Flakes of ice slide down the tarp. I woke several times during a cold night. Cramp in my left leg did not help — always a bit of a comedy act in the tight confines of a sleeping bag.
There’s no steam train to carry me back to the coast, which means a seven-mile hike along lanes to Gosforth and down to Seascale.
Sellafield, Europe’s largest nuclear site, sprawls behind layers of security fences topped with coils of barbed wire. The final decommissioning of the site is scheduled for 2120. How will they replace 10,000 jobs in an area already suffering from the decline of traditional shipbuilding, mining, iron and steel works?
I’m nervous about Sunday train cancellations, given the England v Fiji Rugby World Cup quarter-final at 4 pm, so jump on a train at Nethertown to my Travelodge at Workington, home for the next two nights. A shorter day and a comfy bed are both welcome after the tiring last two days.
Next day
The train carries pre-dawn workers to Sellafield, dropping me off for a chilly walk to St Bees, where the path climbs to the headland.
I’m back in sandstone country, one of my favourite colourful coastal landscapes. I can’t resist walking down to the shore beneath St Bees Head. Tradition requires me to pick up a pebble, at the start of Wainwright’s Coast to Coast walk, carry it 190 miles and drop it into the North Sea at Robin Hood’s Bay. I’m hiking the Yorkshire coast next month, but I suspect it’s frowned upon to drop a pebble transported via rail.
Pausing at a bird hide, hundreds of jackdaws swirl above the clifftop. A skein of cormorants passes below, the first time I’ve seen more than two together.
The sea is perfectly still, offering a fine view across the Solway Firth to Criffel, which dominated the early part of my Scotland walk last year.
The Haig Colliery coal mine at Whitehaven extended four miles under the Irish Sea — hard to imagine. It was closed in 1986 and turned into a museum, now also sadly closed.
The Candlestick, an old coal mine boiler house chimney, was modelled on the favourite candleholder of the wealthy family that owned the mine.
It’s been a pretty and interesting walk from St Bees to Whitehaven. My favourite stretch of the Cumbria coast so far.
The path to Workington follows the railway line, passing the familiar recycling plants and cement works factories on the outskirts of the town, before a pleasant climb up to a hilltop overlooking the mouth of the River Derwent.
The riverside path leads almost to the door of my Travelodge.
I’ve not eaten much all day and don’t fancy any of the pubs I pass in town. Popping into M&S for an unhealthy selection of cheese, biscuits and a mini bottle of red wine, a shop assistant comes across to authorise the wine purchase. She glances at me a second time to check. I tell her she’s made my day!
Walk distance: 34 miles.
Total distance: 3,430 miles.
That pebble will have to take the journey right around the norther coast of Scotland before landing in Robin Hood’s bay!
St Bees to Whitehaven is indeed a very nice route, probably the best bit of the Cumbrian coast. Workington is a s***hole! Silloth is a nice town, but the coastline until Scotland is pretty average, as you know, as you’ve done some of it already haven’t you?
Hey Paul. Just back from the North East coastline. I rested outside the C2C end pub in Robin Hood’s Bay but did not tempt the weather gods by dropping off my pebble.
Yup, the final stretch round to Carlisle was a bit of a slog, but onwards and upwards! 🙂