Woke up early Tuesday morning to the sound of rain on the roof of our cottage in Portinscale. The forecast from the Met indicated rain until 8am followed by a cloudy and overcast day. Packed our gear and lunch and started the drive to St Bees in the rain. At 8am precicely it stopped raining and basically stayed dry for the day. An impressive weather bureau service.
We arrived at St Bees to the news from one of the local caravan park occupants that 2 walkers had been killed by lightning walking in Wales the previous day; not the sort of cheery greeting you would expect.
Bronwyn and Cate wanted to start the walk, so we followed the tradition of dipping our boots in the sea , picking up some pebbles to carry across the country and started walking towards the St Bees Head lighthouse. If you thought you were doing this walk alone you would be wrong; we could see a stream of people both ahead of us and behind us. Chris and myself farewelled Bronwyn and Cate after the first 2 kms and we headed north west.
After the first hour's walking we were further from the destInation of Robin Hoods Bay than when we started.
We arrived at Sandwith after a few hours and ran into a young guy who asked us if there are bubblers along the route. He did not have a map, a guide and very little water.
Next was Cleator, the village pie shop surprisingly did sell pies, contrary to popular opinion that they are always sold out.
After lunch we started the climb up Dent Hill. Chris assured me that this would be a simple climb because Julia Bradbury, the latest star of Coast to Coast walking had called it a slow and steady ascent. However, it was more difficult than we anticipated, both on the ascent and the very steep descent. We managed to reunite a Leki pole with its twin during the descent followed immediately by a fall resulting in no injury.
We made our way to Ennerdale Bridge and got caught in the peak hour traffic at pick up time at the local primary school. We decided to continue to the Lake so that we can get a good start on Day 2.
The hounds in question were 4 German Short-haired Pointers that were running along the track with a guy who was fell running.
Day 1 distance 25.2 kms, distance remaining 285km.
Started 9.30am, finished 3.45pm
The weather conditions will determine the high or low route tomorrow.
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