Are you all having your day off as well. No comments, Come on folks! You are forgetting that your comments are my lifeline! BOO :o( (sad me)

Anything but walking...

Day off. Service shall be resumed tomorrow.

in need of a clean!

I hope you'll join me in Keld (if they have wifi)

Highlight of the day: Being Lazy

Day 7: Chocolate Heaven!

Orton to Kirkby Stephen (12 miles)

Today started like a dream! Me going mental in a chocolate shop... Can you picture it?!

Kennady's Choclate Factgory, Orton

So we all started the day on a high, hmm maybee not mum who had to carry it all.... a LOT of weight!

Starting at Orton Church

We were joined today by Helen who had trusted Sherpa Dad to navigate us ( obviously not read my blog.. )

Helen (she was really nice)

We have met loads of great people on the way and I'll tell you about them all later.

It was rough road for about 3 miles and then a Thomas Traverse over heather, for about 2 miles. Then we hit the road and walked down it till we hit a big hill we climbed over.

Smardale

It was great when we met Grandad who had come to meet us from Kirkby Stephen.

Me and Grandad (part of the laundary team)

There is not much to say now apart from we went into the B&B and were greeted by cake, tea (in china cups my pinkie finger needed to be in the air, it was so posh!) and strawberrys: YUM!

And a special Thanks to the Laundry Team: Grandma, Grandad, and Margeret, Who met us for a meal.


See you on Sunday as I have a day off tomorrow! perhaps a spot of shopping who knows?

Love Caitlin

Oh and its Hayleighs birthday today so Happy Birthday to the best big sis in the whole world! Love You Loads!

Highlight of the day: Meeting the laundary team

Day 6: The Shortest Day of all......

Shap to Orton: ( 8 miles )

Apologies dear blogees and blogesses for interrupted service yesterday due to no WiFi in Orton. Oh yes..It had EVERYTHING you could ever wish for ( a picturesque church a village store and Post Office and  even a chocolate factory! ) but of course due to Whitaker's bad luck it had no WiFi. But as a bonus, fellow readers you get two blogs for the price of one today ( You will be overwhelmed with excitement! )

Moving on to the walk itself....

We had a great day! First we dropped out of Shap and went through a few fields for 3 miles until we reached the M6 moterway. We were deligheted as this was one third of the way! YAY! ( But bad for you as your number of blogs shall slowly come to a standstill as I reach the end. BOO. )

We crossed the M6 ( always remember your road safety viewers! )  and yet again went through more fields  ( again... ) May I take this opportunity to mention Pads  brilliant stile perfection throughout the walk. He has now mastered the art of stile jumping and passed his test with efficient flair! Although the ones with added gates on he struggles (he needs to up his grades on this to be an A* gate lifter pupil )

Apart from that there was not much more to the walk ( not mentioning the fact we walked that we walked through yet MORE fields. GROAN. )

So read my other post! By one get one free!

Love Caity xx

(P.S Highlight of the day:  The first day without waterproofs! )

Yesterday....

Day 5: Glenridding to Shap (18.2 endless mile)

Well!..... I think Mum, Dad, Pads and all of the poor people who have been through what I went through yesterday could probably agree with me that yesterday was HARD AS ROCK!  18.2 ( Oh yes that 0.2 of a mile made ALL of the differance ) of long uphill SLOG, 4000 feet of ascent in total, and down the other side. It seemed to go on FOREVER and EVER and EVER!


We started off at Glenridding and climbed a mountain ( although it seemed more like a rock face) until we got to the top and Dad took us up a mountain called Angle Tarn Pike's (1857' )  explaining that it was part of the route.

Angle Tarn

We were all convinced until we started to wonder where all of the other walkers were. It turns out that Wainwright did'nt even climb up it and It was'nt part of the Coast to Coast Walk route.

Wainwright knew the right way

unlike, Shepa Dad

Anyway we took it in our stride thinking that Dad would'nt do any More Thomas Traverses (my decription of an off route walk led by DAD with an unknown destination). Hmm how silly were me and Mum? Very! We ended up going up 2 more traverse mountains that yet again Wainwright did not go up as part of his Coast to Coast (The Knott (2423'), Rampsgill Head (2581'). Finally we walked onto and Kidsty Pike (2560' and actually part of the route!). Great start to the day.

