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.

London to St. Bees by Train

The Sydney Hotel, where we stayed in London before our hike.

Our trip from London to St. Bees was more of an ordeal than we expected. When we went to buy our train tickets at Euston Station in London, we had trouble speaking the same English language with the lady behind the glass. At first she couldn't understand us when we said we wanted to get to St. Bees and then, as we only later found out, she sold us tickets that took us all the way to Carlisle, which is close to the border to Scotland, where we then had to transfer to another train that would take us back down the west coast to our destination--while we could have got there much cheaper and easier a different way. But we didn't find that out until our tickets were checked on our way back down the coast.A castle in Carlisle that we didn't get a chance to explore

Riding the fast train

At any rate, even though the cost of the train was so high--102 pounds per person--we really enjoyed the train system. The cars were clean, there was a fair amount of leg room and we got to see the countryside fly by. We took a Virgin Rail train from London to Carlisle and then a slow diesel train that stopped in many tiny towns on the west coast. While on the slow train we met Allen, an Englishman we were to hike with for the next four days. He was a retired HR coordinator, and a gentle and kind man who told us all kinds of interesting things about England.

Our B&B stop that night was called Abbey Farm House, and as you can see from our earlier blog pictures, it was lovely. Clean and light and airy, with a big clawfoot tub in the bathroom, free internet and tasty food. The host, Steve, was friendly and very helpful.

Abbey Farm House, in the flesh.

St. Bees itself is a small town, although larger than many we came across. It has a Post Office, which is also a convenience store (many of the post offices in Britain are like it), two pubs and a restaurant. And many B&Bs to accommodate all the Coast to Coast walkers and the many vacationers who come to visit the lovely beach there.

The little town of St. Bees

We had our first English pint in a pub there, it was called Speckled Hen ale, and came recommended by a man sitting at the bar. We stood out like sore thumbs as foreigners unaccustomed to English food and drink, but this got better along the way.

Where we ate supper.

The Irish Sea, at low tide.

Back in rainy Calgary

We're home! Eric came and picked us up at the airport yesterday afternoon. Now we just have to adjust back to Alberta time. It's two in the afternoon here but nine at night in England and I am getting pretty sleepy! Over the next while I'm going to post an overview of each day on our hiking trip. That should give our normal readers a sense of our trip, and it'll hopefully be of use to future Coast-to-Coast hikers looking for information on places to stay and things to see along the way. We looked at some blogs of the trip before we went and really appreciated the information, so I thought I would contribute to the body of online knowledge of the trip. But, generally speaking, some highlights of the trip: - Church in Westminster Abbey. It was just so amazing to worship in a church so beautiful and one with such a history of worshippers. I am seriously considering converting to Anglicanism, but that's a whole nother story. -Our night at Keld Lodge, half way through the trip. We crossed that day the Pennines in the pouring misty rain and were soggy wet and grateful for a warm bed and cozy B&B regardless where it was, but this place outdid our expectations. They had a whole room devoted to drying out hikers' gear (they get a lot of us) which was toasty warm and had our soaking wet stuff crispy dry by morning. They had a bar lounge for those who wanted it and a sitting room with a coal burning fire place (which was going) for hikers to relax and put their feet up (which we did). They had a restaurant that, while certainly not the cheapest place we came across, had WONDERFUL food. We had the best meal we had the whole time were in England there. The bed was comfortable, the shower fairly large (an uncommon thing) and with plenty of hot water and pressure. And to top it off, the evening was misty but not raining and the world was green and hilly and full of lambs and silent rural desolate beauty. -Our Australian friends. We met up the first day with three Australians hiking the trail, who unlike us wimps who had the majority of our baggage delivered from place to place, were carrying all their stuff on their backs. When we met them, they told us we were from the second best British commonwealth country (Australia, it would seem, was first). ;) But we got to know them better over the days of hiking and spent a whole day with them in the middle, wandering through a valley in the Yorkshire dales. They were lovely enthusiastic people and it was really neat to share our excitement in seeing the countryside with them. We were sad to leave them before the end of the hike (they split a day in two that we did in one). -Meeting two of my grad school colleagues in London. It was fun seeing two friendly familiar faces in London, and we enjoyed spending a little time with them and sharing our adventures with them and hearing about their time doing the Battlefields tour. -Finally, climbing peaks in the Lake District. The tops were beautiful and there were so many little tarns and villages down below to view. Plus our hiking companions were hardy, sure-footed, fit and well-dressed-for-the-weather domestic sheep (you thought I was going to say Swiss mountain climbers or something, didn't you). There were ewes and lambs calmly chewing their cud at the top of Britain's third highest peak. You may say, yes but Britain doesn't have much for mountains, does it? But you shall see when we post pictures, they certainly do have some high peaks! Ok, on to the hiking posts...and with picture this time!

