Walking 1000 miles from Lands end to John O'Groats in aid of The Air Ambulance (starts april 7th 2024)

Friday 27 April 2012

A holiday!

After yesterday's long distance walked I over slept and didn't get moving till 7.30,then wandering along the bay past the c2c start point had the pleasure in seeing four walkers off on their walk across the country, taking photos for two of them, this is where I started my long distance walking so a special place indeed!
We didn't even get past the café without second breakfast, of Cumbrian sausage rolls! Yummy!
With such wonderful weather a walk along the coast is exceptional with Scotland and the isle of Mann visible and just gannets, curlew , oyster catchers and sea gull to keep us company over the miles it was soporific with inevitable paddling in the sea! :)
For a couple of miles the coast is lined with beach houses ranging from ruins to smart little homes ,spent a while chatting with one fellow, I've never meet anyone who could be described as so in his place !! A very relaxed man in a great place to live, lucky fella !
A bit further south and we pass sellafield nuclear power station not so ideally sited in my opinion! Sellafield village was a nice enough place where we restocked food for a couple of days. Walking out of town on a B road there's a queue of cars held up at a crash, it took ages to get past as drivers and the police were fussing a very sleepy Alfie!
Walking into Drigg we stop at a hotel to give Alfie a rest hopefully with a warm night's sleep he'll be fit again tomorrow.


Some things survive some don't!

After an uncomfortable but mostly dry (inside the tent!) night we crawl out into the mud and roll up the equally muddy tent, the rain has dropped no end and the wind still blowing strong is behind us and helping us on our way south west, deciding to ignore the Roman fort at maryport we stick with walking on the wet sand which was very good walking! Later in the day we're told that the fort is actually worth seeing! Next time! Through the quiet old port ,which is rather nice! And along more beach, where I notice that both of my boots are splitting! No wonder my feet are wet and sore ! So keeping away from the beach, to allow my boots to dry and following a railway that runs along the top of the beach  we head into workington. With a new bridge being built we divert to a temporary bridge crossing the river (derwent again! ) and immediately get lost in town! Most of the time I'm using my GPS is in towns! Still with  dinner found at a subway we walk through hoping to find an outdoors shop, no luck here but following a b road in town we pass a motorbike shop also selling ex army gear amongst which were waterproof socks at £9.50 a pair perfect! Finally my feet have a chance to dry!
With happy feet we hit the cumbria coastal path to Lowca then via Parton to Whitehaven this is one very fascinating town/port the port used to be one of the top three ports in its day and this is where the Cunard line began! The place was even invaded by the americans ! So much history here I cant begin to do it justice from my phone!
Edits to follow!
Taking the footpath out of town we head to familiar territory with our finish of the day to be at St Bees! Once again crossing this great trail we set up camp,cook and then crash out! We walked at least 22 miles today, expecting leg spasms in the night!