Monday 8 August 2011

Day 35- Forest to Stonehaugh

Quick apology that we've been so behind on blog but we've had real trouble finding internet anywhere and have been rather busy! :) People have suggested missing out days and writing them in after or writing in less detail but we want to share all the stories so please bare with is :)


Woke up terrified!! Scariest wake up call ever! A massive lorry drove inches past our tent at 7:00 am and we thought it was going to flatten us! However, it was very effective and we were up and all ready to walk by 7:55. As soon as we got walking the flies were out in full force and already following jade....she was instantly annoyed!


Today it was pretty cloudy and it was raining on and off. The path led us up out of the forest and through a really boggy way before we came out on to the open moorland. The path was boggy and muddy but also like an assault course, we had to take our bags off at one point to crawl under a massive tree that had fallen down on the path. Our shoes and socks were wet in no time! After following the path across the moorlands we then ended up at a farm, from here Bellingham wasn't far, however, it took us ages to get there and we blame the signposts....they are rubbish! We think the Pennine Way is biased and doesn't like people that are walking North to South! We ended up following a footpath sign into a field full of sheep and got to the end of the field to find that a massive bull was standing right in the gateway that we wanted to get through. We were scared and didn't want to walk past it so we decided to go through another gate further around which lead us through another field. We snuck around the edge of this over field which was really high grass and hoped the bull wouldnt see us but the sheep definately gave away our sneaking! They were all either really noisy or they'd suddenly go really quiet....thanks! So we got back into the field we wanted to be in and had successfully managed to sneak past the bull only to find that there was no way out of the field, it was a dead end! So we had to sneak back out again and army crawl under an electric fence! Anyway, we finally arrived in Bellingham and brought cake from the cute little bakery before having a nice long break and cup of tea in a cafe further down the road. 


Full of tea and cake we carried on our way. We somehow managed to loose the Pennine Way again but got back on it easily enough. We past the noisiest cow ever that seemed to have been sectioned off into its own field, it was standing up on a high stony ledge and howling like a wolf as we walked past, we could here it all the way down the road. 


We wanted to stay at a campsite tonight and saw one on the map which was slightly off route at a place called Stonehaugh. We weren't sure the best way to get there or even exactly where we were so we decided to knock on a farmhouse door and ask. The couple that lived there were lovely and when they heard what we were doing brought us out a cup of tea and kitkat each, gave us some sponsorship money and googled the campsite for us because they weren't totally sure that it was a proper campsite. They also had a really cute dog called Friday (Jade swears it was called Wednesday) and a cat called Alice! Turns out it was a proper campsite and the easiest way to get there was on the road so we decided to do that. 


We got to the campsite and went and payed but it was a crazy pricing system, had to pay per person and then for a tent on top! Surely you either should pay per person or per tent....not both! There was also a key system for the toilets which we don't like, however, the campsite was quite nice. Lights in the showers were a bit weird though they went out after about 1 minute so had to take it in turns- one in the shower one on light duty! Would be tricky if you were camping on your own!!!

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