Walking, walking

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Actual Walking Day 1
We both woke at 5 -first time Ross has ever woken before an alarm. We left the hotel in Manchester around 6:30 and off to the train station to catch the train. Unbeknownst to me it was actually 3 different trains with changes every hour where you lug the bags up and down stairs. Got into St. Bee’s about 11 am and dragged our stuff to the B&B and I do mean drag as the wheels broke on my duffle bag. I hope it holds together for the first part of the trip until we get to some city. After getting the bags up to our 3rd floor room we grabbed our poles and started walking. After about 100 yards we stopped for lunch at the Tea Shoppe for some good home-made pea soup and sandwiches. Then we went to the beach and Ross put his toe in the Irish Sea and grabbed a stone to carry across England and throw into Robin Hood’s Bay. Ross loves these little traditions or rules but if I carry my stone all across England it is coming home with me. Onward to the headlands where we were supposed to have winds at our back helping us along but not today they were either coming straight into our face or from our left. This was probably a good thing as they were fairly strong and we were very close to the cliff and Ross would have been in the Irish Sea for real. I have enough ballast to keep me on the land. This walk was only supposed to be a 300 foot climb but the book neglected (or Ross neglected) to explain that this happens 3 or 4 times. With the wind that was blowing we kept layering up every few hundred feet. It’s a good thing the sun was shining. We passed through many kissing gates and saw lots of animal life - sheep and cows up close and personal - had to watch the ground to avoid all the sheep turds and cow patties. Those fields must be very fertile with all that manure. We met one couple who were coming from the opposite direction and she had a huge grin on her face but he wasn’t going to stop to talk! They were on their last leg of the 190 mile walk. I would have traded places easily. We found our way to the bus stop but all the cars Ross stopped didn’t seem to know anything about any bus. Finally one guy said St. Bee’s is only 2 miles down the road. We had already walked 5.5 around the headland. Off we went to the Manor House for a pub dinner then back to the B&B for a good sleep. 23,063 steps on my pedometer.

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