It was meant to be a rest day…

Coast to coast day 5
Having struggled to stand up after dinner, then forced to crawl up the stairs, I didn’t expect to be walking today! To say I was surprised to get out of bed pain free is an understatement, but I was grateful! That said today is a rest day, with a short five mile walk from Housestead, where we finished last night, back to the B&B. (Or so I thought!)
Instead of asking the taxi driver to drop us back to where we finished, we went to Vindolanda, an amazing Roman fort. The ruins at Vindolanda date back to 200AD and give a fascinating insight into Roman life. Having spent the morning wandering round the fort and museum, we had already clocked up two miles, we then left for the short ascent to Housestead. The walk back turned out to be another two miles uphill, and when I saw the crag ahead my heart sank. It turned out the crag I was looking at was one of the ones from yesterday lol. I was contemplating walking back along the road to avoid any more climbs, however the weather was so warm, the fresh tarmac kept sticking to my boots!
As we reached Housestead we hit the four miles – so today our rest day was going to be around nine miles! Doug and his little detours! We stamped our passports, that’s four stamps now 😍, then off we go. The first part of the walk is described as two big swoops – it sounded beautiful until I realised that means, climb hill, “swoop” right down into a valley – and then repeat! Then rising up you will get amazing views from Sewingshields CRAG – it’s another crag!!! I looked up and saw  Sewingshields towering 1000 feet above us! Whilst the thought of struggling up another 1000 feet climb filled me with dread, I was determined not to be beaten today! Head down and off we go, guess what, I walked straight up it! Finally a crag I had beaten lol, and I do believe the last of the crags.
So not exactly the rest day I envisaged, but still a great day. Tomorrow we move on to East Walhouses, this is a relatively flat walk, it’s described as not much gradient, only 1000 feet, it’s 14 miles and having checked the weather it is forecast to be 24 degrees. Plenty of water, sunscreen and spare socks (walking in sweaty socks is not good!)
My stats so far since we started are:
Total miles to date: 60 miles
Total steps to date: 180,150 steps
Total climb to date: 13,420ft (Fitbit measures the climbs, and as it’s up and down, there’s a lot of climbing!)
Even with all the climbing we are still managing an average speed of 2.2 mph. I might not be super fast, but I just keep going 😂😂😍
Night all and I will let you know how tomorrow goes – day 6
Virtually Yours
Michele xx