Distance: 19.3 miles
Time: 5 hrs 55 mins
Weather: Cloudy with sunny intervals
Cumulative distance: 463.8 miles
I was awoken by pheasants. Chris cooked a delicious full English breakfast, but minus the eggs which remained on his shopping list. We set off for Kendal, but a procession of cows being led down the road delayed our arrival. Chris performed an overtaking manoeuvre that Lewis Hamilton would have been proud of to leave the cattle behind.
Today's route followed the Lancaster canal. It was an interesting walk in that it highlighted the three different statuses of the canal. The first section of six miles was largely infilled or overgrown after being closed in 1944. The footpath here was mainly narrow and muddy and I got rather wet battling through the nettles. The next section ressembled a canal, but wasn't continuous due to a number of man made features, including the M6 motorway, which blocked the canal at different points. I managed to miss a signpost hidden in a hedgerow and ended up walking to where the towpath ended next to the motorway and had to retrace my steps. The final section about 4 miles north of Carnforth was finally navigable and canal barges became more prevalent.
I'm aware of a few people who are plotting my route towards Land's End. My daughter Hannah has been tracking my journey on a map of the British Isles and places a pin at each day's destination. My route now looks like visible progress since John O Groats, but there's still a long way to go.
I reached Carnforth, where Chris collected me and drove me to his home between Preston and Blackpool. Chris and his wife Alison, who I'd also not seen for over twenty years, cooked an excellent dinner of pork chops, followed by home grown strawberries and a single raspberry.
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