Day 7 - Richmond to Lovesome Hill

We woke up at around 5.30 after a fairly restless sleep (despite it being the most comfortable bed that I think I've ever slept in). I noticed that my Garmin watch (that I had plugged in to charge overnight) had frozen and would not respond to any buttons being pushed or being turned on and off which was annoying. However I felt better after another amazing shower and we packed our stuff up/sorted out the blister plasters before heading downstairs for breakfast at 6.30. The breakfast was awesome - scrambled egg, beans, sausage, bacon, homemade bread/toast and I think we might have had porridge too. Chris and Tom ate everything whilst I being the sensible one ate more toast so I could make a sausage and a bacon sandwich to take with me. After breakfast me and Tom managed to borrow the laptop from our host and ordered our coach tickets for Sunday. We left at a very slaggy time (I think just before 8am) in good spirits. Annoyingly my Garmin watch still was not working (hence why there is only an approximate distance for the first day - the other day's distances were saved on the watch but these were lost when the watch broke and I was unable to get the watch working for the rest of the trip). Surprisingly whilst still in Richmond we got lost, had to ask someone for directions and adapt the route a bit before getting back on track. The walk up until our lunch break was fairly uneventful other than having to walk carefully past a big herd of cows which was pretty intimidating. We stopped for a brief lunch break sitting on the wall of a small bridge. The bridge also marked the point where we transitioned from walking across fields to walking on the road, so after we finished eating Chris could change into his trainers before we carried on relinquishing the need to stop again for a shoe swap (good time saving idea). The highlight of the next section of the walk was finding a discarded newspaper on the floor (the paper was about three days old but it was new news to  us as we hadn't heard or seen any thing that been going on in the media since before we left). Chris put on his broadcasting/newsreader voice and read articles to me and Tom which was a welcome distraction from the monotony of walking. We had to stop regularly due to the painful impact of the road on Chris and Tom's feet and knees. Eventually we reached Danby Wiske and had the longest debate of the walk about whether we should stop at a dirt cheap bunk house in Lovesome Hill (this would involve stopping considerably earlier than we would like, but it was priced at £6 per person, and as we only had about £50 between us to last us 2 more days it was an option), push on as far as we could towards Ingleby Arnecliffe (the next sizeable town en route) and camp, or go a bit off course and try and make it to the YHH hostel in Osmotherley (this was the most challenging option). I wanted to try and make it to Osmotherley or failing that stay in Lovesome Hill (as staying in Lovesome Hill meant not having to camp). Chris and Tom were more swayed towards trying to push on and camp near Danby Wiske as staying at Lovesome Hill would mean stopping very early and they refused Osmotherley as it was too far. So we eventually compromised on Lovesome Hill and agreed that we would start super early tomorrow to make up for the early finish today. We walked alongside some fields to Lovesome Hill and found the bunk house at around 3.30pm. There was nobody there so I had a wander round the farm the bunk house was situated in to find someone. By some farm buildings there was an old caravan - I was very tempted to get the others and try and sleep in it for the night, but thought better of it as it would probably not have gone down very well had anyone found us. I eventually walked across a field to talk to the farmer. He owned the bunk house and informed me that it was £11 per person. In a normal situation I would have paid the £11 without even thinking about it, but our budget was so tight that paying £11 each would leave us with less than £20 to last us the final 2 days. I tried to barter the price down but the farmer wasn't having any of it so we had to pay the £11 each (we did manage to get a tiny box of cereal and a biscuit each and a very small jug of milk between us thrown in which was a small bonus). We were shown into the living/lounge area - this was very basic with a few old sofas, an old table and kitchen area (well sink and worktop anyway) and was cold. I thought this was OK enough but Chris wasn't happy and had reached another low point. There was a TV in the lounge area but this did not work as was analogue. So there was nothing to do until bedtime. Time dragged and I ended up having a shower to pass the time before my sausage sandwich dinner (I gave my bacon one to Chris and Tom as they had run out of food). Soon later we went up to our room (this was also cold and I had to get into my sleeping bag under the duvet) and went to bed before 8.


