O Canada!

Today's walk started from Orton on a beautiful sunny morning and when I say sunny I mean four o'clock in the morning sunny. Anyone who knows me well knows I do not like to wake up early but here I can not sleep because it is so bright so early. I am not sure but it seems to set after ten and is back up before four. We walked along on a gently rolling path for hours with no navigational problems and believe it or not Sue, the navigator even helped some British people who were lost. We walked through the moors for part of the day and it is a very depressing landscape, no wonder Dickens used it as a location for his novels. As we walked through them Sue retold me the story of Great Expectations. When we were about half way there we got a little disoriented and were not quite sure which way to go. We paused for a bit hoping that our German friends might find us but they did not show up but a wonderful Canadian couple helped us out today. They had a GPS and we just walked the rest of the way to Kirkby Stephen with them. They were incredibly interesting people who's idea of a great vacation is to be dropped off by plane somewhere in the NW Territories and canoe there for three weeks and get picked up at the end. They were our perfect walking partners because they were both 72 years old! We had to work hard but we did not them or their GPS out of our sight. They hugged us goodbye and said they hoped they would see us again, maybe they are good liars but I think they meant it. We actually got here in pretty good time, we did 13 miles in 6.5 hours. We were moving because we had an appointment to have leg massages at 3:30, thank you so much Mary Beth! After our rehab session we had more wine and a great meal. On our way back to our B&B who did we meet but our wonderful German friends! We were so worried that we would not see them again. We all had a good laugh and a sad farewell because they fly home tomorrow. They told us that they call us The American Ladies! We have their e-mail addresses and we have invited them to come for a visit. We owe them a lot! We are staying here tomorrow to do laundry and just browse this little village and we will take a taxi to Keld and get back on the trail the day after. Rain is coming tomorrow and we have no desire to trudge through a foot of mud! We are creating our own trip across England, no more risking life and limb.