St Bees to Ennerdale Bridge

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Dents Hill!!!! Wow, Dents Hill!!

Left The Manor 8.30am after a wholesome breakfast and had to walk just over a mile to the start of the walk.

Climbed up to the cliff top for amazing views over the Irish Sea (after collecting our pebbles - 1 each - to give to The North Sea). Not sure about this start to the route since we seemed to be walking for two hours in the wrong direction before turning inland towards our destination. Nice views, so could put up with the extra mileage (if only we‘d known - Dents Hill, the pain to come that’s inn as Dents Hill)….

Inland for another two and a half hours for our lunch stop. A nice cafe or restaurant to look forward to? Nope - corner shop in Cleater for tuna mayo sandwiches and stock up on drinks, and then a pitch by the side of the stream to try and get out of the soaring heat. Have I mentioned the soaring heat yet? Of course not; it’s given us PTSD all day so has been buried in the pits of our minds……

Lunch over and we had our secret weapons to prepare for (oh no, really oh no) Dents Hill. SIS energy gels!! That’ll do the trick - that will get us fired up and muscles at the ready for the climb.

What an absolute b****** of a climb!! I must have got the dud gel. Ellis powered up the mountain (yes, mountain), with me left in his wake. Eventually making it to the peak and, although absolutely knackered, feeling good it was now behind us.

Why doesn’t anybody tell you about the down leg of the peak. That was just as bad if not worse. First time I think we’ve both had the jelly legs experience.….. Not sure how we actually managed to get to the bottom in one piece.

But in one piece we were and the small matter remained of 2.5 miles into Ennerdale Bridge. Ellis had the marvellous idea for us to stop and dip our feet in the stream - most amazing feeling of the day (actually better than arriving at our destination).

Finally arrived at the Shepards Arms and downed 2 pints of water each (just to sweat it out again in about 3 minutes - have I mentioned the searing heat?). Off to our room and stripped down to our pants before collapsing on our beds for an hours snooze. Up and showered, some more drink and then dinner before off to bed for an early night.

All so we can look forward to the searing heat again tomorrow. But at least no more Dents Hill.

Night, night for now.

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