Reviews

Corderillas House B&B (Richmond) - 10/10: Exceptional value, exceptional hosts, exceptional room, bed, breakfast and shower. The best B&B I've ever stayed in.


Lessons Learned

Again buy more food when there is a good opportunity to do so (we should have bought more from the co-op in Richmond). Leave earlier (if we didn't have such a late start we could probably have made Osmotherley making the next two days easier).

Day 6 - Keld to Richmond

We woke up at around 5.45, spirits still pretty low and eager to get going. After some packed lunch breakfast we set off at around 7, glad to see the back of Keld. It was a nice day and a nice walk, walking up a small hill before getting into Grouse territory. The Grouses lives in the moorlands and there were loads of them squawking loudly and they had a flying technique of initially flapping like mad before gliding through the air. They were pretty funny and lifted our mood slightly. A bit later we bumped into some older walkers and explained what we were doing (the coast to coast walk in 9 days). They were very impressed by this and this helped boost morale. I wanted to try navigating today and so carried the map. This caused a good few instances of going the wrong way (especially where the paths were hard to make out) and so shortly later I handed the map back into Chris's much more capable hands. After the tricky navigational bit (in one instance there was no path and it involved clambering up steep shingle until we met the path again), we got to a massive plateau- like landscape where there were still loads of grouse and some shooters too. We didn't witness any shooting thankfully but saw the hunters and hunters lodge on our way. Our path on the plateau was a wide track that was very easy to follow and the surface allowed us to go at a good pace. It was until one of Tom's blisters burst on his little toe. This was clearly very painful and we had to stop and make do with using regular plasters instead of blister plasters (we had used all these up). Anyway so the rest of the way to today's pit stop of Reeth involved some more moorland and grouse before a painful downhill on a road, followed by crossing some fields with very narrow gaps in the wall for walkers to squeeze through. Eventually we arrived in Reeth, refused a bakery as would have probably would have been to expensive and headed straight to the village shop. The shop was small, with limited food and quite pricey so we got the basic essentials of flapjacks and chocolate, and in Chris's case his standard red bull and 20p crisps. After around 20 minutes we were on our way again following the road out of Reeth. This next bit was another adapted section of the route and involved another massive stretch of road. There was a long and steep (in sections) of uphill before a long straight flat section. During this time Chris was counting down the minutes until he could have his next fix of pills (painkillers) - they didn't work very well but it had got to the point where if it helped slightly or if it was an excuse for a quick break it was welcomed. After the pill break we carried on the neverending flat straight road for a while. At the end of this there was a downhill and we walked backwards down the hill as it was a welcome variation from normal walking and used different muscles so gave the overworked muscles a bit of restbite. Our section of road was nearing it's end when we saw a field with some horses. Chris called one and after a few minutes two of them came over and we fed them some grass - a nice 10 minutes or so. Next we had to cross some rather muddy fields. Chris was wearing his running trainers (he had been wearing these for walking on the roads as were more comfortable than his old boots that had virtually no cushioning left). He couldn't be bothered to take off the trainers so inevitably got soaked feet whilst mint and Tom's remained pretty dry. Then there was a brief but very boggy steep uphill where I think we all got at least partially wet feet. After this we just had a few fields, a short section of track and a path through a wooded area before reaching the road leading into Richmond where we were planning to stay. Richmond looked massive compared to the other places we had passed so we thought it would be easy to find a very cheap B&B. We were wrong. The first place we tried wanted £30 per person. The second place we saw looked far too nice/expensive for us but we thought we'd try anyway. They also were charging £30 per person, but understood we couldn't afford that and so very kindly rang around/ googled other B&B's to see if there was anything in our £20 budget. There wasn't. We were ready to leave any try elsewhere when they said we could stay for £20 each- massive result!!! The B&B had just opened and had been newly refurbished to an excellent standard. We were shown up to our room which was amazing (we were the first guests staying in there) and were given a big chunk of flapjack each. We also had the usual tea/coffee and kettle and for the first time hot chocolate sachets too so I was happy. I was the first to go in the shower - the best shower so far with massive shower head/good water pressure, massive shower enclosure and soft fluffy white towels. We all showered then me and Tom went into the town to get food for tomorrow and fish and chips (oh yes) for dinner whilst Chris stayed in the room and spoke to Ellie (his girlfriend). Richmond was such a nice place - everyone seemed to be friendly, there seemed to be everything you needed there and was picturesque. We found co-op in the town square easily and got our food there before going to get our sausages and chips. The Co-op in the town square didn't have any blister plasters so after asking in another shop we were told there was another Co-op a few roads away. We were both on a high and even managed to run around in search of Co-op. We found it soon enough and thankfully we were directed to the blister plasters by a very friendly shop assistant. We then ran back to the B&B juiced up for the sausages and chips. When we got back we were invited to eat at the dining table and were even given plates, cutlery, a jug of water and ketchup - most B&B's would not do this. The sausages and chips were delicious and I could have easily eaten twice as much. After dinner Chris and Tom wanted to watch one of the Lord of the Rings Films that was in the DVD collection available to guests so that went on for a while/until we fell asleep.


