The Coast to Coast Walk, also known at the C2C is a walk in England that runs from St Bees in Cumbria on the Irish Sea to Robin Hood’s Bay in NorthYorkshire on the North Sea. It was devised by Alfred Wainwright and passes through three of northern England’s national parks: The Lake District, The Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. It is roughly a 192 mile trek from the West coast of England to the East coast of England. Some people traverse it going East to West, but the traditional walk is West to East.
I heard about this walk from a patient 2 years ago. She said she has walked all over the world and when I asked her what her favorite walks were, she replied, “The Coast to Coast Walk and Trekking in Nepal”. I had never heard of the Coast to Coast Walk, so I went home and did a little research, and I was intrigued. Two years later, I find myself in St Bees, joined by a friend from work, Rachel and a friend from the Bay area, Ron. They may not like what I’m going to say next, but here it goes….
Rachel is 30, I’m 41 and Ron is 49, but I like to say he is close enough to 50, so we have three decades walking together along this beautiful trail, well at least 1/2 way anyway.
Ron, Rachel and I set out from St Bee’s around 9 am. It was a beautiful cool day with a mix of sun and clouds. Rachel and I picked up a small stone from the beach to carry with us. It’s tradition to take a stone from St. Bee’s and carry it with you until you reach Robin Hood’s Bay where you return it to the ocean.
We were off. After 15.12 miles and 8 hours of beautiful coastal views, rolling hills and some steep ups and downs (Dent Hill), we arrived in Ennerdale Bridge.
We checked into our rooms at the Fox and Hound s, a locally run pub and B&B. It was a beautiful place with only a few rooms upstairs. The bar was wonderful and we all had a lovely Ennerdale Blonde to celebrate our first day. For dinner, I tried fish and chips and bread and butter pudding. First of all, the fish was a whale. I have never seen anything like it. And the pudding was heavenly!
Ron had a few funny quotes at the end of the day, “I’m not ready to go with the luggage yet” and “When my foot feels like a club, I should eat”. He also had a very curious outburst at the end of the day where he ran like a bat out of hell for no apparent reason. These three things kept us laughing for days.
