Well this was meant to be my jet lag day but it has turned out to be just the opposite . On the advice of Carol from Stonehouse Farm B &B I decided to do the first 6miles of the walk today . The start of the coast to coast begins by heading first west then north up the cliffs and along the stunning cliffs high above the coast line . Wainwright, when devising his route, didn’t head East immediately , instead he began the walk with this amazing cliff top walk. What a start , it is so beautiful that you don’t question for a second that it is completely off course to the East bound undertaking . But because it does this , after 5 miles of walking , arriving at Sandwith , you are only 2 miles away from St Bees !
So Carol suggests to jet lagged walkers to walk these 5 or 6 miles , return to st bees for the night as planned and then walk back to Sandwith in the morning to head to Ennerdale Bridge . This of course cuts 5 miles off tomorrows walk when jet lag might be kicking in . Carol is wise , I trust Carol , Carol knows her stuff , Carol makes the 2nd best scrambled eggs in the world behind my Mum.
It just so happened to be the most GLORIOUS day today . Sun shining , blue sky , not a day to miss a walk here in England .. So off I went.
I dipped my boots in the Irish Sea to follow the coast to coast tradition and chose my pebble to take with me to throw in at the other side . As I was dipping there were other fellow walkers beginning their walks dipping away . I just happened to bump into another lone , female dipper .. We got chatting and it turns out she just arrived from Australia and was walking solo and had the same boots as me . Instant bonding . We of course found this to be enough to decide to walk together , she was heading straight to Ennerdale but we walked to Sandwith together along the cliff tops . She was so lovely and we had a fabulous walk . We worked out our paths will cross again in the last few days of the walk. Terrific. After sharing lunch together we parted paths and I followed my map through fields to return to st bees.
This walk today was stunning . I loved every minute . I heading back to St Bees smiling my widest smile , I was all alone amongst rolling hills , just me and loads of sheep and the sun making everything glow . I had to negotiate my way through a field of cows to get over a stile on the other side .. Threw myself over that stile like a wet fish as the worlds biggest cow came in to smell my boots . Ended the afternoon with a pint and a bag of nuts at the pub in the sunshine .. Happy , happy hiker .
