Day 6 - Caldbeck to Carlisle (16.2 miles)

The day again dawned with glorious blue skies, but with that welcome nip in the air that makes walking a pleasure.  I set out for my last day’s walking at around 9.15am, and immediately had a bit of trouble finding my way out of Caldbeck.  I think I could have taken a much more direct route through the village, but I tried to follow the route as shown on the OS map, and I got rather disorientated.  Anyway, I soon found the village green with its large pond and headed east, alongside Cald Beck, where I met three young and very cute lambs in a small pen at the side of the path.

Colourful cottages, Caldbeck

Spring lambs - Aaarhh!

A short time after entering Parsons Park Wood, the route climbed quite steeply before levelling out.  Poppy spotted a deer crashing through the trees, but fortunately she was on the lead – I didn’t want to lose her at this stage of the walk!  After crossing a couple of fields, the bridleway headed into woods again.
 

View back to Carrock Fell and High Pike

The 'crucial point' on the footpath, where I had a moment of indecision

The book describes a ‘crucial point’ where you had to look for a ‘difficult to spot’ junction.  Unfortunately, this point seems to have been moved from where it is shown on the map, so I was a little unsure of the route for a while, as my GPS told me I hadn’t gone far enough.  I backtracked a couple of hundred meters to the junction and took the correct path, which descended quite steeply to the river, and continued alongside the babbling water on a rocky path.  As I left the cover of trees again, to skirt a large field, the route swung northwards once again to reach a lane. 

Rocky path by River Caldew

Poppy plays 'queen of the castle'

A steepish path up the side of a field took me to a track leading to Sebergham church.  We had a quick stop here and I gave Poppy a drink.  It was quite warm, and whilst away from the river, there wasn’t as much ground water around today.  I headed north along a tarmac track, past Sebergham Hall (which was rather well hidden from view), to reach another lane at Bell Bridge.

Sebergham church

Farmland views

I descended from the road onto the riverside path down a flight of tricky stone steps.  I had to give Poppy a hand too.  From here there was miles of easy walking along the river bank.  After about 2 miles, I stopped for a rest and lay down on a grass bank, with views towards Rose Castle, home to the Bishops of Carlisle since the 13^th Century.  The sun was warm on my face, and it was really peaceful.

Cows slake their thirst in the Caldew

Rose Bridge

About ½ mile after Rose Bridge, the CW left the river and headed up a hill.  From the top I looked back for my last lingering view to the distant Lakeland Fells.  Continuing northwards for about a mile, I passed 2 rather grand properties – Lime House School and Hawksdale Hall, before arriving at the village of Bridge End.  The guide book mentioned a petrol station, so I was in half a mind to buy an ice-cream, but unfortunately the garage was now a car showroom, so I had to go without.

Hawksdale Hall

Bishops Mill, Bridge End

After a little road walking (and a little navigation problem) I found the correct route out of Bridge End, past Ellers Mill.  I had now met up again with the River Caldew. Crossing a white bridge (called White Bridge), I reached the village of Dalston, on the busy B5299.  I soon located the Country Kitchen Cafe, run by the lady I had met at the Oddfellow Arms the previous evening, and sat at a pavement table to enjoy a cup of tea and piece of cake.  As the pavement was so hard, I let Poppy lie on my jumper, and she gratefully lay down.  We had now walked about 11 miles today, with just 4 to go to reach Carlisle.

The mill race

White Bridge

The lady (who’s name I have forgotten, sorry) offered to look after Poppy while I used her loo, and then we said our goodbyes.  I decided to buy some food at the bakers opposite to eat back at the B&B latter that evening as I didn’t really fancy heading back out into Carlisle to find somewhere to eat which would allow dogs.

Millenium statue, Dalston

A mature River Caldew

North of Dalston, the CW left the road, and joined up with a cycle path that ran for about 3 ½ km to Cummersdale.  Although it was flat walking, it was not particularly inspiring, particularly at the beginning when it run behind a factory, and the tarmac was hard on the feet.  At least Poppy was able to run free as we were away from any sheep fields.  After a couple of miles I passed under the railway bridge near Cummersdale.  The map shows the route continuing along the cycle path on the western bank of the river, but my guide book describes the route along the eastern bank. As I was a bit fed up with the tarmac by now, I elected to go for the eastern route which followed a narrow path adjacent to fields in which cows were grazing.

Weir at Denton Holme

Empty gas tower, Carlisle - almost beautiful?

Eventually I reached the outskirts of Carlisle and left the river bank to walk on the pavements alongside busy roads to reach the center of town.  There was a lot of traffic about, and, near the bridge over the railway, it was a bit galling to find I had to walk several hundred meters the wrong way down a street to reach a safe crossing point!  A little weary, I finally reached Market Square – in the pedestrianised shopping centre.  There were loads of people about, and I asked a women to take my photo by the finish point.  MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.



Mission accomplished - Market Square, Carlisle



I walked wearily to my B&B and pretty much collapsed for the rest of the evening.  I was very tired, and my back was aching quite badly. I think it was the mileage on hard surfaces that was the problem today.  The room was lovely (probably the nicest of the whole trip), and was a very large single, in the eaves of the house, so it had lovely sloping ceilings.  The bathroom, which was on the landing, had a nice big shower too.  The only two drawbacks were a) it was on the third floor (bad for tired legs) and b) the room was to the front of the property, so overlooked the busy road, which was very noisy.  When trying to get to sleep I had no choice to close the window, as the traffic was still rushing past at gone 10pm.

Howard Lodge, Carlisle

I had a shower and identified my photos, then ate my pasty.  Poppy had a well earned sleep.  A little later in the evening I found my way to Rickerby Park to give Poppy a last walkies.  She was amazingly lively and kept running round like a lunatic.  I have no idea where she found the energy – I was pooped!  I think she may have overdone it a bit thought, because the next morning she was a bit stiff and rather reluctant to go down the 3 flights of stairs.