Day 8 - Bampton Grange to Orton

On our rest day we managed to dry our tent, our clothing, and my boots.  Fiona's boots are 90% dry, so she is now only a little bit soggy.  Not that we expect this progress to last long, as the weather looks overcast and the forecast is for rain.  We are not optimistic about staying dry.  

Today we put the Lake District behind us, and start heading toward the Yorkshire Dales.  On an overbridge across the M6 motorway we manage to get internet coverage on our phones.  Coverage by the British mobile phone network is so bad that this is almost justification to break out a jug of cider and a couple of Yorkshire puddings.  As one local said to us - "outside of London we have a choice of twenty equally terrible networks".  For the first time in twenty five years, Fiona and I are back to utilizing coin operated pay phones; how..... quaint.

We  are deliberately trying to walk slowly today, to give my knee an opportunity to heal.  The landscape is flatter, whimsical, and quintessentially English.  It just makes you want to paint, write poetry, buy a Landrover, and declare war on France. 

Farmland on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales

At Orton, probably the cutest village that we have visited to-date on the walk, we camp in the "beer garden" of the local pub.  We are doubtful about this plan, but as it turns out we get an excellent night's sleep.  At Orton we also re-meet several Coast-to-Coast walkers that we had first encountered at Bampton Grange.  This would eventually turn into a cohort of twelve walkers that are doing the Coast-to-Coast at the same time and at approximately the same pace: a group of four Australians, a pair of Australians, a single Australian, two Americans, just one Brit, and ourselves.  Golly, that is a lot of Australians.  Couldn't we put them all on a boat and send them to the opposite side of the world?

And, despite the forecast and overcast sky, it didn't rain!

Distance Walked Today: 20km