Reviews

The Butt house B&B - 3/10: Well overpriced, crap shower. Beds were good and room was cosy but the price killed it.

Lessons Learned

Leave navigating to Chris (especially if time is of the essence), carry more blister plasters, dont wear trainers to walk over boggy fields.

Day 5: Orton to Keld

My alarm went off at 3.45am. Far too early but I got up knowing that snoozing would result in me falling asleep again and I could not afford to do this. Chris and Tom woke up at around 4. We had our cereal and packed our tents and clothes that we'd left out the previous evening and managed to set off at around our 5am target time. It was absolutely pitch black and freezing cold with only one bright headtorch between us (we had adapted the route the previous evening so that we would be walking on roads for the first few darkness hours of the day). Despite these conditions it was lovely to walk under the moon and stars with no light pollution and with nobody/nothing around. Pretty soon however I had to take a wild dump with a headtorch at the side of the road (I did try and get this out the way before we left but my metabolism wasn't having it. Horrible. When the first sign of light greeted us at what must have been about 6.15 it was epic, made even better by the fact we had now past the trees we were walking under for the majority of the morning so far and we were now walking along a road overlooking a large expanse of moorland and a small lake. By around 7 or 7.30 we left the road and crossed some moorland. We soon saw Bents Farm and realised it was a good call to stay in Orton as this would have been too far the previous day. After maybe  an hour of walking over the moorland we came across an obstacle - a massive deep puddle where the gate we needed to go through was with no alternative way. So I had the idea of chucking rocks from the wall next to the gate into the puddle to act as stepping stones. The result was mud splashing on my clothes and face and Chris and Tom still managing to get sodden feet - funny times. The rest of the way to today's pit stop of Kirkby Stephen was nice walking with some hilly (not too hilly) fields and moorland. At one point we were walking along our path and saw a MASSIVE cow in front where we were meant to be walking, and as we got closer it looked menacingly at us. Tom told us about him getting chased by a herd of cows when he was younger and none of us were up for getting any closer to it so we stood behind a gate for about 5 minutes until the cow had moved a safe distance away. And an hour or so after this we had to walk through a small enclosed area with what must have been at least 30 sheep in. We walked slowly together passing as far away from the sheep as we could. This caused them to run frantically to the other side of the enclosure but no harm done. Anyway we made it to Kirkby Stephen at probably about 11.30. This place was even bigger than Shap and although the temptation was there I didn't buy  any food as already had the apricot jam sandwiches and bourbons to eat. I couldn't resist a hot chocolate though and we spent a little while in a cafe enjoying hot drinks. We then ate our food on a bench outside before embarking on our modified neverending road route to our destination of Keld. We were soon presented with a massively long hill which involved a few breaks and taking the jackets off. Then when we got to the top it remained relatively flat for AGES and was colder too with a noticeable wind chill. We were all aching/starting to ache by this point as walking on the roads although was much quicker and involved far less navigating, was a much harsher impact on our feet and legs than walking on grass or moorland. After maybe a few hours we had a downhill stretch and Chris in particular was finding this excruciatingly painful on his knees. Thankfully we weren't too far from Keld and it was still relatively early so we took our time and went at an easier pace. Eventually we reached the youth hostel just before Keld where we were planning on staying. However the place was deserted so much to our frustration we pushed on to Keld in search of somewhere else to stay. We found a pub/hotel but this was closed so we tried the only other place offering accommodation - a B&B called 'The Butt House'. We were quoted £38 per person so decided to try and find another alternative. The only other option was camping. I defiantly refused to camp as it was freezing and suggested we should just bite the bullet and pay the £38 per person at The Butt House. Tom wanted to camp as he didn't want to fork out £38. After a lot of deliberation and speaking to a nice man in the camp shop Chris agreed that it would be too cold for camping to we bought yet more snacky foods from the camp shop before going back to The Butt House. Our room was small but most importantly warm and the beds were nice. The shower however was crap and Tom likened it to 'a little boy pissing' so we had to make do with a bath. Morale especially in Chris's case was at an all time low (He had been looking forward to Keld as it marked the halfway point of the walk but he was really suffering with his knees, was fed up with walking and not happy (as none of us were) with the extortionate price of the B&B. The situation was made slightly better when Tom brought us up our 'packed lunch' alternative to breakfast as there was a lot there. I put 'Take Me Out' on on the TV whilst eating my snacky dinner which cheered me up a bit whilst Chris and Tom had a beer each after their dinner. Shortly later we went to bed.


