Thursday 2 June 2011

Day 1 St Bees to Low Cock How Farm Ennerdale. 14.5 miles





the cliffs @ St Bee's
Day one arrived and we awoke at the B&B Out Rigg House in St Bees to a lovely breakfast of Cumberland sausage, beans, egg and toast, not to heavy and just right, we would recommend Out Rigg House to anyone very nice.

We had been dropped off in St Bees by my Dad the night before and so had a chance to walk down to the coast to check out the start point to ensure a confidant start in the morning. So at 08:30 after dipping our toes & collecting our stone from the beach to throw in the sea Robin Hoods bay, followed by few pictures we were off, & now officially Coast to Coast walkers!


The weather was clear and sunny and made for an excellent first days pictures and great walk across the cliffs at St Bees head. We noticed some other walkers starting the walk also and spoke to a mother and daughter who were walking the route in 18 days, which did make us briefly doubt our rather tight 12 day plan, but hey, no turning back now. We got our heads together with another couple walking the route who were from from New Zealand to navigate around Stanley pond which was a bit tricky and then stopped for lunch just after Cleator, a good chance to air the feet out and get the socks off. The first disappointment of the walk for us was the tea room marked in my guide book had closed down since, and so it was coffee from the flask.

elevation profile

After the steep climb up dent hill and the really steep decent down raven crag the first test of the knees & ankles was complete and we arrived at the very nice with good facilities Low Cock How farm in good time for 16:00 and got the tent pitched. Unfortunately, we had a note from Sherpa van our baggage carrier telling us our bags were overweight and so had to sacrifice some weight and send it on to our final stop in Robin Hoods bay. But after cooking tea and fixing my already broken rucksack we settled for the night in our tent, although did not get much sleep as we were both freezing all night and started to worry about our decision to camp for large sections of the walk.

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