Day 1- St. Bees-St. Bees (9+ miles)

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After 23 hours of travel, we arrived in St. Bees Sunday evening. St. Bees is a charming little village on the Irish Sea. It is where most Coast to Coasters start their walk, though a few walk from west to east and end in St Bees. There are a few B&B's and a couple of inns with pubs as well as one small convenience store that also serves as the Post Office.

The five of us set off this morning to hike from St. Bees to the town of Sandwith and made a return loop back to St.Bees which will decrease our miles tomorrow from 14 1/2 to less than 10. It turned out to be an excellent decision since we all learned a lot about what to wear in the rain! We learned that carrying gaiters and rain pants in our packs does nothing to keep our feet and legs dry! I also learned that my rain jacket, which I'd re-waterproofed twice before leaving still is not totally waterproof. My poncho worked well and will probably be getting a lot of use....especially in the next couple of days when it's supposed to continue to rain.

Despite our weather/clothing challenges it was a wonderful and exciting day. While it would have been nice to have better views from the cliffs overlooking the Irish Sea, we all felt we were getting the true British walking experience in the mist and rain

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Photos

Pebble
I've picked up the pebble I will carry for the next 19 days when I will toss it in the North Sea. ...remembering my friend, Sylvia.