopped for a rest and a bite to eat before the final stage of the day. Sunbiggin Tarn is noted for its bird life although today they must of been having a day off as there were very few of our feathered friends to be seen. Consulting the book and map It was a bit of a shock for me to discover that we still had eight miles to go before reaching Kirkby Stephen. The weather has been intermittent today, cloudy with breaks of sunshine but as we sat at Sunbiggin eating our Snickers the Sun went in and together with the discovery of just how long we still had to walk my mood became a little bit cloudy, like the weather. Leaving Sunbiggin there is a short section of road walking before heading off across Ravenstonedale Moor.
Walking across moorland has its own pleasures and problems. Moorland scenery often has a wild and windswept feel to it ( think Wuthering Heights! ) The views across expanses of purple heather clad moorland, grass swaying in the wind, grouse flying up making their ‘peta peta’ call as you disturb them passing by can have a particular beauty to it that is not found in other landscapes. The downside, in my own experience anyway is that it can be boggy underfoot. Moorland walking will always remind me of walking the Pennine Way in the 80’s, up to my knees in peat on Black Hill and the Cheviots is not something I would want to repeat! I did see a picture of Black Hill the other day and it appears it has now been paved all around the trig pillar making the walking easier but perhaps taking away some of the ‘wilderness’ feel about it. After crossing the moor the path varies between road, track and footpath and after a short while it drops down to Smardale Bridge.
At Smardale Bridge we stopped for a rest. By now I was pretty tired, my legs were aching and to be honest I was done with walking for this particular day. The thought of crossing over Smardale Fell in the worsening weather wasn’t one I was looking forward to. As I stood looking at the map and deciding which was the quickest way to get to Kirkby Stephen who should turn up but Vanetta and Gabrielle. We had seen them up ahead of us earlier in the day, before our diversion to Orton and assumed they were ahead of us. I’m not sure when we overtook them or why we didn’t see each other but it turns out they had had their own diversion on the moor and had got lost. My legs were telling me that they had had enough of moor for the day so we decided that we would follow the old railway track to Smardale and walk to Kirkby Stephen via the back lanes. This would certainly add milage to the day but I thought would be an easier walk. Vanetta and Gabrielle decided to join us and off we went. Not long after leaving Smardale Bridge we reached Smardale Gill Viaduct. The viaduct was quite a magnificent sight and walking across it, high above Smardale valley and looking down at its arches and Scandale Beck far below was, surprisingly one of the highlights of the day. The lanes walking seemed to take forever but eventually we reached the old market town of Kirkby Stephen. We said our goodbyes to Gabrielle and Venetta and reached the old youth hostel, now, like so many others, an independent hostel at 8.15pm making it a ten hour day and with the diversions maybe 23 miles of walking. I was exhausted, dehydrated and my legs and body were aching with that dull ache that is saying “You need to stop walking now!”. And stop walking we did. After a bit of trouble with the combination, we got ourselves into the unattended hostel and it was all I could do to eat a couple of bowls of cornflakes, drink plenty of tea, have a hot shower and get to bed, with my legs throbbing into the early hours.
For map and route details of this walk click ‘Learn more’ below