Glaisdale to Littlebeck

Hi everyone! I thought I would write a quick blog entry since we have some internet. Still no easy way to upload pictures, so again you'll just have to imagine things, but at least I can paint you a word picture. Part of the appeal of our hike has been the fact that we travel through three English national parks. But the English national park is, according to the international classification of parks, mostly class five,which means they are used for both what we would call "normal" park uses as well as domestic purposes (living in them and raising domestic animals in them). The Lakes District park was the first through which we travelled, made famous most of all by Wordsworth's poetry, but well known generally for its mountains and tarns and its mountain climbing domestic sheep, a breed called Herdwicks. The second park we visited was the Yorkshire Dales, most recognizable from James Herriot stories, and the third is the North York Moors, which if you've ever read the Bronte sisters, is evident especially in Wuthering Heights. The Moors, which we've been walking through since Richmond, more or less, is full of bog and heather and lonely high hills misty and wild. There are sheep up on them, often a breed called the Swaledales, and also lots of grouse, which make good eating I am told. The heather and scrub that grows is not actually natural; as far as I know there used to be trees there, but since the trees are gone, the heather has taken over. It gets purple flowers in the summer that apparently smell like honey, but right now they're just a grey-green colour. There's also patches where controlled burning has taken place so that the grouse have somewhere to nest, and there the land is a smoldering brown-black colour. Beautiful in a desolate mysterious way. The moors seem like very spiritual, dark places. Yesterday when we were hiking in the pouring rain and thick thick mist (we couldn't see more than fifteen feet ahead of us most of the day), we were constantly coming across roughly grave-stone-sized markers on the trail (one might call them menhirs, such as Obelix carried around--for those of you familiar with Asterix and Obelix ;) ). We've seen these throughout the moors, and when we've asked about them, people tell us that they've always been there; no one really knows why they were originally placed...perhaps as border markers between counties or as markers so people travelling did not get lost in the mists. At any rate, we came across one on which one side was carved up to look like a face--a warning anxious, almost agonizing-looking face. And today when we were walking we came across more tall markers, some of which were part of stone circles. I get almost an ominous feeling walking through these quiet windy relatively empty places...but perhaps that's just because I've read too much fiction. :) Tomorrow we will walk along the coast for part of the day...but according to BBC forecasts, mostly in the rain, which is too bad. Nevertheless, when we get to the coast I shall say Hello North Sea and yell loudly Hello Denmark! in case any over there is listening across the way. I know, I am a dork. But really I shall do it. Hard to believe tomorrow will be our last hiking day. I'm quite enjoying the rhythm of walking. I have had few blisters, even though my boots are relatively new. My feet have stayed quite dry and happy with my wool socks. Brent, however, has had nothing but trouble with his boots. They don't dry very quickly, and so he's worn wet boots several days. His feet are covered in blisters, some in the oddest places, like the tops of his toes. We think it's mostly from the wet boots rub badly. And his boots are toast, this'll probably be the last trip they see. At least he has comfortable dry shoes to put on at the end of the day. Well I could say much much more, but I should relinquish the computer. Thanks for reading, all. I promise some visual aids as soon as we can accomplish it!

Just a Quick Update

Writing a note from the pub in the little town of Reeth in Richmond County in Yorkshire. In other words, James Herriot country, for those of you who are familiar with the literary veterinarian. It's pouring rain outside now but for the most of the day it was just beautifully misty and humid and the world is green and full of lambs and buttercups. Northern England is truly beautiful. We've stayed at a mixture of Bed and Breakfasts and town Inns, and some have been great hits and others were mixed reviews. Jorgen's Molly warned us about the small showers here and she was most definitely right! Some of them are so small you can barely turn around, and because they're often late late additions to the houses, bathrooms in general are in wierd places. It's fun still. We have lots of pictures, Brent's almost filled two 2-gig memory cards, but the pub does not have an uploading center so they'll have to wait! We've met some wonderful people on the trail. Australians, quite a few Canadians, actually, and a couple of Americans along with British. Mostly retired people though, not many young people. Anyway, just wanted to let you know we're alive. Tomorrow we walk 16 km (short day) to Richmond. We're hoping to get there early enough that we can tour the castle there and see what is supposed to be a "typical Yorkshire town." Love you all! Cheers!

Today we took the train from London to Carlisle (which, for those of Kirstin's family interested, is very close to the border to Scotland) (inside joke). Then we got on another train that travelled slower down the west coast to St. Bees. It stopped at a lot of small towns as we moved south and west...and all of a sudden it reached the coast and we travelled right alongside the ocean. I have no recollection of ever seeing the coast before, although I know Mum and Dad took us to Victoria once, and this was wonderful. Water as far as we could see, with little bobbing ships and coastal towns.