Ratings

Pub/B&B in Orton: 9.5/10 - Great value, helpful owners, HUGE room, nice beds, great shower.


Lessons Learned

Dont throw rocks into puddles to make stepping stones, place them in to avoid splashing. Also we should have bought food in Kirkby Stephen for the evening meal as the Keld camp shop was very limited. Finally Don't stay in Keld!!!

Day 4: Haweswater lake side to Orton

I got up at around 6.45am as soon as it was daylight and started packing my stuff up straight away. I had had a very poor night's sleep due to the cold and my crap inflatable travel pillow which I could never get comfortable with. Chris and Tom fared slightly better than me as they had much warmer sleeping bags but still didn't have a great night's sleep. After packing our stuff up quickly (we did it quick so we could get walking and warm up asap) we had a quick snack for breakfast and set off. It seemed colder than normal but this was probably due me being cold and my core temparature being low. We walked to the end of the lake (not very far) and from here the next bit involved walking through wooded areas next to a stream. At the start of this we found 'Thomas's honesty box' where 'Thomas' had put a wooden box with snacks and drinks in next to a gate where the walkers would go, with a little container for the walkers to leave money for the food that they took. This was nice and gave us a little lift. Then we got lost for a long time due to the lack of a visible path, ending up initially crossing a wrong field and having to backtrack before referring to Tom's Wainwright book with it's detailed sketches done by Wainwright showing the areas along the way. With a combination of Wainwright's book, the OS map and the compass we were able to get back on track fairly soon. Thankfully after this getting lost delay it was only a short walk along a road to out Shap pit stop. When we eventually got to Shap (it wasn't that long but seemed to take forever as we were hungry and looking forward to buying food there) I saw a fish and chip shop and my eyes lit up. Unfortunately however it had just closed down and so we had to settle for a Londis. This was alright though as there was a lot to choose from there and the prices were a bit lower than the village shops that we'd gone to. So of course we made the most of this large selection of food and cheap prices and bought enough of our staple diet of pringles, flapjacks, chocolate, pasties and other snacky foods to to give us a big lunch and ample snacks for the rest of the day. Shap was the biggest place we'd passed through so far (it had I think 3 pubs, at least 2 small supermarket and a couple of parades of shops). After about half an hour or so eating our lunch on a bench in Shap, we walked over a few fields before crossing over the M6 motorway on a footbridge then there were more fields before a track and then moorland. By this time Tom had been holding in a dump for a while and couldn't hold it any longer so had to resort to doing a wild one behind a wall much to me and Chris's amusement. The moorland was nice walking - not too boggy or hilly and lasted a little while before reaching another road. At the end of the road there was a signpost for a place called 'Pleb'. This of course led to some silly photos with us posing next to the sign. Then there was a fairly short muddy path to Orton. We arrived at Orton at around 4.45 and went to the village shop to get food. We asked the shopkeeper about how far/how long it would take to get to our target destination of Bent's Farm. He said this was maybe 3 hours away. After some deliberation we decided we'd have to stay in Orton for the night as going to Bent's Farm would have involved walking along tracks in the dark before trying to find our accomodation in the dark probably resulting in us getting lost. So we went back into the shop and asked where there was to stay in Orton. There were a few B&B's and a pub. We thought that one of  the B&B's would be cheaper than the pub so went there and asked how much it would be. £30 each was the lowest they were prepared to go - too expensive. We then tried the pub and managed to get a massive room with about 5 beds for £50 - result!!! Our funds were now very low so we went to the village shop to take advantage of a rare cashpoint opportunity. I took out enough money to last all of us (Chris and Tom had run out of money and had nothing in their accounts) the rest of the hike - £280. The machine only had £220 so this would have to do. This is when the budget started. We spent as little as possible buying enough food for dinner, breakfast and snacks and ended up getting 2 loafs of bread and a jar of apricot jam to make sandwiches, bourbons, a box of cereal, milk and some soup. We returned to our massive room after getting the food and aired the tents and pretty much every item of clothing we owned which turned our room into a laundry. We also looked over the maps and decided we'd have to leave at 5am and walk for a few hours in the dark as we had a massive day tomorrow with no option of stopping early. After a dinner of bread and soup and a shower we went to bed early in preparation for the ridiculously early start in the morning.


