Day One: St. Bees to Ennerdale Bridge

22.5 Km from St Bees to Ennerdale Bridge

We ate breakfast at 7:30; Brent had the full English breakfast--one of the better ones on the way--and I had tasty creamy British porridge. Porridge came to be an important staple to our breakfast diet, and we ate a lot of good porridge! The Brits eat theirs with golden syrup (corn syrup) and we often had to ask for brown sugar if we wanted it.

Feet in the Irish Sea

We were on the trail by eight thirty and Allen hiked behind us for a while. He was very interesting to talk to, but as he was hiking with all of his gear, we got ahead of him after a couple hours and didn't see him again that day.

Hiking along the coast

Gorse, a scratchy, yellow-flowered, lovely-scented bush.

White Haven or Sandwith (pronounced Sannith)? We went towards Sandwith

We hiked along the coast for several hours before heading inland. We were fascinated by the number of different ways the British have devised for crossing fences. Here are a few examples.

A Kissing Gate

A Stile, with a dog door beside.

An A-Frame Gate

We climbed a big hill called Dent Fell. It was here we first met the Australians, who were taking a "nannynap" part way through the day. We hiked behind them for a while as we dropped down towards Ennerdale.

Dent Fell in the distance
Dent Fell, made it to the top.

The other side of Dent Fell, hiking with the Australians for the first time

We passed through a number of quiet little towns which our guide book said would "appreciate our custom." As we had bought a packed lunch from Abbey Farm House, we didn't need to buy anything along the way. But we appreciated the sign in the window of one pub.

We stayed at the Fox and Hounds Inn in Ennerdale. It was a clean but not fancy place. We had supper there, I ordered lamb, which was quite tasty and inexpensive. We met up with Gordon and Charlene, a retired couple who live on an island off the coast of BC, and who we had stayed with at the Abbey Farm House. We had supper with them and chatted. They were very friendly and interested in all our life plans, and had all kinds of architect and academic connections. We would see them throughout the hike until we left them behind in Patterdale.

The Fox and Hounds Inn

We did our laundry in the bathtub at the Inn and hung it up to dry. We hadn't done laundry since we got to England, and were running low on socks and underwear.

The Churchyard across the road from the Inn.

The Church itself, with a round turret.