Day 0 – June 5

London – St Bees [Getting There]

We decided from all we had read that the train was the best and easiest way to get from London to St. Bees.  However, when we rung British Rail we were shattered to find the fare was over £100 each, one way!!  That is over $300 each for poor Australians!   The best we could do was to go later, after peak hour which ended at 10am, which still cost £68 each.  Still we had been telling ourselves all along that if we were going to enjoy this holiday we had to forget about cost as the poor exchange rate of the Aussie dollar meant everything was going to hurt if we thought about it.  So we booked the fare a few days before and packed ready to go.

Our friends in London took us to Brixton Station and we caught the train to Euston Station to catch the train for Carlisle and then to St Bees (The Royal Scot) – that was the plan!  However, there was an half hour delay on the line about three quarters of the way to Carlisle and we missed the connection to St Bees. The conductor on the train was very helpful and rang ahead to Carlisle when we realised what was happening.   When we arrived at Carlisle we were told to catch the train to Whitehaven and there would be a taxi waiting to take us to St Bees – at Virgin’s expense - not bad we thought.  The taxi brought us to "Stonehouse Farm" – our Bed and Breakfast (B and B) at about 6 pm.  We were met by Mrs Smith and her two children.   She said our friend Allan had already arrived and settled in.  It was a very nice room with a huge ensuite with writing desk and chair in it - funny place to write your letters?   The day got sunnier as we went along and was really lovely by the time we got to St Bees.  The taxi driver assured us tomorrow was going to be a nice day.  We dropped our things in the room and set out straight away for the cliff walk which we wanted to do before setting out on the rest of the walk proper tomorrow.  Allan had already walked it earlier in the day so he walked with us to the beach where we took our photos by the signs and then we picked up our pebble from the Irish Sea and headed off along the cliffs.  The tradition is to pick up a pebble from St Bees, carry it with you on the walk and then throw it into the North Sea at Robin Hoods Bay.   We continued on by ourselves – what a beautiful walk! (2 hours).  When we got to Sandwith (pronounced Sannith) we went into the pub to see if we could get a meal as it was now 8.00 pm. However, the cook wasn’t feeling well, so they weren’t cooking meals.  Continued on back to St Bees, went to our B and B to change our shoes and then went to "The Queen’s Arms" for a light tea of soup and rolls and a heavy dessert.  We will have to get used to eating in pubs (never having done so in Australia) as in the villages there is nowhere else to eat.  Went for a short stroll before returning to the B and B for a shower and bed at 10.30 pm – still light.  We found a letter in our room from Eric and Colleen, another Australian couple we met through the C2C chat room who were doing the walk a week ahead of us.  It was just letting us know how the walk has been for them so far - rather wet.  On this evening’s walk around the cliffs we counted the stiles and gates – 14 stiles and 2 gates!  Staying at the B and B are two Canadian couples (Bob and Louise and Trevor and Lucille) who will be keeping to the same itinerary as us for a few days but we will lose them further along as they are taking 17 days to complete the walk compared with our 13 days. There was also an English couple there.

Day 1