Reviews

Wildcamping by the lake - 5/10: was an amazing setting but far too cold and failure to cook the pasta was demoralising. It would have been much better in the warmer summer and with better equipment.


Lessons Learned

Consult Wainwright's book as well as the map and compass if lost, take the opportunities to take a dump if you think you might need one later.

Day 2: Blacksail to Grasmere

We successfully woke up at around 5.45am (still dark) as we wanted to leave at around 6.45-7am when daylight would greet us. Chris's knee was painful as were his and Tom's feet with the blisters and they were sceptical about the day/rest of the walk. Anyway we had a generous portion of cereal each and we were on our way just after 7. The start of the day was cold and there were low lying clouds hiding the peaks of the hills were about to walk up. The hill started almost immediately and was very steep involving clambering up some rocks and stepping over a stream before a steep rocky ascent approaching the cloud line. After about half an hour of climbing we reached the top and we were in the clouds so could not see much more than the piles of rocks marking our route. However the cloud soon cleared offering spectacular views of the landscape (including a lake in the distance which had low lying cloud and we were higher than the cloud!!!) We then walked remaining at the same level using the rock piles to help us stay on course. After a while we reached a descent down to a slate/stone warehouse (we'd seen a quarry a bit earlier so this is where they cut and sort the slate/stone before selling). Anyway when we'd reached the warehouse Chris's knee's were very painful so we slowed to an easier pace. From here it was pretty easy walking to our scheduled break destination of Rosthwaite. We saw from the icon on our map that there was a place to eat there and managed to find a tearoom easily. I opted for a hot chocolate to warm up and a homemade pasty. I think Chris and Tom had a tea or coffee and also something hot to eat. The food and hot drinks were very good. After about 45 minutes we dragged ourselves out of the tearoom and continued on our way. The break was to long and we'd seized up and it took a little while to loosen/warm up again. The next section of the walk was lovely as we walked alongside a river at the foot of the hills for a while. The sun had come out which made it even better. Anyway eventually the river changed direction and our path carried on straight which took us up another massive hill which again offered amazing views from the top. The next bit was (against what the map showed) pretty hard to navigate/ stay on our path. After consulting the map and compass we crossed some boggy/mossy terrain to join back onto the proper path. There were lots of other hikers here (before now we had only seen the odd walkers but there were a lot here - maybe this was because it was a nice saturday afternoon or maybe it was a sign we were close to Grasmere (what we were hoping)). Anyway seeing hikers was a good thing as it meant we could see where we were supposed to be going more easily (by looking at others) and gave us the opportunity to ask for directions. The path was challenging and although we could now see Grasmere in the distance, but due to our tricky path, the fact we were descending for a long time and Chris's knees hurting it was taking forever to get there. Eventually we reached the foot of the hill, crossed a foot bridge and thankfully onto a much better track. Now Tom was the one suffering the most as his feet were extremely sore and he was seriously starting to struggle. Thankfully the outskirts of Grasmere were not too far away and after a few phonecalls we found Grasmere Youth Hostel which had spaces for us. Our original aim at the start of the day was to push on past Grasmere and wildcamp next to a lake a bit further on but due to the knees and feet this was out of the question. So we found the hostel easily and checked in (around £22 each for room and breakfast). The hostel was more like a hotel with washing facilities a kitchen we could use, drying room for wet stuff, lounge area and even a sauna!!! We didn't bother with washing anything (even though we really should have done) as this simply meant more to do, and didn't use the sauna as you had to pay for this). After a quality shower and change we were all up for going to the nearby pub to get a decent meal - the only thing was Tom was 100% not up for putting his boots back on which resulted in me giving him a piggy-back most of the way to the pub and him going to the pub in his socks. At the pub we got a pretty decent meal each and walked back to the hostel with the aid of the headtorch. Back at the hotel we went into the lounge area and watched a Peter Kay DVD whilst amending the destinations and altering the route a bit for the remaining days of the hike to make it more manageable. Then we went to bed.


