Summary

At the end we were all very happy to have conquered the Coast to Coast in just 9 days (even Chris - however he did say never again). For me the hardest thing was navigating - this was far trickier and more time consuming than I'd imagined. I was also impressed with our ability to get up and get walking very early (often before daylight). When we did the Istanballers ride last year the earliest I can remember leaving was probably about 9am whilst most of the time (at least at the start of the ride) it was more like 10.30 or 11am. We were very lucky with the weather as we only experienced rain on the first day of walking and even this was a brief shower. It could have been a few degrees warmer but  can't complain as we were walking in October. The best part of the walk (despite being the most physically demanding) was the Lake District as we'd expected as it had the most breathtaking views and scenery. The best place we stayed by far was the Cordilleras House in Richmond - if anyone ever visits Richmond stay here. The best meal we had was at Lion's Inn.

If anyone is thinking of doing the coast to coast walk I would give them the following advice:

• Make sure you have a good pair of walking boots that you have done a decent amount of walking in before so they have been adequately broken in.
• Pack light (just pack the bare essentials - especially if you're gonna be camping as you will feel every extra kilo after having the backpack on for hours on end).
• Make sure there is at least one person in your group who has experience in navigating OS maps. If there is nobody in your group who has read OS maps before allow a good few hours extra navigating time and DO NOT rush navigating.
• Make sure you have a realistic budget  for the whole trip and from this work out a daily allowance (we failed miserably with this).
• Blister plasters, waterproof clothing and backpack (or backpack cover), compass, headtorch, and warm clothing/sleeping bag are essential (especially if you're thinking of doing the walk in October).
• Early starts are highly recommended.
• Make sure you have at least enough food to get you to the next shop (this can be 20 miles or more at times so stock up when you can).
• Don't worry too much if you don't make your planned destination at the end of each day and certainly do not attempt to navigate small tracks in the dark - you can always start earlier the next day to make up the miles. 
• Most importantly have a sense of humour and try to enjoy the experience - there will be probably times when you are cold and wet walking through bog and want to give in. The best thing to do is laugh at the situation you are in and think how you'll feel at the end.

I would highly recommend the Coast to Coast walk and urge anyone who's into walking, fitness or nature to do this!!!

