On jumping lambs, 20 mile slogs and big bulls.

Yesterday was supposed to be the hardest day, today was the longest. We hiked 20 miles leaving the lake district and heading towards Herriot's Yorkshire. As one might think fitting for lands immortalized by the author of all creatures great and small, that meant farmland. However, for the record- farmland is not flat. The hills were rolling but nothing so hard as yesterday. We saw lots of nursing lambs-their tails wag so quickly as if they think they hit the motherlode, it is very cute to watch. We also saw nursing cows and horses-not so much tail action there.
The sun was shining so it was very hot. We treated ourselves to ice cream sandwiches at Octon when we arrived at 10 this morning. Not the usual brunch fare but it tasted good. As we walked along the fields we could see the summits we left behind in the lake district and look ahead to the considerably shorter hills of the Yorkshire dales. If you haven't hiked in England, you traverse private fields, trying to be careful to avoid the largest poop piles-animals make a lot of poop-really lots. The highlight of the morning was to come along a year old lamb who had somehow gotten under a fence but could not figure out how to get back. It was baaing something awful as the family was all on the other side. He ran up the hill when we approached - obviously very frightened. Then he charged a four foot tall rock fence with a running start trying desperately to get over. He missed by about six inches. We coaxed him back down the hill where we were holding open the fence. He tried another running start and got between Jen and I through the fence and he suddenly jumped into the air-about three and a half feet high. We were blown away. Of course no warning so no camera. He then ran to his mates. We stopped by a tairn-a lake for lunch and then continued on through the field. At one point we found a bull blocking our way and were told to walk across in a close group and under no circumstances were we to take out our cameras. We made it safely across.
The slog today was hard and made harder by the fact that two of us have princely heat on our ankles making the end of the hike very, very hard. I also got Charlie horses-which for the record is an American term- which required translation but after dinner at the coast to coast fish and chips restaurant, I am feeling better and excited about morning.