Reviews

Blacksail Hostel - 8/10: Rather expensive for a hostel but free dinner/ 50p cereal/ helpful staff were great!!!
Rosthwaite Tearoom - 9/10: Friendly service, very good food, not overly expensive.

Lessons Learned

Don't stop for too long for a break due to seizing up/stiffness, again consult the map and compass more.

Day 1 - St Bees to Blacksail (26.5 miles approx.)

We all woke up good spirits after a very comfortable night's sleep in our room. I had another shower just for the hell of it as I anticipated that the opportunities to have a shower would be few and far between over the next 9 days. We went down for breakfast at our previously arranged time of 7.30am and were very pleasantly surprised when we were greeted with cereal, toast and delicious porridge. After devouring all of this we departed at a pretty slaggy 8.30 after leaving the B&B lady a fiver tip. I was wearing my standard tank top and running shorts. The weather was very fresh and windy but thankfully not raining. We made our way down to the beach to dip our boots in the sea as this is what we heard was the traditional thing to do at the start of the walk. All of us were in even better spirits now as the start of the walk had finally arrived and we recorded a video/ took some funny videos of the beach on my camera. After leaving the beach we made our way north up the side of the cliff and immediately realised that the walk would be harder than I anticipated with the muddy/slippery path and lack of signposts. Chris almost straight away managed to tear a hole in his expensive ski jumper brushing past some barbed wire fence. After reaching the lighthouse after maybe an hour or hour and a half we made our way inland - this was a relief as this meant (at least initially) walking on roads rather than muddy fields/paths as well as escaping the cold coasterly wind. Then maybe about half an hour or so it started raining - I was already pretty cold by this point and this was the final straw - I stopped under the shelter of a farm outbuilding and got out my tights (which ended up replacing the shorts for the rest of the trip), raincoat, hat and gloves. We polished off the remaining donuts from the coach yesterday to give ourselves a boost. Thankfully the rain didn't last long but soon we were presented with a challenge - jumping over a stream as we couldn't see a bridge that was meant to be crossing the stream roughly where we were. So we found the only point which looked jumpable (still a big gap). Tom jumped first, didn't quite make it and got soaking boots, the same happened to me next. Chris then launched over the massive backpacks and managed to clear the gap. Bastard. Then we had to clamber our way up a steep overgrown embankment and walk over a very boggy field which left us all with wet feet. We eventually came to a road and started walking up a hill. When we got to the top of the hill we saw a signpost so we got the map out and realised that we were going the wrong way and had to go back down the hill - not the start we needed. After this we paid more attention to the map/compass. We then walked on the road for a little way which I was again happy about this time as it meant faster progress as our detour/stream crossing had set us back a few hours. We were then presented with a massive hill which we powered up still having a lot of energy with it still being the first day. On the way up we walked through a wooded area which was meant to have red squirrels in - we didn't see any just the first of many many sheep in the fields after the wooded area. The top of the massive hill greeted us with the first spectacular views of the walk which gave us all a boost. As this blog is being written a few weeks after returning I can't remember everything but I'm pretty sure there was a very steep, slow descent, walking alongside the stream at the bottom and following some signposts as well as relying on the map to get to the side of a massive lake - the first of a few big ones along the way. I thought walking alongside the lake would be pretty easy going - I was wrong. It was alright at first but soon involved clambering up rocks and some pretty steep inclines (it started to rain again here) and a long section of wet, slippery rock/tree roots and the odd patch of more boggy ground). We enjoyed some cough candy's along this section which I especially needed as already had a cold. By the time we had finally reached the end of the lake we were pretty tired and must have covered around 16-20 miles and time was getting on ( I think it was around 5-5.30 with proper darkness starting at about 7. Thankfully we soon reached a big track and we could see that this continued to Blacksail (meaning fast progress and easy navigation) which was at least 5 miles away. I took up my role as pacemaker as we set a decent pace for this last stretch. After around 22 miles my Garmin GPS watch ran out of battery so couldn't really grasp how far we had to go after this point which was annoying. 6.30pm, then 6.45, then 7pm all past and we were still not there and the track was starting to head up into the wilderness - not great as visibility was getting low. This tension amongst us quickened the pace. Thankfully we soon saw a light in the distance so we had Blacksail in sight. We eventually got to Blacksail at around 7.30 just before complete darkness set in. Our initial impressions of the hostel weren't great as we has to pay £21 each for our room, the room was very basic and having a shower involved having to go outside and around the side of the building before opening what was little more than a shed door meaning being cold drying off from the shower or using the toilet. We were lucky to get a bed as we were told that if we had arrived tomorrow there wouldn't have been any space for us. However Blacksail redeemed itself as we were given a big dish of Shepherds pie (or something similar) for free as this was leftovers. Also the young couple running the hostel were very helpful with looking at potential hostels, maps and the weather for the following day as well as offering us a 50p per person cereal breakfast!!! Chris and Tom's feet were pretty badly blistered already leaving a question mark if they would be able to complete the entire walk. Luckily for me my feet were fine - just slight rubbing on my achilles which a couple of blister plasters sorted out. So after our pie/ map looking we went to bed pretty exhausted.