Me and Tom's night in Whitby/our journey home the next day

Whitby looked booming. My first impressions were it looked like an average sized town with more than it's fair share of Saturday night revellers. I was loving the look of the place and wanted to go straight to a pub and start drinking. Tom however was very anxious to find a B&B/somewhere to sleep for the night, so we started searching for anywhere with beds/rooms available. After a couple of failed attempts we bumped into a crazy drunk guy dressed in a pirate costume who showed us several potential places to stay. Still no luck. We then walked further out from the town centre where we saw a few B&B's with 'Vacancies' signs outside. We tried a few of these but by this time it must have been around 11.30 and nobody was answering. Tom was even more anxious now. We then went to a pub (more to get out of the freezing weather than anything) and Tom ordered a pint of beer (he didn't actually want a drink - it's just the standard thing he does when he goes to a pub, he could have ordered a soft drink or a bag of crisps but oh no he went for the beer lol). Tom found a map of Whitby in the pub and we started looking for potential places to shelter incase we couldn't find any accommodation. I started to doze off and was warned by the barman that he'd have to kick me out if I fell asleep - great. We stayed in the pub until it closed at 1am. Looking at the map didn't fill us with confidence as there didn't look like many if any potential places to shelter. We decided to seek refuge in a takeaway pizza shop. I ordered a large peperoni pizza. Tom looked on the map and saw a park - he was thinking camp in the park. The park was close by. I flat out refused to camp but said I would help set Tom's tent up and walk around the park until the morning. This idea was soon dismissed. We spoke with the guys in the pizza place and the customers who were all very friendly but did not know anywhere we could stay. After the filthy greasy pizza and complimentary water we headed back into the town centre to see what we could find. Tom was seriously worried and getting impatient now. We had now got to the stage where we were looking down alley's to see if there was anywhere that would offer some kind of shelter and warmth from the freezing night. No luck. We headed back to the town and walked around but could still find nothing. Tom now had had enough of walking so I said I'd walk round a bit more whilst he sat on a bench. So I set off in a new direction in search of somewhere we would potentially be able to sleep. It was by a marina - I did have a glance across at the boats but I don't think this would have been a good idea as allo the boats were lit up and we would have probably been caught if we'd try to sneak onto any of them. Then I found somewhere - there was a door that had not been closed on the outside of the marina building and inside was a warm room (it was a chemical disposal sink in a small room so not ideal - but did not stink, was not too dirty and most importantly was warm - so this would have to do). I ran back to Tom to tell him the good news. He was well relieved. Tom then decided he wanted to go into another pizza shop he'd been sitting outside to get warm. The owners did not mind this but warned us that it was getting close to the club's closing times and soon it would be filled up with drunks in here. It was still pretty cold in the pizza shop and I wanted to see more of the town/kill some time so I decided to go for a run whilst Tom stayed. I ran through the town centre - it was a bit busier now, before heading along the side of the marina towards the sea and along the pier. I then headed back to Tom as I was getting a bit concerned incase things were kicking off at the pizza shop. When I got back (roughly 30 mins after I left) it was pretty busy but calm and Tom was having a conversation with a few drunk people. I joined him and we had several drunk conversations during the time we were there (it was interesting looking at everyone from a sobre perspective for a change - normally in this situation I'd also be drunk). I was enjoying our time in the pizza shop and it was making the endless countdown to our 7am coach seem quicker. Also I was very impressed with how despite the bitter cold the girls were still braving skirts barely covering their arses and guys in t shirts/polo shirts - either the drink was keeping out the cold or the Northern population were tougher and better able to handle the cold than the rest of the nation - me and Tom were cold despite having about 5 layers of warm clothes on!!! At around 3.30am Tom finally gave in and ordered a small pizza and was given a complimentary portion of chips - it wasn't that he was hungry it was that eating was another way to pass the time and possibly a hot greasy pizza would warm him up a bit. He ate about a third of the pizza and a few chips before giving away the leftovers.  