High Street from Kidsty Pike

 Moving on to a subject I would rather talk about, the rest of the walk the beautiful Tarn and the descent from  Kidsty Pike down to the Haweswater reservoir. So finally after our little de-tour of the Lake District Fells we walked over to Kidsty Pike and down into the resevoir, where we stopped for a quick break.

Haweswater

We then proceeded around the resevoir (for some miles avoiding sheep and bullocks!!!!) and through Shap Abbey and  into Shap.

Shap Abbey (still 2 miles to go ...)

Typical that our accomodation has to be 1 extra mile at the other end of the small town. Absaloutley TYPICAL. We had some food and went to bed we slept like logs. I will report back tonight to tell all of my lovely and lucky viewers about the forthcoming walk (if there is wifi)

Caitlin :oD

Day 5: Operation Get To Shap!

Glenridding to Shap (16 miles of endless hills)

Made it somehow. Very tired, update tomorrow morning,

Me at Shap Abbey

 

Day 4: Breaking News ... Breaking News ...

Day 4: Grasmere to Glenridding (10 miles)

NEWSFLASH! NEWSFLASH! Is it a red squirrel? Is it a Golden Eagle? Is it a Black Fox? But surely, it can't be ... BLUE SKY, THE SUN!

A mirage ...

We trudged up the hill out of Grasmere in the usual rain and mist but suddenly we saw a break in the clouds, and the sun came out. Amazing!

It felt great to have the warm sun at our backs.

We reached Grisdale Tarn at 2000 feet and had a great view and a goof rest. We decided to head straight down to Glenridding and have some chill out time, leaving  St Sunday Crag and  Hellvelyn for another day.

As we walked down the long path to Glenridding the clouds slowly began to lift and the mountains came into view.

We reached Ulswater by about 5pm and had a paddle in the Lake before going for tea.

Mam's feet are much better thanks to her new "super" insoles (thank-you to the lady in Grasmere Cotswolds).

Its a really long day to Shap tomorrow so I'm off to bed.

see you soon,

Love, Caitlin

Highlight of the day: The sun at our backs

Check me out in teh Northern Echo today (link at the top left of the blog)

Day 3: Wandering in a sea of fog....

Day 03: Seatoller to Grasmere (10 miles and lots of climbing)

Hi Everyone! If you haven't guessed by now the weather today was rather foggy, my weather forcast for today was; Drizzle, rain, drizzle, heavy rain, fog, fog and even thiker fog, drizzle - oh and did I mention that it rained?

Today we set of from Seatoller and yet again still no SUN! We walked through muddy fields and country lanes for about 2-3 miles.

We proceeded upwards`on a seemingless endless trudge to get to 2000 feet.

Eventually we reached our goal and then continued up and down, down and up along the ridges passing three mountains: Calf Crag, Gibsons Knott and and Helm Crag.

On the way and when everyones feet started to reach the climax of their pain, Dad sheepishly told us that the couple behind us had taken the flatter quiker route not along the mountains- oh and then made a quick escape...

We dropped down out of the fog ( still no gorillas ) and walked down to Grasmere where we went up to our hotel room ( Paddy leaving embarrasing dirty footprints EVERYWHERE ) to a nice warming bath which awaited.

154 miles to go ...

Highlight of the day: coming down from the curtain of mist to actually see something other than fog.

Day 2: All Hail Black Sail!

Ennerdale Bridge to Seatoller (14 miles)

Today started at Ennerdale Bridge and it was dry, although still no sun.

We walked round the side of Ennerdale Water for about two hours, it was stunning scenery but the cloud was worryingly low.

Dad started explaining to us how brilliant his GPS was and how we would never get lost, we should have touched wood. We got lost (no surprise) and had to do a "Thomas traverse", it was not too bad (unlike recent experiences).