The house we are staying in at St. Bees is the farmhouse that accompanies a parish Abbey. The main floor used to be the barn, I'm told, and there are still hooks in the ceiling which used to hold hay. The house was built in the 1500s (!!) and is absolutely gorgeous. It's not your traditional bed and breakfast with ensuites, but that doesn't matter to us. It's absolutely lovely. I highly recommend it.

Tonight we went for supper at the Manor House, which is now a hotel and pub. We had a pint of real English beer--NOT carbonated (which is my biggest hang-up about beer) and it was quite tasty. It was called something like Smoking Hen Ale or something like that. Guiness is on tap here...and is much cheaper than in Canada.

Tomorrow we actually begin hiking. We wondered if there would be anyone else hiking at the same time as us, and there are. Staying here at Abbey Farm House are, count them, four other Canadians all starting the hike tomorrow as well. One semi-retired couple from Vancouver and two sisters, one from Saint Albert, and the other from somewhere in Ontario. And we thought we were going to be the isolated uncommon Canadians! Someone at the pub assumed that we were American, but I quickly corrected them.

The biggest difference between here and London that became clear very quickly, is how friendly people were. Only two Londoners that we encountered were at all friendly or voluntarily helpful. Here, lots of people are. A man we met on the train, a girl waiting for her friends in Carlisle, the man who runs this B & B. It's quite a lovely change, we were getting quite sick of being the friendly Canadians who were constantly snubbed.

In addition to sixteenth century Abbey, St. Bees has an old church and a big old cemetery (which, I'm sad to say, is in rough shape now). Nevertheless, we went for a walk through it tonight, and Brent took some pictures.

Pictures From London

England Swings like a Pendulum Do

ENGLAND SWINGS words and music by Roger Miller England swings like a pendulum do Bobbies on bicycles, two by two Westminster Abbey, the tower of Big Ben The rosy red cheeks of the little children Now, if you huff and puff and you fin'lly save enough Money up to take your family on a trip across the sea Take a tip before you take your trip Let me tell you where to go Go to England, oh England swings like a pendulum do Bobbies on bicycles, two by two Westminster Abbey, the tower of Big Ben The rosy red cheeks of the little children Mama's old pajamas and your papa's mustache, Falling out the window sill, frolic in the grass, Tryin' to mock the way they talk, fun but all in vain, Gaping at the dapper men with derby hats and canes. England swings like a pendulum do Bobbies on bicycles, two by two Westminster Abbey, the tower of Big Ben The rosy red cheeks of the little children England swings like a pendulum do Bobbies on bicycles, two by two Westminster Abbey, the tower of Big Ben The rosy red cheeks of the little children

It's Four in the Morning...

... the end of December...

Well, not quite, actually 6:30 in the morning and two weekends ago, but close enough :) We made a trip up to Lacombe to visit both sets of parents once more before we head out on our big trip to England. Saturday morning I (Brent) decided to wake up early and finally take advantage of the golden hours for photography.

Not being much of a morning person I haven't set out to do it before, but for some reason I just decided on the spur of a moment to take advantage of morning light. So 6:30 I was up, outside and shooting for 90 minutes or so. Approx 200 pictures later I got 30 or so good shots, pretty good odds, best I've ever gotten before. Here are some of the better shots in my opinion:








Later in the day I didn't have much to do, so I continued to take pictures. Here are a few more good ones:

A new artist

Recently we discovered a new musical artist in the genre similar to Josh Ritter and Ray LaMontagne etc etc. We were listening to his album this morning and one of the songs just really struck me. Perhaps it's the beautiful spring rainy day...makes me feel all romantic and mushy. Here's the lyrics...there's no music video because the album is brand new, but I found a recording on Youtube nonetheless. Great Escape Thought I could But I just can't wait Started planning For the great escape Where I'd live and What I'd leave behind Made a list of things I'd have to take The things that make me feel like hell For heavens sake Who I'd love and who would tow the line And I need you Everybody needs someone like you If you need me too You would be the only thing that I'd take On my great escape I float through this town like a cosmonaut Reminding me of all the things I haven't got Like time and space, a smile on my face and you And I need you Everybody needs someone like you If you need me too You would be the only thing that I'd take Maybe I'll find that my destination Is somewhere I already know? And your were as far as I ever had to go And I need you Thought I could, but I just can't wait Everybody needs someone like you Started planning for me great escape If you need me to Who I love and who I'd leave behind You would be the only thing that I'd take with me Who I'd leave behind I need you Who I'd leave behind Everybody needs someone like you Who I'd leave behind If you need me to You would be the only thing that I take On my great escape

Democratic Race

This is slightly out of date now, but it's hilarious nonetheless. Voting for party leadership in American politics is incredibly complicated. Who are you rooting for? Wanna guess who I am?

