Showers and Shelters – 22 July

Catamount Motel was awesome, they have been so helpful, this morning they told us to call them if Trevor doesn’t cope and as long as we can get to a crossing 21miles on they will fetch us.

We weren’t going to go anywhere near 21 miles. We planned a short day to give Trevor time to ease into it. He did ok, he wasn’t his normal strong self but I lead and I made sure I kept the pace slow to not exert him. We did about 24km (15 miles)

But even 23km was a big ask, not because of health issues. The rain came. First gentle, then from 12h harder and non-stop. And it was cold, not cool, cold. Surprising after the heatwave of the last two days. We walked in the rain for hours and when we got to the shelter we planned to tent at all the pads were water logged. We went to the shelter itself – we were very wet and very cold and desperate times call for desperate measures. The shelter supposedly sleeps 8. At the moment we are 12 and a dog in here. Now keep in mind that we don’t shelter, we have only sheltered ONCE – this is going to be a loooong night. I am squeezed in between Trevor and a nice young man, hope I remember to snuggle up to left during the night!

And the full shelter is not the end of our problems 😀. Halfway through boiling water for our meal, the flame died. This is cooking with the new gas cannister I bought, so clearly there is something wrong with it. We had lukewarm instant mash and bacon pieces, and a Snickers to cheer us up! We will go into Manchester on Wednesday to sort this out but tomorrow night dinner will be breakfast bars & peanuts.

The weather forecast for tomorrow is more rain and maximum temperatures of 14…..

Don’t dare asking me if we are having fun. Just don’t ask me today!!!

(But the trail today has gone through beautiful areas and Trevor seems better so always something to be thankful for)