We walked the length of ennerdale water, beautiful and serene. Then it was a ramble through the valley, before a tough climb then a more gentle descent through some scree and a pistol at honister mine. A little rain towards the end and a slight detour before we found the royal oak. Where we had a wonderful dinner.

 We were lucky to have the perfect weather for the first day on the CtoC. Group A set off just after 8am, and group B set off just before 9am  there was one big climb and a truly crazy steep descent.                                                                                                                                                                                                

The main group is traveling from London via Carlisle to st bees, a 5 hour journey. Suzy and Gwen. Due to some electronic airport snafu in London, Gwen’s plane from London to Manchester was cancelled! So the pivot meant sharing a hotel room with Suzy and traveling on the train together with Trish&Bill and Sawsan &Firoz. Petra has a sad good bye with her childhood BFF Debbsie and caught a train from Huntington. First change in Peterborough. And then a pivot due to train delay and missed connection, so onto Newcastle.  We’re all in st bees staying at the seacote hotel, ready for day 1 on the trail tomorrow.

7 of us are going to walk together across England. The coast to coast from st bees to robinhoods bay. We’ll walk across the Lake District, Yorkshire dales and Yorkshire moors. Sawsan and Firoz set of first from Virginia USA and Toronto Canada via a few days cruise along the beautiful coast of Norway. Then Petra flew to London from Boston. and met her first great niece born on the 6th August, Ada Jay. A beautiful tiny little girl. Then a train to Huntington, Cambridgeshire. for a catch up and warm up walk with a childhood friend. Gwen is traveling from NYC to Manchester,  Suzy Q from Chicago to London, Bill and Trish from Detroit to London and Firoz and Sawsan are now in London too. The London group are celebrating 2 birthdays with an action packed day! Happy happy birthday Suzy and Trish.