Rest Day - Kirkby Stephen

First item of business today: Happy Birthday Vicki! Hope your day is blessed beyond measure and that it is peaceful and relaxed, in spite of all that’s going on. Love and prayers my friend.  

Getting out of bed, every bit of us ached. Thankfully we are not donning full rain gear and taking off on another 15 mile hike in the rain. That’s for tomorrow. 

Our lodging for the past two nights. Not recommended. 

Before walking across the street to Brysons bakery for breakfast, we set up our boots in front of a fan to hopefully get them dried out before walking again tomorrow.  

Bryson’s Bakery - not the full English today and they were yesterday’s goods as well.

Jo Anne’s laundry. What?!?!?

Off to the launderette 

While Jo Anne was still getting her clothes dry I walked over to a sheep auction. Found out the breed of the hog/sheep we’ve been seeing is the Texel.

It is a breed of domestic sheep originally from the island of Texel in the Netherlands. A heavily muscled sheep, it produces a lean meat. The wool is around 32 micrometres and is mostly used for hosiery yarns and knitting wools.

Kirkby Stephen is an old market town, with a charter since 1351. You get the idea that it doesn't quite know what it wants to be 😀. It seems larger than it really is, bound on one side by the River Eden, and on another by low hill pastures.

Look at this stone we found in the sidewalk! Alfred Wainwright, the founder of this coast to coast walk, came through here in 1973. Surprise! Surprise!

An obligatory shot of the famous signpost in the center of town. I believe it is the only one in England to record distances in both miles and furlongs (1 furlong = 220 yards).

Kirkby's church of St Stephen is rather like a small cathedral. 

The main attraction here, as in all the other hamlets and villages is the church. It is usually a magnificent old church located in the center. This one at Kirkby Stephen has been here a thousand years! I love hearing the bells ring. It is called the Cathedral of the Dales and is made of the same type of reddish stone as the church in St. Bees.

Tomb of Thomas 1st Lord Wharton and his two wives, Eleanore and Anne. 

Even after a thousand years, it is still going strong, the architecture is in tact, and it’s still beautiful. There is an ancient Norman coffin by the north wall and a cabinet that holds ancient Bibles. It has been fascinating as well as amusing to see some of the unusual relics harbored within these ancient churches in north England. Two unusual relics in this church are

1) a boar’s tusk that is supposed to be the last boar shot in England and 

   2) the Loki Stone, carved by Vikings in 700 A.D. Loki is a Norse god with horns: the chained Norse trickster, sometimes thought of as satan. Not sure why they would house this in a church. 

The old town was built for defense against border raiders, with narrow, high-walled passages and spacious squares where they would drive the cattle in times of danger.

There are cute little shops, a pharmacy, and a few little places to eat. We pick a spot for lunch called the Mulberry Bush Cafe. 

The soup of the day was a delicious carrot and celeriac served with a cheese scone.

Apparently Heinz baked beans are quite the ticket here. No thank you. I don’t care for baked beans on my baked potato or on a sandwich with cheese or for breakfast. 

This beautiful old church building is now a youth hostel. 

We kept seeing these signs around (especially at churches) and it piqued my curiosity so I did some research. 

SmartWater is a clear, harmless solution that can be dabbed onto an object or sprayed onto a criminal using a specially designed sprayer installed in a home or business. When dabbed onto an item that is later stolen and recovered by police, the original owner can be determined after a lab tests it for its signature formula.

There are millions of binary sequences that ensure the uniqueness of each SmartWater used. Each SmartWater formula contains millions of tiny fragments that give the water a unique “SIN” (SmartWater Identification Number) that can be registered in a national police database along with the owner’s details.

We walked around for a bit longer then back to the room to repack all of our clean clothes. Yay! 

Our stats for today:

12,717 steps

5.3 miles

8 floors

“Every word of God proves true;
    he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.” Prov 30:5

As I sit here writing this blog post, I was thinking about Jo Anne breaking out into song when she went up to Easedale Tarn a few days ago. I was reminded that three days before daddy died, we had music playing in his room. He loved listening to music. How Great Thou Art was playing on his little stereo and Jo Anne started singing softly along with it. Then we heard daddy start to sing. You could barely hear him because his voice was so faint at that time but it's something I'll never forget. "When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation, and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart. Then I shall bow, in humble adoration, and then proclaim, my God how great thou art." What an amazing testimony of a life well-lived (la vie bien vécue).