We stayed until 4am when the place closed. One final seemingly neverending freezing drunken conversation outside the pizza shop with maybe 4 or 5 guys/girls before heading off to our room in the marina. When we arrived Tom was impressed and praised me for finding this warm area. The room which seemed warm when I went there earlier whilst was considerably warmer than outside was still pretty cold when just sitting there for a length of time. I set my alarm for 6.15am incase I fell asleep (I intended to stay awake as didn't want to risk falling asleep and risk missing the coach). Tom fell asleep (the room was just big enough for him to lay flat out on the floor diagonally) whilst I huddled half asleep on a small bench behind Tom. I may have dozed off for an hour or so when I needed a dump. I was grateful for this as it woke me up and forced me to go outside. I remembered a portaloo I'd walked passed at the side of the marina earlier so headed there with some toilet paper we'd taken from Lovesome Hill a few days ago. I returned shortly before 6. There was no point in going to sleep now so we looked at the photos and videos on my camera to pass the time until it was time to walk to the bus station to catch the coach. We got to the coach station at about 6.15 and walked around the perimeter of the small bus station in circles until the coach showed up. We were massively relieved to see the coach pull up at about 6.30. Tom suddenly had a hilarious burst of energy and grabbed his bag and sprinted onto the coach despite it not due to leave for another half an hour. As we boarded the coach we saw a couple of the guys we'd met in the pizza shop about 4 hours earlier walking/stumbling down the street towards us. I was not very happy to see them as they could potentially delay the coach departing should they get on the coach/cause any trouble. Then the coach broke down. Great. The driver informed us that we'd have to wait for either a breakdown truck to turn up and fix the coach or a taxi to arrive and take us to Leeds where we'd get another coach to London but we'd have to wait until probably 9am for either the taxi or breakdown truck. To add to this miserable situation the coach was freezing cold as the doors were wide open/ no heating was on. The driver then asked to see our tickets -  the tickets we had were for yesterday - we'd seemingly made a mistake asking for the wrong date when ordering the tickets rendering the tickets we had useless. So we had to fork out around £35 each for another ticket. Absolutely awful. The drunk guys had got on the bus and were talking to us - Tom did most of the chatting as I was not in the mood. They had gone to a house party after leaving the pizza shop and I think were on their way home when they saw us and the coach. One of the guys wanted to come back to London and go for a night out that night which was pretty funny. 9am came and went - still no taxi or pickup truck. The coach driver very kindly offered to go and buy us a much needed warm drink each. These drinks helped a bit to keep out the cold but about half an hour later we were cold again (Tom wasn't too bad as he had a massive thermal sleeping bag to snuggle up in whereas I didn't even bother getting my thin sleeping bag out as it wouldn't have helped much. 10am came and STILL no taxi or pickup truck. I asked for a complaints form to fill out in the hope that I would be entitled to compensation for my ticket and completed this whilst the driver made a few calls. The drunk guys had now left - one of them taking Tom's pringles with him. Thankfully the driver offered us his unwanted bacon sandwich which helped to limit the hunger. Finally a taxi turned up at about 10.40 - massive relief. So we happily sat down in the warm cosy taxi and promptly fell asleep. We remained asleep/half asleep until we got to Leeds coach station about an hour and a half later. Tom was feeling a bit queasy after the long journey in the hot cab so he got some Panadol in the shop before we boarded the coach. The coach departed at about 12.30 I think so the wait was not too long. The coach was crowded (the coach up had far more empty seats allowing us to spread out) but we didn't mind as it was a direct coach to London and the journey would seem fast compared to the 9.5 hour marathon journey up. After finishing any remaining snacks I could find I was sleeping/dozing all the way to London. We got to Victoria coach station at approx. 5.30 (an hour later than we should have done).


