Sunday 12th April 1998

Soon after leaving Shap, the M6 motorway is crossed before you reach the remote hamlet of Oddendale. You then cross a quiet limestone plateau en-route to the village of Orton. From here I deviated from Wainwrights route and followed the deserted country lane to Sunbiggin Tarn. After Brownber, Smardale Bridge is reached and the walking is pleasant and easy all of the way into Kirkby Stephen on tracks and field paths.

Route: Shap to Kirkby Stephen via Oddendale, Orton, Raisbeck, Sunbiggin Tarn, Brownber, Smardale Bridge.

Distance: 17 Miles

Grade: Moderate - a relatively easy walk but fairly long.

Facilities: All available. I stayed at the Jolly Farmers guesthouse, which I rated as the best of the whole trip. The rooms are excellent and it has it’s own restaurant and bar. There are numerous guesthouses,pubs,cafés shops and also cashpoints in Kirkby Stephen. There is also a Youth Hostel..

Day Five

Some days you know that you should have stayed in bed. This was one of those days, at least to begin with. It started benignly enough with a stroll along Shap High Street before heading off across fields to a bridge over the M6. Reaching the outskirts of the remote hamlet of Oddendale I spent some time looking for a stone circle marked on the map. Eventually, I located it and spent some time looking westwards towards the Lake District hills, the outline of Kidsty Pike clearly visible on the skyline. Leaving the stone circle, I strolled along in pleasant limestone country through a shallow valley dotted with limestone outcrops. After a time I became aware that I had yet to find Robin Hoods Grave, the next notable feature marked on the route-map. I had been strolling along enjoying the peace and quiet and not really concentrating on route finding. I now realised that I had completely lost the path. I decided that the easiest thing to do was to take a rough bearing and walk across country until I met up with the road into the village of Orton. This idea was fine in theory but not so easy to put into practice. As I tried to follow the compass bearing I continually encountered drystone walls barring my way. Eventually, after numerous frustrating changes of direction, I found myself in a field completely enclosed by walls apart from the gap I had entered by.

Irritated, I decided I wasn’t about to turn back again and began climbing the rather dilapidated structure barring my way. As I gripped the top of the wall to pull myself up, I felt something give and instinctively jumped backwards which was fortunate as a large section of the crumbling wall then collapsed at my feet with a loud crash. I quickly glanced around wondering if anyone had heard the noise when I noticed a farm worker some distance away on a quad bike. He didn’t appear to have heard the commotion and I made my way quickly in the direction of the Orton Road, hoping that my presence would go undetected as I suspected that I might have been trespassing. As I approached a river in a shallow valley, a sheep that up until now had been munching away at the grass disinterestedly looked up at me and bleated. This seemed to be a signal for every sheep in the valley to suddenly take an interest in me. Soon, the entire valley was resonating to the sound of sheep bleating as they ran from all directions towards me. The noise was deafening and I felt sure that any moment now the quad bike would appear in the valley and my presence discovered. I ran to the river and through the shallow water toward a gate on the opposite side of the valley where I hoped I would be able to find a way to the Orton road. As I reached the top of the valley wall I turned expecting to see a whole flock of sheep on my heels but was surprised to see that they had not followed me across the river. They were now just standing around, their attention once more on the important task of munching grass. Relieved, I passed through the gate and crossed a limestone pavement to the Orton Road without further incident.

Once on the road, I walked to Orton where I stopped on the village green for a coffee and a chance to review the situation. It had taken me over three hours to walk around six miles and I was not very happy. Looking at the map and seeing that there was a country lane running almost in a straight line to Sunbiggin Tarn, I decided to temporarily abandon Wainwright’s route and take the chance to get a few miles under my belt. I left the village and was soon rolling along the virtually deserted road from where I had superb views of the Howgill Fells (pictured) to my right. I made very good time and was soon at Sunbiggin Tarn. From the tarn I followed a track to Brownber and from here picked up the old coach road to Smardale Bridge where I stopped for a lunch break. The weather had improved since leaving the Lake District and although there was still a chill in the air I found a sheltered spot on the riverbank below the bridge and I felt quite warm in the spring sunshine. Behind me lay Smardale viaduct, long since disused but adding a certain charm to the landscape.

Resuming my journey over the hills, I approached the Settle to Carlisle railway line and once again found myself walking in a snow flurry as I passed underneath it. This time however, it was far lighter and shorter-lived than some of those I had encountered in the Lakes and soon I was in the Kirkby Stephen High St. where I located my guesthouse. This turned out to be the best guesthouse of the whole trip and I was pleased to discover that they had a bar. I bought myself a drink and sat perusing the menu as I chose my evening meal. Later that evening, after my meal in the restaurant, I wandered into the town and had a couple of drinks in one of the many pubs. Kirkby Stephen was the busiest place I had encountered so far on the walk. Tomorrow I would be staying in the quietest.