Day four

Out of the campsite by six thirty and road walking to Bembridge, a quick stop at a shop and johns ability to locate an early morning coffee works well yet again!
Suitably invigorated by caffeine we head for the coast arriving where the Bembridge coast guard pier juts out to sea, following the coast around we enter Bembridge harbour, walking around we passed a multitude of house boats in many states of repair either floating or run aground but very picturesque!
Into saint Helens briefly then over a slim spit of land bisecting the harbour to a great cafe looking out to sea where the full English was of very high quality.
Further north we pass a ruined church which was standing when Nelson sailed from nearby to fight the battle of Trafalgar,a little further on we had our own battle where the path wended through very muddy paths to a private beach which we walked regardless, heading inland we passed the hotel the beach belonged to called "the priory" I always knew my addiction for walking would get me here one day! ;).
Into nettlestone we thread our way through twisting Allys just as the heavy grey skies opened up and started a prolonged rainy part of the day.
Into a pub at Puckpool point then along to Ryde watching as we went the hover craft zipping over to Portsmouth and back, going into a soggy Ryde we find the hover craft terminal (pic).
Out of town the path goes through a golf course then past the ruins of old Quarr Abby, with the rain finally abating we pass the more recent Abby with its little pig farm, Alfie was very interested in the pigs,we were more interested in drying out at the nearby pub externally at least!
Finally on to our camp site at kite hill for tonight.

Day three

From or cracking little camp site at the orchard (pic), we hit the road for St Lawrence walking below the cliff to path through lush woodland with various paths with closed signs due to erosion which became the standard for many parts of todays route including many changes of route for the coastal path. Including little mistakes in navigation for instance taking the road through the majority of St Lawrence until we found a path by the botanical gardens which carried us close to the cliff with stunning views along to Ventnor.
An early breakfast here fortified us all for the day ahead, coming out of ventnor we again walked below the cliff but this time following the correct path through seemingly jungle like woodland with vine hanging everywhere (no Tarzan tho!), what we did find was plenty of rare moths and butterfly, much to johns pleasure and out amazement at him naming them all!, further along we found the lesser spotted home made preserves stand! Blackberry jam in rucksack we wandered out of Luccombe village and into the flesh pots of Shankling and Sandown where the great white beached whale was in great evidence! ;),  pleasant beaches to fair and much bank holiday merriment was taking place.
The final push of the day was over Culver down past the Marlborough monument and taking a confusing side route to get to our campsite near Bembridge airstrip.packs of food sleep......

Day two

After a great but windy night on Tennyson down we wake to a lovely sunrise, walking in the suns direction we pass the Tennyson monument, (a big Celtic cross).
Then on beautifully smooth grass (thanks sheep!) We head down to the pretty fresh water bay village where a tiny gift shop supplied us with a nice coffee, spending ten minutes to drink this in a prettily mosaiced shelter looking over the bay with fort redoubt built into the chalk cliffs to our right.
Now with a grey sky over us we head up hill along the side of Compton down, descending and progressing along the now crumbling clay cliffs we pass Compton, Shippards and Chilton chine's (little gully in the cliff) until we reach the pearl centre with its cafe where tea and bacon rolls were eaten in its cafe. :)
Coming back to the cost we pass more chine , (grange, Shepards,whale and black gang) with a stop at the white mouse inn at chale for dinner (bangers and mash for me and Alfie).
Moving onto St Catherines point we have a long view back to todays start point (pic) and down to the light house we could see blinking last night.
Down from the point and into pretty Niton village we follow the road out of town to the orchard camp site, a very basic but pretty site set in woodland.....now sleep yawn! :)

End of day one

<p>Had a lovely lazy sunny morning wandering around Yarmouth (not great Yarmouth) and just on time at midday johns ferry arrives, and after a quick cuppa we hit the trail. wandering past the marinar and over the river Yar we then hit the coast walking anti clockwise on a varying gradient with Hurst fort on a promontory of shale from England to our right.following the coast around we come to the village of Totland with its tiny sea front, cheesy chips were had by all ;)
Wandering on we head uphill into beautiful heath land and around to the less than amazing Arum bay and on to the needles with its cold war rocket facility.
We're now camped up on Tennyson down for the night with lights twinkling at us from the main land.

Isle of wight coastal path.New forage!

Our first newly identified (for us) plant, sea parslane, as with most coastal edible plants this is just salty to the taste, but as I've not packed any salt that can only be useful!

On our way again!

The first step on a walk is normally by train these days and this pic is us heading south for once, to meet up with John Parsons to walk the isle of wight coastal path :)

New boots!

I got a cracking deal on some light leather boots, so decided to experiment with diy dubbing.
Seem s like pork dripping works perfectly!
A trip up Snowden this weekend should test it's longevity! :)

A quick Dodge!

