“The adventure begins”

Before we start the C2C walk we will all be spending a couple of nights in St Bees. Carol and Stephen travelled up from London on the same day as we left Bernard and Joan’s place in Warrington, and we met up at Lancaster station and travelled north from there together.

Thanks to some great detective work by Morag we all got much much cheaper train fares than we were originally quoted. Advance purchase tickets from National Rail (you can get them 12 weeks in advance of travelling) are literally a fraction of the cost.  Using the Journey Planner – Check Fares option, you need to scroll down and select the “Search for Cheapest” option. This can literally make the difference between paying 12 pounds and 148 pounds, but you have to be prepared to travel at unsociable hours for the really cheap fares. The cheap fares go fast so you need to start checking 12-13 weeks before you plan to travel.

As we were getting ready to leave behind the generous hospitality of Bernard and Joan, Bernard commented that our adventure was about to begin, and I did at last feel a little excited. The sudden loss of Dad and the two week long rotten cold had dampened my enthusiasm but I was starting to look forward to the walk again. So we had final photos outside Bernard & Joan’s house before we left for the train. The photo on the right is of my little first cousin twice removed Liam, a little sweetie with a fantastic vocabulary for his age.

The train trip from Warrington Bank Quay to Lancaster was on a Virgin train which was very quiet and very fast but limited in luggage storage. At Lancaster we changed onto a much older train with a bit more luggage space but a bit noisier. It was drizzling in Lancaster and by the time we hit the coast it was a little difficult to see the view through the rain, but by the time we arrived it had started to clear up. We plodded up the hill from the station with all our bags and checked into the Fairladies Barn.

Fairladies is a converted 17th Century sandstone barn situated on the main street. It looked a little bigger on the Internet but is very clean and comfortable and the owners are very friendly and helpful.

After we had put the bags into our rooms we decided to go for a bit of a walk and perhaps check out the local pub that had been recommended for dinner, the Manor House. We only had 2 drinks and a packet of crisps each – honest. But then Stephen and Frank decided to do a bit of “gurning” – prompted by an article in the local paper about a gurning competition. Carol almost fell over laughing and I think the other people in the bar thought we’d had way too much to drink. The photo on the right is of Stephen going for an arty shot of the railway line.

We went back later for dinner (both nights) and were very pleased with both the food and the service. They also have wi-fi which they are happy to let you use if you either stay there or buy a couple of pints. We went and checked out a very posh boarding and day school and then around the back of the church , looking back towards St Bees and on to the beach, where some people were actually playing in the sea.

We had a very nice breakfast this morning, cereal, the full (Cumbrian) English breakfast (Cumbrian sausage, free range egg, tomato, mushroom, baked beans and bacon) followed by toast and plenty of tea or coffee (instant unfortunately) and orange juice. So we needed another walk after that.

Frank led the way and we ended up walking up a fairly steep public footpath that took us through some rather muddy fields with very inquisitive Friesian cows and the fattest sheep I have ever seen (unfortunately didn’t get a photo of the sheep today, later perhaps). One of the fields we crossed was unfortunately in the midst of being “muck spread” as we discovered when the farmer turned up with a another lot of fresh cow manure, very smelly. I reckon he was having a good old laugh at the expense of the lunatic tourists crossing his farm. Apparently he is obliged to keep the public path  and stiles through his land available for use.

After our little sortie through the s*#t we walked back down to St Bees to have a look around the church which dates back to Norman times. The last picture is for Bernard – Steele being the family name and Bernard being a very keen genealogist.