Distance walked: 14 1/2 miles
Eagerly posing at the start of the walk
We had breakfast at 8:00 and got down to the water around 9:00. Slightly raining - I guess a start that one should expect for England! (*note - I wasn't kidding here. We got rain EVERY single day. ) I guess Wainwright wanted to just kick us off with a bang because the hike started
with a big climb up the hillside, looking over the Irish Sea, where we would follow for quite some time. Okay I just have to say there are these sheep that I swear look like pigs. I saw one in St. Bees and really thought it was one. When I exclaimed to Bre to 'look at that pig!,' she laughed at me and gave me a look of pity, saying, 'Coty, those are SHEEP.' I don't know if shearing does that to all sheep, but boy, these ones are very funky! (*note - I later read about these sheep. I can't remember their names, but they are commonly referred to as 'ugly sheep.' No kidding.) Not all the sheep are like that, but boy are there sheep! Sheep everywhere! And cows and even goats, or maybe they are just sheep with horns. I don't know.
Bre hanging out with the cowsSo there we were walking the Coast to Coast! What are my emotions? Excitement, nervousness, adrenaline pumping, all in one. Right away we met this guy that everyone would all later call Mountain Goat because every day he would come up on you, chat for a bit, then hurry on, passing everyone else along the way. He passed us, and for the rest of the day we would see him a little way off in the distance. It was nice to get off on the start and meet someone. Just letting me know others are out there to be of help. Which is good because we needed it a couple of times. (more later..)
Dipping our feet and selecting our rocks that will journey with usacross the country to later be deposited in the North Sea!
So after leaving the seaside walk, - what beauty - green with the stone walls that I can't imagine building and the Irish Sea crashing upon the cliffs, we got to the part where we left for the towns of Moor Row and Cleater. Here we had our first mess up. After this part where we crossed the right hand gate Steddy's said to go down and go under an old railway. Well I thought that meant go down right after the gate. Nope, I just led us into a very very wet grassy place that completely soaked the bottom of our pants and soaked Bre's shoes. Great - we got back on the path and then saw the sign to go down. Note: don't leave path looking for other if one does not exist yet!
And so down to Sandey Pond which as far as I can tell, is a muddy bog and to this forest .... Well at this point we had our first serious map consultation. We chose to go
on a path in the forest and realized it was a mistake. Luckily some people were approaching and we all consulted - a nice couple named Ken and Jane. [We ended up meeting up with them a lot more along the walk and they proved to be great walking buddies! It seemed like every time we were in a sticky situation, ah there Ken and Jane would round the corner and we would all figure it out together] Good thing we met them because there was a part where Stedman's was really not quite right in my opinion. What's wonderful about the walk was that whenever we needed help someone always showed up!
We could have used a couple more of these...Past Cleator was Dent Hill. The big one. The place where things started hurting. Now this isn't just a hill. Its a hill that rises up, signaling the Lake District is near. And you go straight up. Apparently the British haven't heard of a thing called switchbacks! And with our packs, it definitely was not the fasted trek up a 'hill'. But many rests later we got to the top, meeting these two women along the way. (Sue and Helen...FUNNY women I'll tell you what. More on them later)
Dent Hill
View from the top of Dent Hill, looking back at the Irish SeaThen came the downhill which is the absolute worst. My toes felt were pushed up to the end of shoes and killed! So as Dr. Suess wrote, what goes up must come down and down, and we arrived in a beautiful little valley that would lead us to Ennerdale Bridge. We walked through here with even the sun poking through at times. With all the sheep wandering (they're everywhere!). But this is also when the feet started hurting and the slight aches started creeping in. We got to the end of the path and sat down to rest, where I conveniently put my hands in a patch of stinging nettles. Then back up again and off to what we thought was Ennerdale Bridge. Luckily a car came beeping the horn and told us we needed to go the other way. Thank goodness for people!! And so we chugged into E.B. around 4:30, tired and sore. We rested a couple hours and then took a gaunt (I really should say hobble here) to The Shepherd's Arms for a bite to eat. And then back to the Cloggers and good night!
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