Dear Lake District...

At the end of Day 5, I would be a third of the way through and have ticked the Lake District off the list. There was the small matter of a 15 mile walk to get through first.

Up, up, up and then up a bit more pretty much sums up the first few hours of the walk from Patterdale to Shap. I convinced myself that my frequent stops were to make sure I could fully take in the beauty around me but I’m not sure that I had anyone else fooled!

That said, I don’t have enough superlatives in my vocabulary to describe how beautiful it was. The Lakes in the sunshine: I’m truly blessed.

What goes up, must come down and this is where I got to experience my biggest test of the walk so far. My left knee had started to niggle the previous day and a steep descent was not what it needed to recover. Trying not to bend your left leg going downhill or wincing every time you do, slows you down somewhat and it was only having Mark and Zan by my side that stopped the tears rolling down my face.

Inge, Brian, Seung and Alex were still there waiting for us when we finally reached the bottom and, after a quick sandwich, I felt revived enough to tackle the long stretch along the shores of Haweswater.

Zan and I decided to amuse ourselves by composing a letter to the Lake District. We congratulated it on many things (mostly its views) but pointed out a few areas where it could do better (no hills at the end of the day, more signposts to where we were going, fewer sheer drops off the sides of cliffs...). On balance though, we reckon it’s got a lot going for it and will probably catch on in a year or two.

Once we reached the end of the reservoir, it was still a few more miles to Shap, taking in the ruined Abbey on the way.

For once, we were all staying in the same place but would sadly be losing both Seung and Zan from our little walking family the following day. I think we gave them a pretty good send off and I definitely went to bed feeling the happiest I have been for a while.

Day 5:
Walked: 41,342 steps (15 miles)

Stayed and ate: New Ing Lodge, Shap (highly recommended) 

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