We then slogged our way up the long road through the Ennerdale Forest to the Black Sail Hut Youth Hostel. The walk was so long that we started to think that the hut did not exist but we ate up the miles even though  our feet were on FIRE. Eventually we saw the hut's chimneys over the trees (Mam nearly passed out with happiness). We went into the kitchen and read the note explaining that there was coffee, tea, hot chocolate and cake (yet again Mam nearly passed out). Dad boiled the kettle on the stove and we left the money in the honesty box. We stayed there for 30 minutes and rested our feet.

Then the real climb began. Up, up, and up into the mist (it started to rain again). The mist got do thick that Mam thought we might see Gorillas. The view from the top was similar to the one from Dent yesterday, I could nearly see Pads at the end of the lead. We were joined by some more very friendly coast to coast walkers and began to clamber down to Honester Pass.

At the slate mine we had a cup of tea and walked a couple of miles down the hill to Seatoller and journey's end.

Another 14 miles done and 164 to go (unless Dad's Boy Toy GPS gets us lost again).

Highlight of the day: The hot chocolate at Black Sail Hut!(and at least it was dry ... most of the time)

Day 1: The Adventure Begins ...

St Bees Head to Ennerdale Bridge (14 miles)

I hope that everyone has been nice and dry today and the weather has been fab where you are.The weather on the West coast today has been rain, rain, and more rain! I have never been so wet in my life, every inch of my body, from head to toe was sopping wet. The funny thing was it all started so brightly.

We took the train from Carlisle (Paddy was a bit reluctant) and got off at St Bees Head, the start of our adventure. We got our boots wet and picked up a stone each from the beach to carry over the country and throw into the North Sea. The weather was quite bright at that stage.

We had a nice walk along the cliffs  and got past the first mile (still going strong and only another 191 to go).

After 5 miles we started heading East and obviously the rain is a magnet to us and the skies opened and down came the rain. We eventually got to the top of a fell called Dent where you were supposed to see the Isle of Man but I could not even see Pads at the end of his lead!

The map said that there would be a forest after we climbed Dent, I got my hopes up for a nice dry, sheltered forest path. However the forest had been cut down so all there was was a big wet path with a river running through the middle of it.

 We plodded on in the rain along the Nannycatch Valley and eventually reached Ennerdale (HALLELUJAH!)

We had walked 14 miles, only another 178 to go.

Highlight of the day: The bath at the hotel

My Training

For the last few weeks or so I have been training hard for my intrepid adventure! I have been for three hard walks in of my favourite places. A few weeks ago we drove over to Keswick, The Lake District: we bought all of our equipment ( e.g boots, socks, trousers, tops- wickaways of course!.....the list is endless!)
Then we went for a walk on the Eastern side of the Lakes and got absolutely sopping wet!

Next we went for a walk with Pads in Weardale and the weather was glorious- so everyone was happy and we stopped at the pub at the end and stuffed our faces with crisps!

On Sunday we went for a 12 mile walk ( the average we have to walk each day ) in Teesdale. Yet again we booked the weather and stopped at the pub on the way ( except this time we shared a kit kat. )
I hope the weather will be nice to us and the sun will shine down, however we are in Britain so the weather can be very unexpected!......

This will probably be my last blog before I set off so make sure you are ready and waiting for me to set off!

See you soon and keep your fingers crossed that the weather is fine! xx ( hopefully not like my walk in the Lake District-see above...)

The Team

Name: Caitlin


Role: Team Leader


Biography: Hi I am Caitlin. I am ten years old and love to walk especially in Teesdale and the Lake District.


I am really looking forward to doing the Coast to Coast walk. I'll be taking this lot with me so follow our adventures on this blog as there will be lots to hear about!






Name: Sherpa Dad


Role: Sherpa & sometimes navigator.


Biography: This is Sherpa Dad. His main job is to carry all of our precious cargo and also to navigate using his silly boy toys. I take after him- he loves walking too!




Name: Organiser Mam

Role: Wardrobe and Organising


Biography: This is Mum. Guess what? She loves to walk as well! Her main job is to organise the rest of the team and make sure we are packed and ready! She also loves our last team member (who doesn't?!) and coos all over him ALL day.





Name: Paddy


Role: Team Morale


Biography: This is Pads. He is in charge of our team's morale. He is probably the keenest out of all of us to complete the coast to coast walk. He is a brilliant dog and keeps all our spirits up, even in the rain.