Day 4: Gilsland to Carlisle

There was no escaping today's walk. With a 5 day traverse of the country we had to have a high mileage day.
The route was not as spectacular in geographical terms as day three but I was really delighted with what we saw today.

By 10am we crossed the border into Cumbria; what followed was beautiful English countryside with rolling green hills and broadleaf trees. We passed numerous mighty oaks and a beech forest, a waterfall and some pictureque rivers ( and a playground 😉).
The topography of the wall changed outside Gilsland. Initially we saw impressive stretches of the wall and hill forts but these soon became few and far between. English Heritage attributed this to the red Cumbrian stone that was used to construct this section of the wall, it is prone to weathering and therefore had to be recovered in earth to protect it.



By mid afternoon we had seen and chatted with a multitude of walkers from all over the world, couples, families, D of E groups. I had a long chat with a Canadian about the West coast trail and we also walked with an Italian couple and a Yorkshireman.


A particularly nice part of this section of the wall is that local people offer refreshment stops in their gardens; an honesty box is offered for sales. Such a nice gesture.




By 4pm the blue sky vanished and the heavens opened; Full on, thunderstorm and heavy rain. There was 7 miles still left to walk so it was head down and marching for Carlisle as quick as possible. Our Italian and Yorkshire companions doing the same.

Two miles from Carlisle and my waterproof jacket was leaking; I could feel my core temperature dropping and stopped to put on as much dry, warm kit as I could, fortunately, it felt instantly better.
We bid farewell to our companions until tomorrow and headed to the sanctuary of Mike & Angie's house. Amusingly they greated us at the door with IKEA bags (for wet kit), towels, hot drinks a warm shower, dinner and great company. The best 'Lovestation' you could ever find at 20 miles! ❤️

Distance: 19.6 miles in 7 hours (moving time)

Accommodation: Private address in Carlisle

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