Day 1 - St. Bee's to Ennerdale Bridge - 14 miles

Ok, so that was hard…and I'm not even talking about the walk yet. Just getting to St. Bee's was an adventure in itself, it took us 8 hours as the traffic was bumper to bumper in spots going through Birmingham and Manchester. But, we made it. Kudos to Harti and Kate for driving us up here.

We stayed at Stonehouse Farm B&B in St. Bee's in a little cottage with 2 bedrooms and a bath which we were very happy about! We slept well.

Breakfast in the house with a group of 9 fathers and sons who were biking the Coast to Coast in 3 days. It was nice to see these men with their young teenagers, having a great time together.

We set out a little after nine to meet up with Kate and Harti at their B&B. We followed tradition and dipped our toes in the waters of the Irish Sea and posed by the statue.

Jen and her pebble

Start of the walk

Ok, so now we're  really starting - up the first hill to the top of the cliff. It's heart-poundingly steep and the pack on my back is very heavy and it feels  like I'm about to fall over backwards. Can we stop now and go for a drink!!

Everyone else keeps walking so I guess I have to get a grip. We head along the cliffs for a couple of miles and it's stunning with views of the Isle of Man to our left and ahead to Dumfrieshire in Scotland where the Ritchie Clan invaded last year.

As we turn inland we say goodbye to Kate and Harti who are returning by a circular route to St. Bee's.  Jen sheds s few tears as she won't see them for a long time. 

Harti, Linda, Kate and Jen

We pass a quarry and then we're on to narrow roads through Sandwith. We can see Dent Hill in the distance and even from here it looks big.

Hill, what hill?

It's a slow climb along a forest road until we come out on the grassy part. Here it gets steeper and windier. There's a white haired man in the distance and we never get any closer to him. Later we find out from Jeff and Sue, C2C walkers we meet, that he's 89 and often does this walk! We make it to the top, huffing and puffing. We can see the Lake District ahead of us and it looks beautiful and very hilly.

Giant stile at summit of Dent Hill

In all the books we've read it says the descent of Dent Hill is very steep - it is. At times we have to wend our way back and forth from side to side and it seems to take forever but finally we're down and start walking by the lovely Nannycatch Beck.

Along the beck

The path is fairly straightforward here but we have to ford a couple of streams. Eventually we come out on the road into Ennerdale Bridge. I reach into my pocket to get my phone to take a photo and it's gone!! Arghh, I figure out I must have dropped it in the water as I jumped across. Leaving Jen to guard the backpacks I make my way back and after a few minutes run into the other C2C'ers Jeff and Sue. They have my phone, Sue had found it in the beck. Amazingly it still worked. I thanked them and promised to buy them a drink later on.

We finally made our way into Ennerdale Bridge and to our home for the night - the Fox and Hounds.

We made it, sore feet and all

We had drinks and food and met a couple of other C2C'ers, Deborah and Margie from Colorado and Texas. We'd seen them going up the first hill in St. Bee's and wondered if they'd make it. They told us they were 67 and that their respective kids were married to each other. They hadn't realized how hard the walk was going to be and Margie, the Texan, had prepared for the walk by walking in her local shopping mall as it's too hot to walk outside in Texas. They are sweet ladies, let's hope for the best. Later we went over to The Shepherd's Arms and bought drinks for Jeff and Sue, we chatted with them for a while and then home to bed.