St Bees to Ennerdale Bridge

We left St Bees after touching the Irish Sea and taking a small stone which we plan to leave on the other coast. It was grey but not rainy. The first few hours were along the top of the cliffs on St Bees Head. There were lots of birds offshore and cows on shore. The cliffs are protected as a bird sanctuary by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, or RSPB. Some of the Path was in high grass and shrubs. We turned inland at an old sandstone quarry. Red sandstone is quite common around here - apparently sandstone from this quarry was used in the past in buildings in Canada! After turning inland, the path skirted several small villages, with many twists and turns so that we had to watch the gps route carefully. We counted on finding somewhere to eat along the way but nothing was open and so we had to settle for the granola bar we bought in Edinburgh. It’s a good way to lose weight though. After this it started raining more heavily. We had to follow a diversion at Cleator Moor over Flat Fell. There really was no path on the way down but we followed the gps and rejoined the original path. By the time we got to Ennerdale Bridge we were pretty wet. Fortunately our B&B was right at the entrance to town and doubly fortunate there was a coffee and tea shop right beside it that was open! We each had two large lattes and scones. Tonight we are having dinner at the Fox and Hound pub. It is looking very wet for tomorrow. The area we are heading into has the highest rainfall in the UK - an average of 4.7 meters of rain a year (4 times Vancouver’s average).Read more