PJB Design in the news

Check out this Lacombe Globe article. That's Brent's Sketch-up model of the fieldhouse, and PJB himself in the article. Also in the same Globe issue, a very interesting article on the coming race track and its place in the greater global scheme of things. George Weenik is a long-time Woodynook resident, close to my parents' house.

Just a coupla things

We're off to Lacombe for the weekend, to run some errands and, more importantly, spend some long overdue quality time with family.

Just a couple of things then before we go:

Today's Calvin and Hobbes: interesting in light of so many things going on today. Rice shortages everywhere--including here in Calgary. The price of basmati rice has almost doubled in our Co-op, and there was little of it to be had. Have you noticed this too, Rach and Trev? I've heard that a lot of the food shortages in the world are because of 1) the new production of biodiesel (which is controversial in its own right) and 2) the loss of farmland in general. As my brother Karl is fond of lecturing us, don't complain about farmers with your mouth full.

Also, strange weather occuring all through North America. Major flooding, tornadoes where they don't normally occur. Like it or not, the climate is changing.

Call me a tree-hugger if you wish, but I think we all need to be very mindful of our use (and misuse) of green space and of our society's overwhelming force of consumerism. Brent and I are of the opinion that experiences are more important to life than "stuff." Of course, this doesn't always work. We need a vehicle that runs. And, because we live in North America, one set of clothes just isn't socially acceptable. But you know what are fun? Hand-me-downs. I just got a couple of shirts from a friend. I really like hand-me-downs. New-to-me and already broken in in. (Although as a kid, they were not so much a treat).

These are my thoughts for today. Anyone want to add or disagree?

Finally, a webcam in London for your viewing pleasure. Thirteen days til we go...

Various orders of the day (with external links)

We just got back from driving E & B to the airport, where they are flying to San Francisco for a holiday/business trip. They're going to man (and woman) a booth for their company Solarbotics at a big electronicky techy fair there (you can tell I really understand all of this stuff, hey?) We get to jeepsit for them, as they are lending us the Jeep because.... Our truck is too broke to fix. We've put more money into it than we'd like already this year, and it needs many more repairs. So we're in the market for a new vehicle. We're thinking something smaller and more fuel efficient. Maybe hatchback? Maybe import? And newer. Definitely newer. Volkswagen? Toyota? Honda? Mazda? And we can consider all of this because... My funding came through for the fall! So we can now budget for things, because we have a concrete idea of my expenses and income. Hurray for that! Which means we will (God willing) be making two foreign trips the year because... My research requires a trip to Denmark! There's two archives there containing records that will be helpful for my thesis. So we need to start brushing up on our Danish skills (det skal vi gore) and I have time for this now because... I'm done allllllll of my coursework for my Master's career! I handed in my last paper on Monday! Which means I/we can start preparing for the next couple of things on the go. The first is the 40th Anniversary National Parks Conference held at U of C next weekend. The second is our garden: pruning, raking, fertilizing, weeding, cleaning and organizing. We're in a Catch 22 with what to with the garden this year...we're only here for another year so we don't want to put too much effort in, but we also really enjoy gardening, so we don't want to give it up entirely. And we can't take the perennials with us, much as we want to. If this were our house, we'd make so many changes (read: there would be virtually no grass, just prairie/drought-hardy perennials). At any rate, we need to make some trips to Golden Acres, a local HUGE greenhouse. Third is our trip to England! It's coming up so fast and there are so many things we need to do first. And the craziest part is that we leave only two days after E & B get back, which is less than optimal because... We haven't seen enough of them in the last couple weeks of school craziness and because we have big plans to go see Run Fatboy Run with them. (And we'll need to return the Jeep). So really, it all comes back to E & B. PS. An important wikipedia article.

When Life Gives You Snow, Take Pictures

Today is Tuesday, and it has been snowing off and on since Friday afternoon. Friday and Saturday it snowed pretty hard, covering the roads and making it feel like January again. Now it's just misting enough to put another layer on the sidewalks that diligent shovelers cleared this morning.

And as usual, when it snows, we went for coffee.

It is April 23, two days after the official start of spring and I think the flowers and trees may be permanently scared into submission; they'll try again next year.

But, the robins are out and they are a beautiful sight and sound.

We know a lot of people who have birthdays in April. Happy birthday Dad B, Mum S, and Rachel! (The others we know most likely don't read our blog).

That reminds me, check out Rachel and Trevor's blog for some pictures of what spring can look like, at least in the eastern hemisphere. :)

And on a final note, I should add that the snow really isn't all bad. After all, we had a fire ban here prior to this storm. A fire ban. In April. So bring on the moisture, God, in whatever form.

Just When You Think It Is Over...

... it snows again!

What's Opera Doc?

It's amazing what you can find on Youtube. This was a favourite when my brothers and I were young.