Hi everyone! Yes, the rain sort of spoiled some of it -- well 3 days out of the 8, we were completely soaked & walking in squishy-squishy socks & boots for miles on end. One day, we gave it up at lunchtime & called the farmer where we were staying that night to come & get us -- it was that horrendous Monday, we'd walked 4-5 miles through constant pouring rain & still had 8-9 more miles to go.
So I walked all but about 8-9 miles of the entire 80 (or so) mile trail -- plus a bit, because there's parts where you have to walk off trail into the town where you're staying & then back out again. Some accommodations are right on the trail & others not. All told it was at least 80 miles all together.
Have been exhausted & trying to catch up on sleep, a mountain of stinky dirty laundry & figuring out a way to dry out our boots & keep them from smelling mildewy - ugh. Never ended up really needing my 'summer' boots that I bought in France, but I wore them for one day at the beginning as I recall.
My 'waterproof' jacket failed at the first hurdle - never buy Peter Storm products if you're hoping to keep dry! I didn't have waterproof trousers because they don't make them in my size, but I thought I'd be ok with regular hiking pants - figuring there would just be the odd shower & then they dry quickly. Well that doesn't work when it never stops raining.
My boots are good & waterproof but that doesn't work either when you are walking in water over the tops of them and/or the water is running down your sodden clothes into your boots.
I was fit enough for all the walking - the 10-12 mile days. Sometimes a bit stiff at night or in the morn, but once I was up & walking again - no real problems. My feet were what hurt the most & at the end of a long day's walk, it was hard getting my trainers on (due to swelling) when we were going for a meal, etc. I was pretty tired at the end of the longer days & it was strange because then I'd also have trouble sleeping - when I was the most tired!
The days that it didn't rain were mostly fun & we stayed in some nice places. I enjoyed all the small, out of the way places along the way -- surprised at how remote it was in some portions. We stayed at a couple of farms out in the middle of nowhere! Only the place we stayed in Bowness (on Windermere) wasn't so nice. I wasn't too keen on Bowness generally -- too much touristy crap there. If I want to go to Disneyland, there's Orlando for that. The Lake District (in my mind) is supposed to be about something else entirely. So in the end, it was really all about the journey this time, not the destination.
One thing we both didn't necessarily like was that despite our slow pace walking each day, because we kept going & staying in a different place every night - it seemed to go very fast. Like we didn't have time to stop & linger much here or there -- had to get back on that trail & keep walking to get it done. Still we found some cool places that we'd definitely like to go back to & spend more time just there.
Will I do anything like that again? Hmmmm - not sure at this point. The rainy parts weren't very nice at all & I found myself crabby a lot on other days - not sure but probably combination of exhaustion, mild hangovers from having cider every night
, too many full English breakfasts...bleh! Right now, I don't think I could stomach another one -- once I went off them about mid-way through, I started to feel a lot better.
It's still hard to believe I walked all that way! And I've been a little stiff since I stopped but have had some great nights sleep the last couple nights.
