After our little 'get real chat' the other night we decided to walk most of today and cut the distance short. This meant that we could walk the dog too giving Dan a rest day.
We started with a two stage plan – to get to Garrigill and if we felt OK to carry on to Nenthead. We left the B&B for Hartside Top cafe to start the walk there. At the top a few photos where taken the plan was 'approved' by the driver and we set off down the hill (my favourite direction!). After a few mins I was feeling so good that we started to jog with the little dog hurrying us along. This bit of the course is a little tricky due to the fact that it is alongside the road and there is no pavement.
We stopped running each time a car came towards us – safety first! We eventually gave up on the running not because we were tired or that it was dangerous but it was not ideal for the dogs paws' although he never complains.
We had a very nice chat with a dry stone waller chap on the roadside who kindly told us of the 'offroad' section coming up in mile (which turned out to be only half a mile – hooray!). Nice quiet road it was too and it was easy going.
It seemed like in no time we were in Garrigill after a few little hills climbs and the time we estimated to the driver turned out to be waaaaay over the top despite our chat stop and apparent tiredness earlier. We stopped the George and Dragon in the town (a pub that is lost in time with toilets that support their own eco-system, but they do a good cup of tea!). We had to use the payphone to call our driver to find out where he was as there was no signal on our mobiles and had not been for ages. Turned out he was still at Hartside Top enjoying coffee, cake and reading a book.
He came down to meet us and we all had a chat about what was next – Nenthead we decided as we were feeling good. So we'd done about 8/9 miles and that would be another 3-4. We set off again (I used the nearby public loos as I could not face the pub ones again!) on the off road version but after about 1.5/2 miles we got a little worried as the dog although off the lead was not running on and looking closely we found he was limping. Being near a road at this point we decided to call our driver to come and collect the dog – oh-oh, no signal again. What to do? Jorgen carried the dog the rest of the way. At first he was a little unco-operative but eventually he settled down. I am happy to tell you that this is an English Toy Terrier so quite small and light and one who is used to walking long distances each weekend at least equal to what we had chosen today, so he was able to carry him – although his biceps may be sore tomorrow!
A few more rough uphills and a lovely decent and we could see some old mining sites – Smallcleugh – we popped over to have a look at the sign boards explaining the site and Jorgen took a few more photos. I called Dan and he was sleeping in the car park at Nenthead mine – just down the hill. Although we did have a little 'Michelle induced' detour where Jorgen carried the dog up a hill and down again on his shoulder!
Strangely I thought I heard someone whistling to call us back but he swears he didn't – weird eh?
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