Day 31: Rest day in Alston

Lowbyer Manor was not doing food last night, so we went to Alston House Hotel and had a great dinner. A good breakfast this morning too, with three homemade pancakes not one and a half from a packet, as in Masham.

We walk into town to try to buy map 085, which we need for our revised itinerary, and to find a laundrette before our socks walk off on their own. Busy Bees offers a service wash for £15 and tell us the clothes will be ready by tomorrow afternoon. They soon text Rich to let him know they’re ready by lunchtime today. When we pick them up, one of the staff discusses moving to Kent to be near her daughter. She tells us that Alston is a long way from anywhere and is dead after 8 o’clock. Later, we discover she’s not wrong.

We go into the outdoor shop to look for Landranger map, 085, but they only stock maps of the immediate area. We do get some midge nets though, as the insects are already beginning to bother us. We check Waterstones online then phone Tom to ask him to pick up the map in Norwich for Yvonne to collect tomorrow. He says he’ll do it on the way to the football. Then it’s time for coffee and cake in the Top Café.

We go back to our room to start the laborious job of deseeding our boots and washing our insoles, sun hats and boot laces. Walking back into town, I get a sudden pain in my left hand which causes me to lose my footing. I have rheumatoid associated Achenbach’s syndrome (spontaneous venous bleeding in my hands secondary to vasculitis) and it’s chosen today to strike. I continue walking into town pressing on my hand until it all settles down. Once we’ve collected our washing and had a bakery lunch, we sit in the guest house garden, waxing our boots and deseeding our rucksacks. I really hate grass seeds.

As we sit there, the gardeners strim and mow the lawn, moving our table to give us a great view of Cross Fell. The afternoon has soon disappeared and we head into town for dinner, or so we think. Alston House hotel is closed tonight and the Cumberland Hotel is booked up. The fish and chip shop is closed as well, and the locals advise us to drive out of town for food. As this is not an option, we turn to the trusty Co-op and buy a screw top Cotes du Rhone, sour dough rolls, salad, antipasto, Wensleydale cheese with cranberries, cherries, choux buns and Fairtrade chocolate and make our way back to the garden for a picnic feast - all for under £20. What would we do without the Co-op?