On the 18th April 2013, my brother in-law James and myself attempted to walk the Coast to Coast walk, created by Alfred Wainwright and starts at St Bees on the North West coast to Robin Hood Bay on the North East Coast. A total of 191 Miles, we had hope to complete it within 14 days
The Facts
We had planned to wild camp most of the route, although we new that this may not be possible in places, so we will use official camping sites. we needed to average 14 miles a day to complete this challenge in 14 days. Some days were going to be longer, anything up to 22 miles so that we can either finish Early or have a rest day mid walk. This has been a lifetime wish of mine, ever since i read " A walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson. We had no idea if we could complete this as so many factors come into play, my fitness being one but the weather can also play a big part in dashing our hopes of finishing. All i know is that I believe this will be my only chance to attempt this (not getting any younger), also it would not be fair on my lovely wife Michelle to expect her to put up with me gallivanting out for weeks on end in the countryside, while she is stuck at home. Sadly due to a Fall i had and a suspected Cracked rib, we had to end our attempt at Richmond. we do plan to finish it off though.
After a fairly good nights sleep a lovely shower and a full English Breakfast at Thorny how Hostal, we set of for Patterdale in the rain
Thorny How
Weathers not to clever again
As the Weather was bad we did not take too many photos today. We stopped off at Patterdale Youth Hostal to dry off a bit, have a coffee and get warm before deciding to venture on. We decided to take the lower Route here via Hartsop as we were tired and still getting very wet. This route would still take us over Kidsty Pike but bypasses Angletarn Pike . We came across this old barn on route and decided it would make a great shelter for the night.
Ok it not 4 star, but comfy and cheap
Time for a cuppa and some rest
As I had not contacted my wife today, I tried to get to higher ground for a signal whiles James made a bru
Going higher to get a phone signal
Without any luck on getting a signal, I turned around to see this. Stunning
The Route over Kidsty Pike became very dodgy, the wind piked up and the gusts were strong enough to lift me and my 16Kg rucksack of the ground. One gust caught James of guard and he took a tumble and cut his fingers on jagged rocks, the tip of his thumb was cut so bad I thought he might lose the top.
A short Clip from my Phone of the Summit Winds
First Glimpse of Haweswater Reservoir
Haweswater Resevoir
Finally out of the Lack Distict
The Lake District is done, now flatter ground for a while
Today we walked 21 miles from Shap to Kigby Stephen via Orton, where we stopped for some grub and a coffee. The walk was long but with a lot less climbing to do we made good time and hoped we could make grounds on the time we lost the day before.
Yet another Grey wet day and our journey although not long in length today, was going to be full of surprises
Don't be fooled, it may look ok now
The Ground became very boggy
The climb to the nine standard was 2000 feet and pretty well easy to follow going up from the west.
Surrounded in low cloud, we made the best of a diminishing photo opportunity.
On leaving the Nine standards we quickly realised that the lack of view and path made navigating a bit tricky. I was using a Satmap Active 10 gps, (with back up Map& compass), with our route loaded on, but with most gps's if not all, it needs you to be moving to get your correct bearings and point you in the right direction. This has never been a problem for me before, until now. The lack of any resemblance to a path had us trudging over boggy wet marshland, the gps was saying one direction and the 10 secs later pointing in the opposite direction, this got very confusing and frustrating. We tried hard to negotiate the really wet sections but it was pointless and both of us had wet soggy feet, so we decided to just go straight as we could not get any wetter!, Wrong. I stepped into what I thought was a small boggy patch and sank right up to my butt, the water was cold and took my breath away, I tried to get out but was stuck, the more i tried the harder it felt to move, I started panicking. It was the complete shock of being stuck in the middle of nowhere not being able to move and the cold freaked me out. James came to my rescue and with a bit of tugging and me crawling on my belly, he managed to get me free.
This is how deep it was
We continued with care and made our way to a solid track which we tried to keep to for as long as possible. When we did finally get to some civilisation, nearly every one we spoke to said "That Route to Nine Standards is a nightmare in the best of weathers", I wished we had known that before, oh well you live and learn.
We were both happy to get to Keld and set up camp. It had been a hard day mentally and I just wanted to have a shower, speak to Michelle my wife and then go to sleep, hoping tomorrow will be easier?.
Our first glimpse of Ennerdale water and our Campsite for the Night
