Richard, the farmer with whom we stayed at Sandysike, was a great guy. He offered to take our bags 3/4 of the distance we were going to walk into Carlisle - leaving us free to get 11 miles under our belt without worrying about the weight. He was heading that way anyway to buy a calf - which he did. For a fiver!
The day began with a phenomenal breakfast at the farmhouse, with milk straight from the tank in the milking shed. We set off into the drizzle, and this stayed with us all the way to Carlisle. Much of the path followed the route of the River Eden, the only river in Britain to flow north according to the guidebook. Interesting.
On arriving at Carlisle we ate lunch at the Sands Leisure Centre and met Richard to get our bags. Yvette and Mel were suffering with their feet, so they decided to take a taxi the remaining 4 miles to West View Campsite while Alice and I opted to carry on walking.
It was about 5 minutes after we left the others that it began to pour with rain. I mean, serious rain. Our bags were waterproofed, though, so we just put on our weather gear and trudged off.
Despite a slightly wrong turn (a bridge we needed to cross looked like it was closed for roadworks but in fact wasn't) we still made it to the campsite in a couple of hours, and managed to pitch the tent during a break in the rain. Sadly, though, we discovered that our waterproof bags were far from waterproof and had in fact ensured that our sleeping bags and half our clothes were soaking wet. Fortunately for us the campsite's owner, John, was a kind chap who offered to dry our things for us.