Distance: 14 km
Elevation: 311 m
Time: 3h20
Always ironic if you travel from the end point to the start point in a few hours by train, but it’s going to take days to get back. Technically we didn’t travel from the exact end point, but as the name Coast to Coast implies, we traveled from the North Sea to the Irish see, to walk back to the North Sea.
As Ylva and I arrived in St Bees late in the afternoon, we could only fit in a few kilometers. Nonetheless, we were served some amazing views. Whereby we both failed in the geography of the UK as we both wondered what land we saw across the water and what the water was actually called. Backpacks full with food and water, but luckily not many unnecessaries. The climbs up the cliffs was steep but brief and we both managed perfectly. After a few kilometers you dip down a few meters into a beautiful valley with amazing flowers. We did our best to take photos that did the place worthy, but sadly we failed.
The path along the coast wanders the cliff and at the short cut we agreed to continue on the official path. The marking was so far good and we felt energetic. After leaving the coast, we hit the first tarmeck/asphalt bit. Wich resulted in an increase in pace and the first town were we had a drink and refill our water.
After leaving the town we started to look for a wild camp option. Which interfered a little bit with our navigation skills. So more than once we took a wrong turn and had to walk a few hundred meters back. I also found the perfect wood to start a fire with, and thinking we were almost there, I took it. According to the Far-out app, there was a wild camp spot at km 13, which would only take 30min but somehow we managed to walk wrong twice and eventually it took about an hour. The camp spot wasn’t ideal, but there was nothing better. The ground was a well pressed dirt road, so the tent pegs would go in. Eventually we used rocks and accepted that it wasn’t a perfect pitch. Fortunately it stayed dry through the night.
After pitching the tent, we went for a dip in the little stream. I’ve missed this so much. Nothing better than forcing yourself to get in to the cold water and then not wanting to leave because it’s so refreshing. But dinner needed to be made and as I invited Ylva, I wanted to take the lead and make wild camping as comfortable for her as possible. We used a little woodstove and the wood that I carried turned out to be as good as I expected. So we fried the veggies and boiled the couscous and after dinner we rekindled the fire to make some tea. As we were sipping our tea, four guys appeared on the trail, yelling to eachother that they should find a camp spot soon. We already took the best spot, but if you really wanted, you could make other spots work. They inspected the spots, but decided to continue, and we never saw them again.
Zilla-in-the-wild 