I was feeling very guilty that Kara, who wasn't feeling very well was running around after us both and because we were walking further south each day, she was driving for nearly two hours picking us up and taking us back to their house. I did mention it a few times which resulted in her slapping my legs but I still insisted that we return to the walk on day three on the bus so Kara dropped us in Carlise town Center at the bus station. Charlie is far too posh to travel on't bus and he clearly didn't have a clue what to do, he sat with a paper bag on his head until we got out of Carlisle just incase anyone recognised him but I was happy that Kara wasn't driving which meant that she was free to clean the house, walk the dog, go shopping to buy more beer, prepare our dinner, wash the car and iron my pants and socks that she'd kindly washed the night before !!! 😳
I took the bag off his head to get a photo then spent the next 10 minutes trying to stop him licking the windows !!! He really is very special my mate Charlie... 😍
We passed through Maryport and continued down the coast to Workington, diverting into town to have a quick look at the lodge. Neil had made arrangements for somebody to open up for me that evening but we had arrived at lunchtime so I'd resigned myself to only getting a photo of the outside of the building. While taking the pics a car pulled up at the junction and I man shouted out of the window to give us a second while he parked up and he'd make a call to see if we could get inside. As if that wasn't fortunate enough, while we were waiting for him to park up I noticed another man walking up and down near the entrance of the Lodge clearly looking for something on the path and in the gutter so I went over to help. Graeme, the Secretary of The Eden Lodge No. 2285 had misplaced his keys following his Mark meeting the previous evening so asked us to wait while he nipped home for his spare set.
I'm so pleased we met and we waited as the lodge was incredible, purpose built after World War I it was a lovely building and it would have been a real shame to have missed it.
Visit and guided tour over we headed back down to the coast to get down to Whitehaven where we would be able to catch a train back to Carlisle. We had a nice steady bimble along the beach and arrived in Whitehaven late afternoon, timed to perfection as the next train was due in 20 minutes. Despite not really having a plan, it worked out well getting to Whitehaven as this would mark my last day walking with Charlie, I'd been invited to a lodge meeting in Cockermouth on Friday evening and I was also expecting a visit from a professional photographer, I'd been interviewed earlier in the week for a magazine article and they had requested some good quality photos for the editorial.
My 'special' friend and I borded the train for Carlisle, he was very excited so I had to take his big bag of sweets off him to quiet him down a bit. Travelling on a bus and a train on the same day was most definitely too much for him but it was lovely to see him all rosy cheeked and bursting with excitement, bless him. 🤤I won't tell him of course but I had really enjoyed his company over the past few days, it had been a real tonic, despite not seeing each other for so many years, we jumped straight back into verbally abusing each other as if we'd never been apart. I was also delighted that he'd not lost his natural ability to ensure he nipped up in front of me whenever we were walking up a steep hill, just so he could release a cloud of noxious vapour for me to chew my way through while I was struggling along behind him. He'd been exactky the same all those years ago when we'd walked for hundreds of miles together... 😷😮💨 dirty boy...
Thank you Kara for looking after the old fart and thank you from the bottom of my heart for looking after this old fart, I loved spending time with you both and I can't believe I managed to escape your house without being savaged by your killer dog, I'm sure Cookie loved me really but was confused by your moronic husband constantly telling her to bite me... 🫣😫🥰
Until next time, take good care of yourselves. 🥰😍