Dear friends. It's almost impossible to put into words an adequate description of the weather that accompanied my first 3 hours of walking. I expected some rain, in fact it was steadily dropping as I peered, bleary eyed, from my room at the Manor House Inn. But, as I arrived on St Bees beach at the official start of the 200 miles, what confronted me was torrential. I sheltered with some other walkers until there was a relative lull in the deluge (I'm running out of different words for heavy rain), then we scampered down onto the beach to dip our boots in the Irish Sea and pick up a small pebble for tranfer to the beach at Robin Hood's bay, which is a coast to coast tradition. A few of us decided to get going and stayed together for safety. It was hailing horizontally straight into our faces and was horrible. Thankfully the hail turned to rain and after 3 hours of misery, the sun came out and we were able to take off our waterproof gear to reveal clothes that were drenched with condensation.
I had been walking and chatting to a very pleasant chap called Trevor who was also walking alone with his spaniel Alfred. After about 10 miles we parted company as he wanted to avoid walking over a monstrous hill ironically called Dent. It was quite a climb but the views from the top were stunning.
So, 16 miles from the rainy start of my day I arrived at Low Cock How farm to camp on their lawn. The sun shone as I erected my tent, made a lovely cup of coffee and ate a disgusting, freeze dried, chilli con carne. Then I heard thunder and down it came again. It's still raining now as I write this while sheltering in a draughty shed come cookhouse.
I think I can safely say it has been an eventful start to the walk.
I'm off to have a shower then crawl into my tent. Another day tomorrow.
Take care.
Rob
virginmoneygiving.com/RobSetter
virginmoneygiving.com/RobSetter
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