Ratings

Whitby pizzas - 5/10: pizzas were average at best (better than Domino's but anything is better than Domino's). However friendly service and complimentary water were great.
National Express Coach - 5/10: The journey from London to St. Bees was fine with no delays or problems and we arrived on time. However the ridiculous wait in Whitby on the way back and the difficulty getting a refund/some kind of compensation for our tickets were awful.


Lessons Learned

Take more care when ordering coach tickets (make sure you book it for the correct date). Book accommodation in advance or look at alternative coach journeys home (we could have got a coach from Whitby to Victoria at 9.30pm Saturday night which would have been a much better option).

Day 9 - Lion's Inn to Robin Hood's Bay

At around 2.30am after fidgeting around feeling itchy for hours in my tiny one man tent failing to get any sleep, I decided to go outside and walk around for a bit. It was bitterly cold but I did not want to go back into my tent. So the only alternative was to go for a run. I went back to my tent to get out my Ipod and started running down the road wearing layer upon layer of clothes listening to 'The Very Best of 2 Unlimited' on the ipod. I was loving the feeling of isolation (there was noone or nothing to be seen) and freedom (not being confined to the tent) of running in the dead of night going nowhere in particular. I saw a sign saying it was 6 miles to the next village so decided I'd run there and then walk back. It was an awesome clear starry night and despite no sleep felt awake and relatively energetic. After about 15 minutes I was warm and the hat was off/jacket unzipped. The entire way to the village was one neverending road with maybe two smaller roads joining onto my road the whole way and probably saw 2 cars in the couple of hours it took to get there - I couldn't have been more in the middle of nowhere. When I finally arrived I went into a phonebox - the only place I could see anything on my person to sort out more music for the ipod and unzip more clothes. Then the long walk back started almost immediately. The clothes were soon zipped up again but I remained warm enough by maintaining walking at a steady pace. I stopped 3 or 4 times staring at the sky and even saw some shooting stars (which living in London I'd never seen before). There were a few more cars now (maybe 1 every 10 or 15 minutes) and I could see them approaching from probably at least a mile away. It started to get light at around 6am and shortly after ran the final half mile or so back to Lion's Inn to warm up. I got back at around 6.30 and got what I think was a ham baguette that I had saved from Richmond out of the tent and ate this outside the pub (it wasn't open yet) overlooking the wilderness - awesome. The pub opened it's doors at around 7 (they were preparing breakfasts for the guests staying in the B&B) and I was straight in to warm up. Shortly later I went outside to tell Chris and Tom (who were still in their tents) to come inside into the warm. I went back inside and found myself dozing off when Chris and Tom joined me. We then ate (or attempted to eat) our awful pork luncheon meat baps that we'd bought in the petrol station the previous day. Chris ate both of his and didn't mind them whilst me and tom could only endure maybe had one or half of one each. Chris and Tom as I expected were in pain again after the massive day yesterday but we were all in good spirits as this was the last day. We were in no urgent rush to leave as we had until 10pm to get to Robin Hood's Bay where Ellie had very kindly offered to give Chris a lift back to Peterborough with her and give me and Tom a lift to Whitby where we would catch our coach back to London in the morning. So we stayed in the pub until about 8.30 and then dragged ourselves outside to pack up our tents. We eventually left at around 9.10. The start of the day was very easy walking with roads and decent tracks (no boggy crap), was relatively flat and the weather was sunny but fairly cold with a breeze. We were walking at a pretty good pace and Chris had his ipod on and was in the zone. I soon got my Ipod out and put it on speaker - this lasted about 10 minutes before the battery died - great. Shortly later we bumped into an older guy who lived in Glaisdale (this was the next village and where we planned to stop for lunch). We had a long chat about the walk and he told us that people came from all over the world to do the coast to coast he had met several foreigners doing the walk earlier in the summer (Americans, Brazilians and New Zealanders amongst others) and that the coast to coast was the second most popular walk in the world. He also told us that we had until 12.30 to get to Glaisdale as this was when the shop shut - this was cutting it very fine. So after the long chat we moved swiftly on (aching at first as we'd stopped for too long). We entered Glaisdale at around 12.20, then we saw the same guy again and he told us where the shop was. We managed to get there with about 2 minutes to spare - massive relief. The shop had quite a good choice of food and we had £9.10 left between us to get food to last us to Robin Hood's Bay this evening. This led to a lot of deliberation as to what to get (to the annoyance of the impatient shopkeeper who wanted to go home). We eventually chose everything we wanted and spant every penny of the £9.10 we had. Up until now we'd been sensible with what sorts of foods to buy (healthy sensible options that would give us energy) but this time we indulged in  massive cakes/rolls, crisps and chocolate. We ate most of this on the bench outside the shop and set off maybe just after 1pm bloated and stiff. The initial way was a steep downhill which was painful (for the first time I was aching/finding the walking a real struggle). The walking until the end was thankfully still mostly fairly easy with minimal bog aside from a couple of big hills. By about 5pm I thought that it could be doable to get to Robin Hoods bay before dark and really wanted to try and do this as I wanted the photos/video of us dipping our boots in the sea whilst we could still see. Chris and Tom were really struggling so it would be very tight. About half an hour before dark we reached the top of the hill looking down to the bay and could see the beach and waves breaking. I tried to urge Chris and Tom on and they did the best they could but by the time we'd got to the bottom of the hill we were still maybe a mile from the finish/beach and darkness had set in. The last mile was across fields/down paths which I wasn't expecting but didn't care as we were so close to the end. We soon arrived and went onto the beach. The tide was way out so we dipped our boots in the puddles in the sand rather than having to navigate around the sand puddles in the dark to reach the sea. We had a group hug and were all elated to have finally got here. We took pictures next to the coast to coast finish sign before going in search of a pub that accepted credit cards and served food. All the pubs were full by the beach so we had to trudge up a long steep hill to the main town area - not what we needed. We eventually got to a pub that someone had recommended. This again was full but we managed to get a spare chair each and sit in the corner. We ordered a few rounds of drinks (these few drinks had more of an effect than a few drinks normally would have done) and got some crisps. A live band then started setting up which meant we had to find another pub to get a meal as Tom didn't have his ear plugs. Thankfully we were able to grab a table at the next pub and order a meal each and another drink each. The food was pretty decent (nothing was gonna match up to the Lion's Inn meal yesterday) and probably tasted better as I was a bit pissed. Chris then called Ellie (the one phone we had between us that had any battery was dying meaning calls had to be quick and turning the phone off when not in use). Thankfully the phone didn't die and Ellie found us easily enough. After a brief chat in the pub we went out to Ellie's mini and squeezed ourselves and massive bags in to the smallish car (thankfully it was a new mini and not an old mini). Ellie kindly offered to let me and Tom stay in Peterborough at her's - we wished we'd thought of this before we'd ordered our coach tickets. Soon later me and Tom said goodbye to Chris and Ellie as we were dropped off in Whitby.


Lessons Learned  

Dont but pork luncheon meat from petrol stations


Ratings

Meal at the Lion's Inn - 10/10: Quality food, massive portions, nice warm and cosy environment.
Camping at the Lion's Inn - 6/10: Didn't have to pay but no toilet facilities during the night. Setting the tents up in the dark was awful. On the plus side sitting in the pub in the morning was awesome.

