Wainwright's Coast to Coast Walk

Wainwright's Coast to Coast Walk: Our story

During our Summer holydays of 1998 we did the Coast to Coast Walk. To get to the start we took the boat from Rotterdam to Hull followed by three trains:

from Hull to Leeds
from Leeds to Carlisle
from Carlisle to St. Bees

At the beginning of the evening we arrived at St. Bees. From the train station it is only one kilometer to the start of the Coast to Coast path at the Irish Sea coast. If we had read the sign well, we would have known that we had have to dip our shoes in the Irish Sea and take a small pebble as talisman. Yet we did not, so we started without doing this. The Coast to Coast path first takes a path along the Irish Sea coast. It is a pleasant path. After a few kilometers (near Fleswick Bay) we found a place without cows to pitch our tent. At least that's what we thought. Next morning the cows themselves proved we were wrong, because we were woken by the sound of a cow who knocked on our tent.

We struck our camp and left without any breakfast. After leaving the coastline we took a break to get our breakfast after all. After this break we continued our path towards Cleator Moor. It was a pleasant walk. After Cleator Moor we had our first real climb upto Dent. A the top we had a small break to catch our breath again. Because the clouds were closing in, we started to descend to the Uldale Plantation. When we reached the edge of the woods we noticed that the sign was broken off. So we thought we took the right way, but after a while when we reached the other edge of the woods we noticed we were wrong and decided to walk to the nearest larger road to continue the walk towards Ennerdale Bridge. Because this afternoon the football match Netherlands - Argentina was played, we decided to go to a pub to watch the match. After the match we walked on for a little while till we found a suitable place to pitch our tent for the night.
Next day we had a very good walk till about the Black Sail Hut. Just before the Coast to Coast path starts to climb the Seavy Knott we had a lunch break. The wind was cold and the weather was not to good, so we took a short break. After lunch we had energy enough to do the climb. At the top we were promised to have some great views, but we were not that lucky, because by the time we reached the top it was raining, so we didn't see anything, not even the trail. Together with another walker we maneged to reach the tramway and the Honister House. From here we took the road because we were entirely soaked by the rain. In Seatoller we took a break at a bus stop to dry our clothes a little. From Seatoller to Stonethwaite did not following the Coast-to-Coast trail but the road, in order to let our shoes dry a little bit more. First we had the plan to stay at the campsite just beyond Stonethwaite, but when we saw how primitive this was, we decided that we could better camp wild.

Next morning the weather was much better. We started with a climb to the Greenup Edge at the end of Borrowdale. Before we got there we took a little rest at Lining Crag and enjoyed the view. From Lining Crag towards Calf Crag there is no clair path, sometimes the route is rather swampy. From Calf Crag the route goes to Gibson Knott, Helm Crag and finally descends towards Grasmere. This is a pretty tough, but beautiful part of the route. In Grasmere we did some shopping and we took a break. Because it was quite early to stop we went on to Patterdale. At the Great Tongue we took the right part because we already had walked a lot of miles and this one was the easier of the two tracks. After passing the summit we did not do one of the two alternative routes, but we descended along Grisdale Tarn and the Ruthwaite Lodge into Grisdale. Just before Patterdale, near Thornhow we pitched ou tent for the night.

The fourth day was our last day in the Lake District of the Coast to Coast Walk, so we decided to enjoy it. After Patterdale the route climbs to Boardale Hause and than to Angle Tarn. After Angle Tarn we had some difficulties to follow the route, and we sometimes had to make our own way as we noticed that we were on the wrong track. However after all we reached The Knott at midday. We decided to go down a little and than take our lunch break. During that break we enjoyed the sun and had a great view over Haweswater. After lunch we desended further towards the bank of Haweswater Reservoir. The walk along the reservoir was easy, so we made good progress. At Burnbanks we filled our bottles with water and took our last break before Shap. During the last few miles before Shap we slowely noticed that time had come to say goodbye to the Lake District and say hello to the limestone country. In Shap we stayed in the garden of Bull Head Inn. Because this evening another football match with the Dutch team was played we watched television in the Inn.

To be continued in part 2

Last modified December 2000