Ruth and Peter go west and then head back east and then just keep on going....: Askham, Cumbria: Day 5

Another fine day. The temperature promised to rise to 17 but it seemed warmer.   We collected Joe's paper from the village store and then drove to Great Strickland across the M6 in the Eden valley.   I had found a figure of 8 walk in two sections which rotated around the pub in the middle of the village.   I had called the day before to ask about food and was disappointed to find that they don't serve food until 5.0pm.   Forewarned, we took a packed lunch and parked in the pub car park as directed by the walk instructions.

This walk was a farmland walk with some forest thrown in....and an awful lot of stiles, wooden and stone. Each section was 3 miles long. We took the southern loop first as the route looked more complicated and we thought we'd tackle it when fresh! We made one mistake and toured round a field to locate the gate but eventually found the way.   Great countryside with herds of sheep, inquisitive heifers and darting hares.   Also a wonderful view of the Pennines across the fields.

We arrived back at the pub salivating over the idea of a pint of beer...only to find that they don't open until 5.0pm, which hadn't been clear from their website or my telephone conversation. Still the publican was very apologetic and pointed us in the direction of drinking water and allowed us to eat our lunch at his picnic tables. Eliot phoned just as we arrived at the pub and we talked to him all through lunch!

The second stage of the route was equally varied with some very overgrown paths, some good bridleways and sunken paths.   Towards the half way point we couldn't make sense of the instructions at all and had to resort to my phone satellite image.   We went wrong at some point and reached a road, but it was the road back to Great Strickland so we stuck with it.   On the way into the village we met a woman who had helped us find our path when we were setting off. She joked that if we'd turned the other way we'd have come to the ice cream farm!   Back at the pub, the publican also mentioned the ice cream farm so it seemed fated that we should pay a visit.   We had a tub each of strawberry and hazelnut (2 separate flavours) and very good it was too.   We felt we needed the reward! My fit bit tells me that we walked 7.5 miles.

Back in the car we went into Penrith and bought food for supper, which Peter is cooking. Spag Bol!