Day-1 St Bees-Ennerdale GPS 15Miles

We made the short 2 minute drive to Pennine View Camp site where we dropped off our car and caught the Packhorse bus to St.Bees.

The coast to coast is not an official trail but there is an official start point.

But we made our way to a gentle Irish Sea where the true start is. And in the true spirit of all coast to coast walkers dipped our boots.

You might think that a Coast to Coast walk would begin by heading in the direction of the final destination, but Alfred Wainwright who conceived and pioneered this walk in the early 70's, always had an eye for the most scenic route so it is that the C2C begins by heading North along the magnificent cliff tops of St.Bees Head, which is a bit disconcerting as we travel three and a half miles and are now further from the finish than when we started, you do not head East until you pass St.Bees lighthouse at Birkhams quarry.

However. the walk along the coast is superb with lots of bird life about and Fleswick Bay is a delightful Spot.

           Fleswick Bay

From just outside the hamlet of Sandwith where this sign made us laugh

We got our first glmpse of Dent Fell, the major ojective on todays walk. It is the rounded fell, the lower slopes of which are covered in a conifer forest.

From Dent we see the views to the daunting prospect that awaits us, the suerb Lakeland Mountains,I hope our legs will hold out!!

It is here it starts to rain, the first on our challenge but it was nowhere near as bad as the forecast and it rained for the next 2 hours but was only light and was stil warm. We had taken our cancer research tops off earlier due to getting too warm. 

From Dent there followed a very steep descent to the beautifully named Nannycatch Beck

This photo does not really show how steep the slope was, I think it would be easier to sit on a tray and slide down.

 It was a pleasant walk along this lovely little valley. (photo for Debs and Col) 

Then on to Ennerdale Bridge to bring our first days walking to an end.

Here there is no mobile phone reception and the WiFi is very limited so please don't expect any replies to messages or facebook tonight or most likely, until tomorrow evening.

Tomorrow sees  us take on a tough day in the Lakes with a more strenuous amount of ascent.

Well that's all for today and I sign off with the rain coming down like stair rods.

Again thanks for all your support and messages, keep them coming it urges us on.

 I see the total raised has now topped   £4.600 WOW! you are all fantastic!!