Day 1 - St. Bees to Ennerdale: The Adventure Begins

19 miles, 9 hours, 1 strange dinner
Accommodation: YHA Ennderdale

Today dawned bright and beautiful - green and gold and blue on the Irish Sea! We had breakfast at 6:45, Scottish porridge and black pudding - like a bready, earthy tasting sausage. We got our packed lunches, paid up, and set off. We did the requisite dipping of our boots in the sea and picked up a pebble each to be thrown in the North Sea at Robin Hood's Bay.
The walk along the sea was absolutely gorgeous - cool breeze, bright sunshine, sheep dotted lawn on the right hand side, cliffs, seagulls (flying below us), and blue sea to our left. We trudged through bracken and heather and tall grasses, past the beautiful (and functional) lighthouse. This verse by Christina Rossetti, quoted by V. Woolf, came to mind:

My heart is like a rainbow shell,
That paddles in a halcyon sea,
My heart is gladder than all these,
Because my love has come to me.

Turning inland, we walked along idyllic farm roads - oh, and were greeted by "Jess," the collie. Henry Stedman (our guide book author) actually instructs us to send him back to the farm. He pattered after us after we had passed, and, after a few pats on the head, returned to the farm buildings. In one field we had our first encounter with cows at close quarters - but they simply stared at us out of their mild, liquid eyes.I had a pee in a ditch by the road - this whole time we saw not one hiker! Just a few cheery gents who ribbed us for doing the C2C - "You're pushing your luck! You won't get far." In fact, until the end of the day, we so not a single Coast-to-Coaster!
Well, after Sandwith (pronounced "Sannith") and from Cleator we beheld Dent Hill - "hill" apparently meaning to the British "1000' climb". Holy Cow. That thing was steep enough that we couldn't tell when we would reach the top. It was pretty rough, especially with the bright sun beating down on us. Thankfully it was not hot or humid. At the summit we met a man and his son who were going the opposite way, on a relay tour for the John Muir Trust, to raise environmental awareness. He asked if we knew of Muir, to which I replied, "I grew up in California."

View of Dent from Cleator

At the top of Dent - taken by the John Muir relay walker.

We walked a little more on the summit and then plopped on the grass by the path to eat our lunch: sandwiches of ham, cheddar, cucumbers, and some sort of relishy raisin/onion thing. Also crisps, apple, fruitcake slice, and a strange mint bar - like a bar made of the inside of a York Peppermint Patty - supposedly used by Sir Hillary on his climb up Everest.
The descent from Dent was very steep - a bit scary. Reminded me of the "Princess Bride" where Buttercup says, "And you can die too, for all I care!" and pushes Wesley over. D's knees were killing him. Then Nannycatch Beck (what a name - a bit "pervy" if you ask me) was lovely - sheep (on our path and blocking the way), running brook - which, however, only frustrated us since we were low on water and not sure when our next fill up would be and so could not drink as much as we wanted - 5 gallons seemd about right! Finally, at Ennerdale Bridge we filled up - or D did as I sat in the grass. The thought that some people ended their 1st day here was a bit agonizing. But it was only 2PM and we had 5 miles still to go.
And what an amazingly beautiful 5 miles - by Ennerdale Water. Sapphire blue and between the fells, the beginnings of the Lake District. At the water D insisted we take off our boots and socks and soak our feet in the cool water. Ahhhh....
A little duck made a beeline for us - from about 200 meters away on the lake - and very politely inspected our socks to make sure we didn't have any spare morsels for her. Then it was time to haul ourselves to the other end of the lake. Lovely - except in the 2nd half a lot of scrambling on stones - highly offensive to me, weak-ankled that I am.
Then through a small patch of wood, over a field and down a lane. Mind you, we had several diversions (i.e. being lost) so by the time we got "home" to YHA Ennerdale it was 6PM.

Taken during one of our "diversions".

Here we took hot showers - glorious - and hobbled downstairs to await dinner - which ended up being pretty bad camp food. Not dodgy or anything, but basically cold-ish, unflavored, and made by obviously amateur cooks: chicken "casserole" being bits of cut up boiled chicken and cold couscous. Rhubarb and apple crumble - not very sweet and pretty flavorless. But I ate every atom of food. Eating to fuel oneself really changes things.
We sat with 1 young man, Richard, who is beginning his PhD at Cambridge in theoretical physics, and 1 older couple from the Yorkshire Dales, who are hardcore walkers. I told them our PhD fields and think the woman misheard and thought D is going to study Geology. D later told me: "That's the last thing I would study. Well, maybe not. Actually, yes." We had a nice chat and the couple told us their funny walking adventures and travels, e.g. in Carson City on a tour of CA/NV where they took advantage of the 99 cent buffet every night! They made fun of our gigantic OS maps, which we laminated with contact paper - "Is that your rain shelter?"
D and I sat outside after dinner in our fleeces. It really is like camping as I remember it, always cold. We discussed our next day - 2 choices: High Stile alternative or the low route. The couple and Richard thought today was tough - but for the opposite reasons of why we thought so: "No climbing, but it was hot." What? Dent was, apparently, a stroll? Hot? At 65 and breezy? Who are you people? So, if Dent was easy, I'm not so sure about Red Pike - 2000'! We'll see. I'm going to bed now in my bunk - sharing a room with the woman from dinner. It's 10:30 now, maybe I'll get 9 hours of sleep to rest my bones!