Day 5 – Shap
The white lion is a great little pub situated in the Hamlet of Patterdale (must be only about 6 properties in the village/Hamlet).
My friend Paul Brittan (chopper) was joining me on todays walk. This is supposed to be one of (if not the) hardest legs of the whole coast to coast.
You start off with a 5 mile climb, albeit quite gentle in Lakeland terms, up to Kidsty Pike Summit at a mere 760 Metres it is the highest point of the whole coast to coast (unless you chose one of the high options during day 2 or Day 3). The views over High Street and down to hawkeswater were unforgettable. Paul and I set off early ( I had to run back to the shop at Patterdale and collect my walking poles) around 8:30 to ensure we didn’t arrive too late in Shap. After an initial intense climb up to Bordale Hause it flattened off for a few metres before the climb commenced again. After a good 60 mins we arrived at the beautiful Angel Tarn (Tarn means lake) which is about 500 metres up. The water was so blue it seemed bluer than blue should be, if that makes sense. The area around this was so tranquil and ‘perfect’. Then its up again only another 260 metres to go. This was a challenge with the wind which was (or at least felt) storm force and blew me over at one point. Turning at High Street to the summit of Kidsty Pike the wind was intense. My anxiety of heights kicked in at this point so didn’t hang about at the summit and instead made our way down.
5 miles to get up and 2 miles to go down, the decent was steep and at some points quite scary. The 4 americans were overtaken by Paul who decided on the switchback decent approach whilst I gingerly made my way down like a 70 year old. My knees were suffering since day 2’s decent into Borrowdale, going up and straight are fine, just need to manage these for the next 10 days.
Anyway we had a break at the base of the mountain (fell) and had some lunch. Then the 4 mile struggle called Hawkeswater. I wanted to go to the south side of the water as I heard it was easier walking (ie no rocks to walk on) but it was a little longer. Paul wanted to go the north side, so we did. I mentioned a few times I told you so, when he complained of the terrain. Anyway we reached the Dam and the rocky terrain was replaced with rolling fields alongside running rivers. We even found an honesty box which was very welcome. I had to wait many times for Paul to catch up on the run into Shap, which added about 30 mins to our walk.
over a few fields, a slog to the Shap Abbey and a long walk through the non descript town of Shap to the Kings Arms.
Paul was instantly recognised by the 60 year old drunken northern villa fan! Paul had pad £70 to get a taxi over to Patterdale from Shap the night before after begging the locals in the pub for a lift. One of the drunken locals offered to sell his bike to Paul for £30.
We had a couple of well deserved beers and some food. The room was ok actually and the new landlord and landlady were really very nice…
Paul drove home around 7 and left me to watch the Spurs match on my own – which was a good thing as I left the bar at 85 mins. Slept like a log until 6:30.
