2026 Day 11 - Kirkby-Stephens Rest Day
Another much appreciated rest day. This time in Kirkby-Stephens, a q. uaint little village big enough to have a post office and 2 service stations.
Our B n B is very conveniently located on the high street. Every thing is just a few steps away. For a small town, there are quite a few pubs and places of alcohol. Where there is alcohol, there are churches.
We visited the Cloisters which is a ancient church. It boast a really old viking stone called the Loki stone. This has the motive of the demon god, Loki, carved in relief. Paradoxically, this stone is displayed in the foyer of the church. The church services both anglicans and catholics. How does that work? We then wandered around the town. Lots of old houses and there was walk bridge over a very low river. Looks like they had a relatively dry winter in these parts.
Then we had lunch at the Berry Grape cafe. Normally I am not vegetarian type but the salad was delicious.
Val and Maclivers setting off on a "short" walk. I decided to save my legs for tomorrow
Very clever decorarions for your house
Great place for a picnic
I love the colour contrasting against the gray walls
No drinking in that hall
Standard menu of a Chinese restaurant. Didn't hold much hope
Water fountain from 1850 - great way to transmit cholera
Pot plant garden of a potty lady (she was chatty but pleasantly crazy)
By the time you go the code, the patient will be dead. On the other hand, if it wasn't locked up, it would be stolen or vandalised and the patient would have been dead anyway. Either way, you are fucked
Lots of these stone houses. Guess they just use materials abundant in the region.
Entrance to the Cloisters (Church)
Fiona putting her feet up on the grounds of the Cloisters
distinctive Frenchy feel to the Church
eclectic decor of the Crofthouse
Great and interesting old books on the bookshelf
Val andFiona
Cafe where we had the salads for lunch - only 3 properties down from the accommodation
Lovely red door
That is how you decorate a blank wall
One of may alcoholic establishments
Dude knight with his first wife (on the right) and his second wife (on his left)
Another dude knight
walk bridge sets a pretty scene
Strangest and ugliest pipe organ I have ever seen inside a church
Chinese restaurant right next to a pet shop - how very convenient
That river is very low - needs more rain but after we haev finished our walk, thank you!
The Crofthouse - great B n B to stay
Talk to the Alter boys!
Quite a big post office - must be the distribution centre as well
Curios and antique shop right next door - selling all sorts of junk but very interesting place to browse
Mummy and Daddy duck on the river
Lovely large property - screams of money
town's big enough to have roundabout (even though it is painted)
Back to basecamp for a nap.
We had booked a table at the local Chinese - the Century Chinese. I wasn't expecting much. I had reset my standards to being lower than a snake's belly and I wasn't disappointed. Very very average as expected. That is because there is no discerning taste buds in England that they could get away with it. They would go broke in a week in Perth. To add insult to injury, they charged us AUD$5 for a small pot of chilli sauce. Dirty dirty bastards.
Still it was our last meal with Val and the Maclivers and it was fun.
Then we returned to the Croft house and did a quiz laboriously and well constructed by Debbie followed by a charades game from Fiona. Great fun and it was interesting to see all the competitive juices flowing.
Val leaves very early in the morning to get to Manchester airport by 1200 hrs. She then flies out to Dublin. The Maclivers are on a trainto London and fly out to Perth the day after. We said our goodbyes. It is sad to see them go as it has been a great 2 weeks with them. That leaves the Lims and Leonie to trudge on.
Tomorrow will be another long walk.
This featured blog entry was written by wilson.lim61 from the blog 2026 The UK Long March - Wainwright Way.
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