Coast to Coast
This is a glorious 190-mile walk across the narrow bit of England from St Bee's Head in Cumbria to Robin Hood's Bay on the North Sea. It cuts across the grain of England and offers many different types of terrain: the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales (James Herriot country), the Pennines, and the North York Moors (Heartbeat country). This is the one British Walk I would do again.
It was also my first long distance walk, and my first day's walk was almost my last.
The night before I had slept in my little bivouac tent in the back yard of a B & B in pouring rain. In the morning, still in the rain, I hastily stuffed my tent and my sleeping bag into my pack, and set off on the long coastal detour that Wainwright insists on following just so that we can enjoy the view. In my haste, I had somehow lost my reading glasses, either back at the campground or somewhere in the folds of my sleeping bag. I wasn't about to explore either option in the rain, but I needed glasses to read the map. So I made a detour to a nearby town , hoping to find another pair. No success. I mention this only to explain that I was adding four miles onto a very long first day.
On this day I climbed from sea level way up into the Lake District. Around noon I ran into a couple who were heading for the lonely Black Sail Youth Hostel. I decided to join them.
He was long, lean and lanky, and very fast. His wife could keep up with him, but I couldn't, not without jogging every so often. On British walks you seem to cover the same number of miles each day as kilometres on the Camino, and at dusk we were still a few miles short of our destination. We strode around the edge of a lake, up and down, and arrived at the hostel as night fell. I tumbled into bed having walked more than 25 miles on the first day.
The next morning I was so sore I could hardly move and thought I would have to quit. Very embarrassing after one day. But I hobbled out of the hostel, and after an hour or so, I was able to walk without pain.
In those days I was fresh from a bit of wilderness hiking in Manitoba, so I lugged along a tent and sleeping bag, camp stove, and food. My pack weighed more than 30 lbs. At the end of the first week, having cooked only once, I shipped off the cooking gear. But I camped every other night, and continued to take a tent on all the British trails, never being sure that I would find accommodation.
It was also my first long distance walk, and my first day's walk was almost my last.
The night before I had slept in my little bivouac tent in the back yard of a B & B in pouring rain. In the morning, still in the rain, I hastily stuffed my tent and my sleeping bag into my pack, and set off on the long coastal detour that Wainwright insists on following just so that we can enjoy the view. In my haste, I had somehow lost my reading glasses, either back at the campground or somewhere in the folds of my sleeping bag. I wasn't about to explore either option in the rain, but I needed glasses to read the map. So I made a detour to a nearby town , hoping to find another pair. No success. I mention this only to explain that I was adding four miles onto a very long first day.
On this day I climbed from sea level way up into the Lake District. Around noon I ran into a couple who were heading for the lonely Black Sail Youth Hostel. I decided to join them.
He was long, lean and lanky, and very fast. His wife could keep up with him, but I couldn't, not without jogging every so often. On British walks you seem to cover the same number of miles each day as kilometres on the Camino, and at dusk we were still a few miles short of our destination. We strode around the edge of a lake, up and down, and arrived at the hostel as night fell. I tumbled into bed having walked more than 25 miles on the first day.
The next morning I was so sore I could hardly move and thought I would have to quit. Very embarrassing after one day. But I hobbled out of the hostel, and after an hour or so, I was able to walk without pain.
In those days I was fresh from a bit of wilderness hiking in Manitoba, so I lugged along a tent and sleeping bag, camp stove, and food. My pack weighed more than 30 lbs. At the end of the first week, having cooked only once, I shipped off the cooking gear. But I camped every other night, and continued to take a tent on all the British trails, never being sure that I would find accommodation.
