Rosgill to Orton

What a beautiful day for walking and saying farewell to the Lakeland Hills in the far distance. The 'A' and 'B' parties both had an easy day today and it was pleasant for a change not to have to look where you were putting your feet all the time, but a little bit sad to leave all that magnificent scenery behind. So here is one last picture to remind us of what we have done so far.









Our walk took us past Shap Abbey hidden away in the valley where we stopped for lunch in the sunshine. The highlight of the day for me was the sight of a red squirrel running along the top of a wall......my first sighting in the wild and a real pleasure.










Then onwards across the M6 to the village of Shap itself where the local school was having a sale. One or two succombed to the temptation of a jar of home made jam! Whilst crossing the very noisy and busy M6 we had done one third of the walk and can now look forward to Swaledale and beyond.

From Shap we made our way up on to the limestone plateau which Wainwright describes as 'velvet turf'. Here are stone circles, erratic boulders and the grave of Robin Hood which looked just like a pile of stones to me and I'm sure he's buried in one or two other places around the country. And then to Orton with time for a drink before departing but unfortunately the chocolate factory was closed.......perhaps just as well!