Reviews

The B&B in St Bees - 9/10 - Great value, very friendly service, Nice bed/room/shower, excellent breakfast (especially the porridge which was the best we had during the trip)

Lessons Learned:

Leave earlier, consult the map/compass if you are not 100% sure of where you're going and don't rush this, make sure the watch is fully charged before leaving, try to plan/book accommodation before arriving if possible.    

Introduction

Me (Ashley Middlewick) and two mates (Chris Thomas and Tom Smith) have recently embarked on the challenge of completing the Wainwright's Coast to Coast Walk in 9 days. I personally have never done any proper walking/hiking whatsoever but decided to do it as it would be a nice way to see the Lake District, Peak District and Yorkshire Dales. I had run 5 Marathons before and had done a few training walks around London so thought this would be easy in the given timeframe. Chris had done a bit of hiking before (the Duke of Edinburgh awards back in his school days) and Tom had also done some but none of us had done anything on this magnitude.
 Tom organised most of it (getting the Ordinance Survey (OS) maps, sorting out coach times/ emailing anyone who was potentially interested in doing the walk. It was tricky to find dates which suited everyone due to work commitments, other holidays etc but we eventually agreed on getting the National Express coach up on 04/10/12 from London Victoria, starting the hike the following day, finishing the hike on 13/10/12, then coaching it back home the following day and returning to work the day after (Monday). Unfortunately one of our mates (Matthew Binks) had to pull out due to our constantly changing dates. Eventually probably about 3 weeks earlier we all agreed on dates and on our £200 per person budget, and that was pretty much everything sorted bar a few items. Then 2 days before Tom realised his boots, sleeping bag and sleeping mat had been thrown out so had to go and buy these things the day before we left - awful. Anyway Tom managed to get what he needed and then we went mental in Sainsbury's getting food for the 9hr coach journey the following day.