C2C Day 7: Royalty for One Night...

Our accommodation for that evening was by far the fanciest of the entire trip: Augill Castle. 

The Haygarth room was large and comfortable...

...complete with a turret room that reminded us of the Chateau...

...and a huge bathroom.

We had a fantastic view from our window.

It was originally built in 1841 as a Victorian gentleman’s country residence by John Bagot Pearson in a bid to outdo his younger brother. It was later bought by Doctor Abercrombie, surgeon to Queen Victoria. After being empty for four years, Simon and Wendy Bennett bought it in 1997 to transform into a boutique hotel. Strangely enough, Kent later discovered it was also for sale, making it the third out of the first seven inns we stayed in that were on the market. 

C2C Day 7: Feeding the Cows...

Stage 7: Orton to Kirkby Stephen

Jimmy thought it would be fun to feed the cows. Sadly, the cows didn’t understand his plan. 

Luckily they weren’t aggressive as there were several directly on the path in multiple places.

Perhaps Jimmy would have had more luck with the cows if he hadn’t tried to feed them bananas. 

We stopped along this wall for an afternoon snack.

This was one of the more creative trail markers. After 12.7 miles (20.4 kilometers), we made it into town where we stopped at a beer garden for a drink before catching a taxi to our hotel (I had misjudged the distance and there was no way we were going to hike the additional five miles out of town).

C2C Day 7: On the Way to Kirkby Stephens...

Stage 7: Orton to Kirkby Stephens

Despite the rain, it was a nice hike over lots of fields...

....and past lots of dry stone walls.

Do I need to mention that we saw sheep?

It was quite cool when we saw Smardale Gill Viaduct, which we had first seen during a hike in August 2012 when we rented a house in the vicinity with Sally, John, David and Andrew.

C2C Day 7: A Very Wet Morning...

Stage 7: Orton to Kirkby Stephens

Breakfast was very special, scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, served in a very quaint dining room. While the innkeeper was very kind to us, Mother Nature wasn’t quite so nice as it was pouring when we set off.

Our first stop was at an indoor honor bar on a farm. How nice to have some homemade baked goods while seeking shelter.

This farm track was particularly muddy.

Eventually the sun started to peek out, highlighting some of the puddles on the paved road. Actually it poured on us several times that day for a total of about three hours, which wasn’t so bad considering it was the only day we got soaked during the entire trek.

C2C Day 6: An Afternoon in Orton...

Our hike was so short that we arrived before check-in at the Barn House in Orton, which gave us the perfect excuse to grab an ice cream at Kennedy’s Chocolate Factory. The bed and breakfast occupied the right half of the house. It was quite nice and spacious, and we enjoyed speaking to the owner; since our stay, we’ve learned that he’s put the house up for sale.

Arriving early gave us a rare opportunity to take an afternoon nap, which we all really appreciated.

It also gave us enough time to have our laundry done for us.

After our naps, we took a walk around this small village with less than 600 inhabitants. The only store was already closed, so no option for us to buy intoxicating liquors to go. The village had many lovely 17th and 18th century cottages and was much classier than Shap, where we started that morning.

Was surprised to find a stockade on the way to the church. Kent seemed to fit right in.

The tower of the All Saints Church was built in the 16th century, while parts of the church date back to the 12th century.

We especially enjoyed seeing this big poster about the Coast-2-Coast. We had dinner that evening at the only pub in town.

C2C Day 6: Laughing About Brexit...

On June 23, the voters in the United Kingdom approved a referendum, otherwise known as Brexit, to leave the European Union. Voters in London and other major urban areas, tended to vote to stay in the EU, while rural areas predominantly voted to leave. On our hike today, we came across two signs of how the EU has helped the rural communities we hiked through. We couldn’t help but wonder if the EU would yank out their broadband fibers in retaliation?

Guess it’s pretty safe to assume that the local farmers won’t be getting any EU funds any longer. Wonder if the farmers with these signs on their land thought about that before they voted?

C2C Day 6: A Nice Short Day...

Stage 6: Shap to Orton

We were very impressed with the fancy presentation of the delicious breakfast at Brookfield House, where I tried kippers for the first time (or so I thought as it turns out that kippers is just the British version of mackerel).

Here we are posing with Margaret, the owner of the inn...

...and maker of the best packed lunch on the entire route with amazing homemade backed goodies.

For many hikers, Day 6 is the longest day. We decided to break it up into two days instead, so this was actually not only one of our shortest days, but it was definitely the easiest.

The weather was perfect for our 7.6-mile (12.3-kilometer) trek.