Day 8: Lovesome Hill to Lion's Inn

We woke up at around 5.30. I had an awful night's sleep and was awake half the night as the mattress was springy and sunk down in the middle (uncomfortable) and I was itchy (probably due to wearing the same clothes since the start of the walk without washing them). Tom and Chris didn't sleep much better and we were all keen to get going and get out of the bunk house. It was raining when I went downstairs to go for my morning dump before leaving making me slightly more thankful that we stayed in the bunk house rather than camping. Thankfully when we actually left at around 6.30 (still dark) the rain had stopped. Very soon we were faced with crossing some very boggy fields with some massive puddles (still in the dark). This was slow going even when the daylight arrived. After a few fields we were faced with a unpassable puddle - it took up the entire width of the path and soon discovered it was too deep resulting in wet feet (tom going knee deep at one point to me and Chris's amusement). So we walked back a short distance to a gate and decided to go over the gate into the field that ran next to the path. This was passable but it stank. Shortly later we were presented with another challenge - a stream with no bridge. There were two options - take off the boots and wade across or try and climb across a tree that was at the edge of the stream. None of us wanted to take our boots off so we opted for the tree. This was very tricky as the branch was just too far for me to reach get a decent grip, not helped by slippery bark on the tree. I went to see if there were any other easier trees to cross - there weren't. Chris being the tallest went first and managed to grab the branch and get across OK (just having a little trouble squeezing through the gap in the branches with his massive bag. I went next and opted for a different approach involving shimmying along another branch on my bum which was fine except for getting a wet bum. Tom went last. He chose Chris's method and looked OK at first managing to jump and grab the branch/get into position. He then however hit his head against a branch and the boots dipped in the water (he did well not to fall in). We had all got across and this had been a welcome change from just walking. Tom had suffered a small cut around his eye as a result of hitting the tree so we treated this before moving on. We were aware that these obstacles had slowed us down on an already massive day so we pushed on at a good pace. We got to a petrol station just before Ingleby Arncliffe and got food here (this was the last place until Lion's Inn which probably meant the food we bought now would have to last us near enough 24 hours. With some very careful deliberation with the very limited choice of food and our very tight budget we went with some plain bread rolls, tin of luncheon meat, flapjacks, chocolate for Chris and Tom and a pack of cookies for me. We were now in survival mode, rationing food and only stopping for minimal food breaks and to check the map. On our way out of Ingleby Arncliffe we walked up a track through a wooded area which was a nice change from fields and road. Around here we spoke to a pair of middle aged women who were also doing the coast to coast walk. They were aiming to get to Lion's Inn by the end of the day (or plan was to get to somewhere before Lion's Inn suitable for camping and camp). This spurred Chris on to try and get to Lion's Inn as he thought if two middle aged women could manage it then so could we. Anyway the path was hard to follow in a few places and we ended up going the wrong way which slowed us down again but eventually we were back on track and thankfully for the rest of the day the path was easier to follow. After what was probably about a 10 minute lunch break we pushed on at a very good pace. Soon later we got our first glimpse of the North Sea - the end was in sight which gave us all a lift. The wind was strong high up which didn't help matters and we were ascending and descending hills for a while. After going up and down maybe 4 or 5 hills we checked the map and I had a rare moment of genius looking at the map (spotting a path that ran alongside some trees that stayed roughly at the same level). This was a far easier and quicker option than the marked route which would have meant going up and down more hills and being exposed to the wind. My treeside path was a great detour as as well as covering the miles much more quickly it was a nice track looking down onto the wooded area. After smashing the treeside path, we then went up a hill and were onto what was like a massive neverending plateau, similar to the grouse territories from previous days but with a wider easier to walk on path. I think it was about 4pm when we had our first break on the plateau. There did not look like any decent ground for potential camping which was a bit concerning. Then Chris looked at a wildlife sign saying you shouldn't camp on the plateau because of Adders and sheep ticks and there was nothing but plateau until Lion's Inn meaning that we HAD to get to Lion's Inn. This quickened our pace as we didn't want to be walking in the dark and wanted the relentless walking to be over. We were knackered and stopped for a 5 minute break every hour. As darkness approached it started to get very cold and this again upped the already fast pace we were setting. Just before it got completely dark we saw the light of Lion's Inn which was a massive relief. We finally made it to Lion's Inn at around 7.30 after what must have been a 30 mile + day. The Lions Inn was a solitary pub/restaurant/B&B in the middle of nowhere. We walked in to the lovely warm pub/restaurant area and slumped into some seats. Unfortunately there were no rooms in the B&B which would mean having to camp. At this point I did not care and was just happy to be in a warm, cosy environment. Thankfully they accepted cards so  we got a drink each before ordering a meal. The meal was amazing. I had a tuna lasagne which also came with a big plate of chips and another big plate of garlic bread - I don't think I've ever appreciated a good meal as much. I think Chris and Tom went for curry's. I finished mine feeling happily bloated, Chris couldn't finished all of his whilst Tom turned into the human dustbin eating all of his huge meal as well as my salad and Chris's leftovers. After a few hours in the pub we discussed what we would have to do tonight. I suggested stay until the pub closes and walk through the night as hated the thought of having to set up the tents up in the cold and dark. Chris and tom flat out refused this so it would have to be camping. I very begrudgingly slagged up the tent after Chris and Tom had done theirs and attempted to get some sleep.

Reviews 

Lovesome Hill bunk house - 3/10: Cold, uncomfortable bed, had to go outside to go toilet. The only good thing was the price.

Lessons Learned  

Don't stay at Lovesome Hill bunk house.