Day 21, Thurs. Sept, 5

Bus and Train to Manchester. Hotel by Airport (pix of Robin Hood's Bay)

Epilogue. After a nice dinner, repacking our suitcases, and early to bed we awoke to another lovely day in the UK. We had an elegant breakfast and walked about the town a bit. We decided to take an earlier bus to Scarborough to get our train to Manchester. Kathy had purchased our tickets online and we had to redeem them at the train station. The ticket agent said our train that was to leave in an hour had been cancelled and she said to get on the train that was leaving in 2 to 3 minutes. We boarded the train and it was off. That meant that we got to Manchester a bit earlier which was nice. As for reflections on the trip ... it already seems like my body is recovering, The blisters on my feet are happy for less walking today and they don't hurt at all when wearing sandals. I have a sizable hard red knot on my neck from the bee sting but it will get better each day. I think one of the reasons why the hike was harder than expected was the elevation gains and losses. We ascended and descended over 17,000 feet in the 200 miles. As I've written in my blog postings, the trails are not switch back ones. They are steep. I was reflecting last night and think this was the hardest physical challenge I have ever done. Some of our hikes in Nepal and Peru, and backpack trips in the Sierras were at much higher elevations. The sleeping was in tents or primitive "tea houses". The meals were freeze-dried or very basic fare. The difference was that the trips were shorter and I was younger. My feet were in good shape for the first 10 days of this trip. I think it was the cumulative effect of wear and tear on the feet and body that made this a harder physical challenge for me. Yes, I want to keep hiking but I think hikes of 200 miles are no longer on my agenda. Everywhere we are in the UK the Brits speak about how wonderful the weather has been for the past few weeks. They speak of last summer and how much rain there was. This was the right weather-year for this venture. Rain is forecast for tomorrow across all of the UK. I will be very happy to get to Oregon tomorrow. But I am still glad that I attempted and succeeded in walking across England. - Nancy (another pix of Robin Hood's Bay)