I never seem to get on with hotels! Couldn't get to sleep till gone twelve then woke up at 5.46 with inflamed sinuses! Sneezing blood wasn't pretty :( ,what was annoying about waking early was breakfast didn't start till nine, more of a lay in was good for Alfie tho.
With the weather forecast for tomorrow not looking at all good we've cut a corner missing out both Ravenglass and muncaster fell shame to have to but I really want to get over the old man of conniston before the skies open.
So after with a fry up inside we head east at a hobble I'm getting cramps in both my calves grrrr ! All I can do is walk it off ,shame that it was spoiling a beautiful day with lambs in fields all around and the fells looming large ahead, all was sorted eventually and with mountains on all sides and blue sky above my spirit's lifted.
Walking through a hamlet named Eskdale green we pass an outward bounds center, with loads of kids scurrying about with rucksacks twice their size on, comical to see, but we've all been there!
Walking through woodlands above the Eskdale valley I bump into more outward bound groups, so good to see kids away from they're computers! Just below the Hardnot pass I get chatting to a lady walker,turns out she's the third person I've met on this walk who moved here from my home town!
Ascending the pass we finally see a  good solid Roman fort ! (Pic) then walking a high path above the road we hit the top ,and turn south to follow the western flank of some forestry commission woodland, tho as is often the case just stumps, this was to our advantage as the view across the Duddon valley is to superb mountain scenery.
And its with thus view we wild camp for the night with the old man of conniston just over the valley for first thing tomorrow!

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!

Good luck n bad luck!

Awake and away by 7.45 still no one at the campsite office so free camping!
Out of the site, down the road and turn left into a lane .puddles everywhere, deep long wide puddles! Thick mud at the bottom .......lovely lane other than that!
Out of the lane and through pretty fields with the path next to a stream until we reach the Allerdale ramble path which we follow past countless lambs, and into boggy woodlands by bassenthwaite lake, looks like its been a rough winter here as a third of the trees appear to have fallen, mostly in the way of the path!
Over a road and along another lane we find a small zoo of which I think we saw through the fence most of the interesting animals like bison and tapier !
Moving on the path follows the river derwent where at a small fisherman's bench we stop for a brew, sun shining on the river was lovely.over the derwent and up watch Hill and we get a good view of cockermouth walking down Hill a fell running scares the living daylights out of me far to quiet on her feet ,very glad I wasn't singing to myself!
In cockermouth itself I replaced my old rucksack cover, saying a fond farewell to the cover that had survived lejog :(.
Quick stop at Gregg's for dinner and chuckle to myself at all the townies staring at me with the "is he a tramp" expression! I'd have happily answered yes to that! :)
The neighbouring village of papcastle is built on the remains of a Roman fort ,the only sign I could see of this was the cute little Roman road now lane that we followed out of town (pic to follow)
Now with the wind getting stronger we follow roads to a place called Tallentine then north west on footpaths to Crosby, as we drew close the rain started, quite heavily so we stopped at the local pub in the hope of accommodation, with none to be had and a beer in my belly we brave what is now a storm and head to look at the Roman mile fortlet on the coast, this earthwork at least had some info!
But with the weather not improving we didn't hang about, south east and we're setting up the tent in a nature reserve under a hawthorn bush ,the only shelter visible! Interesting!

Its funny what the high point of a day can be!

We left Hutton moor end c&c site at 7.45 with the brooding blencathra towering above us in low cloud! So sticking with the just do it attitude we crossed some farm land and headed up the nearest shoulder of blencathra called scales fell ,now this is damn steep ! With full backpacking gear on its ###+*** hard! Progress became walk 10meters then rest ! And so on, this is how we went up to 450meters above sea level then things leveled out a bit (I should say no rain yet! ) with cloud billowing up and back over the cliff to our left visibility was poor, bit very moody! As we approached the top with the terrifying sharp edge visible to our left the cloud rose above the peak for the first time showing the last sharp ascent had actually started! To our right a chap was actually taking on sharp edge and behind us another chap was following us up ,first to the cloudy summit we flopped onto the rocks for a snack just in time for the chap following to take our pic! :)
Then we headed to foul crag and downhill on munrigsdale common to the cloven stone where a path lead us to the remote yha hostel below Skidaw ,here we met a recently married couple walking the cumbria way for they're honey moon!
From the yha its straight up sale how (a hill! ) once again back to the ten meters and stop approach! Then onto the ridge approach up to skidaw the cloud had dropped again and visibly was nill but the final approach to the summit is pretty easy, getting off is another story !
The rout down was over scree jagged slate type scree and since the path was lost in the cloud it was down to luck! If that's what you can call it, this scree was at least 60 degrees from horizontal so slipping down hill we eventually found  longside edge our route now this ridge was amazing the views so grand, on a clear day you couldn't want for a better view! Roll on that day!
The three kilometres down long side edge took quite some time but very good walking ,then back to reality for a quick push along the a591 to a campsite near bassenthwaite ,entering we meet a fella called Tony who gave us the great news that the local pub the Sun inn served food and was dog friendly! :)
A good meal and few pints later I was chatting to Tony again, mentioning we're heading past conniston he remarked that he knows a girl runs a pub nearby in Torver which also allows camping! Perfect! This chap is the highlight of the day, its only when your out doing this kind of thing that you really see the value of what you get given!