Day 7 - Keld to Reeth

After going over the maps with Ian and chatting to the couple who looked after us, we decided not to follow the Wainwright route for this day. The 'official' path starts with a stiff climb to achieve views of surrounding hill. We had seen enough hills for the time-being and decided the riverside path to Reeth sounded like a nice change.

Again we regretted having only the strip-maps for the Coast-to-Coast walk, as we were once again completely without maps for this route. However, we were assurred that the route was simple, and largely followed the river. In fact it was a lovely day, and the pains in our feet were turning to dull thudding, rather than sharp stabbing. I think we could now regard ourselves as true walkers.

We say on a bench next to a beautiful old bridge and ate our sandwiches. The sun was once again shining and everything was going well. This is true yorkshire countryside, and the changes in surroundings were quite dramatic. We passed villages along the river Swale, and had a refreshing beverage in a pub at Gunnerside.

The riverside walk was reasonably easy, although the distance is not inconsiderable. Sometimes we were right on the banks of the river, with white-water cascading over rocks on the riverbed. At other times we were looking down from above, with the river obscured behind trees.

We were quite fatigued by the middle of the afternoon, and each village we approached we hoped it was Reeth. We had no way of telling how far there was to go, but eventually we arrived in Reeth's distinctive centre - a square of green surrounded by shops, houses and pubs. A very pleasant little village.