Sunday 16th April 2017 – total 665 miles.

Sarah made us all bacon and egg butties for breakfast – thanks Sarah and Ivan, we enjoyed our time with you and look forward to catching up with you both again soon. We left Whalley around 10am and drove to Preston to fill up with petrol then continued northwards. 

We popped into the Saddle Inn for coffee. Sadly we didn’t get to meet up with Dawn who was the manageress of the pub last year, as she has moved away – she kindly allowed us to camp behind the pub. We pulled into a lay-by just north of Garstang and Dave toasted some cheese and onion sandwiches for lunch – thanks Dave. 
As the day went on the drizzly misty weather gave way to sunny spells with the occasional shower. We passed through Lancaster along the A6 then stopped for a short break in a lay-by near Shap. 

It was just a few more miles to Askham where we had arranged to visit Nigel and Madz. 

Those of you who followed our walk last year will remember that we camped in their garden. As we pulled in, Madz came out to greet us. Such a pleasure to meet up with them both again. We chatted and drank coffee while their daughter Imogen devised some clues for an Easter egg hunt. Then the wine came out making our decision whether to stay or not an easy one! Family friends Chris and Sarah arrived with their two sons Keir and Ruairidh who enjoyed the egg hunt and gained a goodly amount of chocolate too. Nigel and Madz had to go out for a couple of hours so we all sat round drinking wine and talking about everything in general and nothing in particular until they arrived back and we then enjoyed a very tasty curry that Madz had prepared earlier – thanks Madz.  

More wine was taken and out came a violin, drum and a guitar so we had a wonderful evening of music and I vaguely remember some singing too. Needless to say sleep came quickly once we were in our camper!