Day 8 to Kirkby Stephen (6th day hiking - 34 K)

We had a lovely full British breakfast, as we knew we had to walk at least 34K. We left New Ing Lodge in rain, but ready for it. We crossed the M6 and thought for a minute about the fact that we could cover St. Bees to Robin's Hood Bay by this route, in three hours, but plowed on. The morning went quickly. We caught up with three other hikers we have seen on the trail a few times but parted company in the charming village of Orton. We were all about a visit to the chocolate factory tea room for lunch, they were more determined to move ahead. The Orton chocolate factory had the best hot chocolate EVER!! Absolutely the right decision. After we walked on and on through sheep pasture after sheep pasture, through lovely farmyard after not so lovely farmyard, onto a meadow that did not end, following a stone wall that also did not end. No wonder our guide book describes this part as one of England's "empty quarters". Much of the path is "permissive" which means local landowners agreed to, and many even marked, the path. We did see, as per our guidebook, an abandoned railroad and "giant graves", but managed to miss Black Dub. The jury is out on whether we saw Robin Hood's grave. What we did see was an unusual number of dead bunnies. EWWWW! We walked into Kirkby Steven at 7pm having left Shap at 8:30am. Our B & B, Lockholme, was very comfy and the local pub served up a hearty dinner and the standard pint.