Day 23 Penruddock - Ambleside

• Woke early, shin calmer so again decided to go.
  Left site at 7.00 and walked through Matterdale and other villages, the scenery is stunning with grey and blue skies adding to the drama. Thanks to the guy in Dockray who made me tea despite being 2 hours before they opened
• Arrived at Glenridding, really nice community on Ulswater. Viewed the lake from the hill coming into Glenridding its truly amazing, with lots of sports activities on the water. The town is a mixture of outdoor shops, boating shops, coffee bars and trendy hotels. Very busy so moved on to a quieter Patterdale before stopping for lunch
• Everything then heads to Kirkstone Pass, 1500ft up in under 2 miles, bloody steep and it took an hour.....but I got up.
  Al had returned but because of the hills both of our phone had no signal so he had driven miles trying to trace me. Eventually we caught up at Kirkstone
• Dropped down in Ambleside one of my favourite Lake towns. Stopped for more tea and then on to the Youth Hostel . Six in a room the size of the average lounge, devastated. Al picked up and paid for me to stay in his hotel, the same one David and Jane had paid for on Monday and Tuesday. To all you guy genuine thanks for this additional support to me, you will honestly not appreciate just how grateful I am.
• Lucy had sent some smarter clothes for whilst I was in the hotel, it was so nice to get into Chinos and shirt instead of shorts and Hospice T shirt, which has been normal wear for the last 3 weeks
  Think we passed 450 today, Lucy will correct this if wrong. No correction required 456 miles down now
• The 4 of us met for dinner, really great to see David and Jane, its only when you see friends that you realise how you miss what you normally take for granted
  Lets hope the next 3 days sorts the shin and we can move on, without further delay.
• Keith, thanks for the blunt kicking yesterday. I really needed to here some honesty it really helped.
• Best wishes to everyone reading this