Length : 190 miles approx
Started : 9th July 2005
Finished : 4th October 2009
Companions* : (*did full walk, not necessarily in my company) Mark Billington, Helen Smith, Jon Bates, Chris Cooper, Andy Roughley, Wendy Guest, Richard Hindley (in part) too many to mention, I’ll forget someone. Alan and Joyce Robinson provided logistical support on some sections
Guide : The Cumbria Coastal Way - John and Krystle Brodie (Ciccerone)
This is the big one and a whole new chapter in the story. It’s also the hardest tale to tell in a coherent way because there are disparate strands to pull together and there is also a need for some discretion as it concerns current friends and in a couple of cases, foes.
I think the best starting point is a relatively well-attended B.O.G. walk setting off from Rivington in December 2002 almost a year after Susan’s departure. When we met at the car park there was the lady herself with some other walkers. One of our members went over for a chat and discovered that she was leading a walk for an entirely different group, the Lancashire Young People’s Walking Group for 20s and 30s. I thought no more of it until a few months later when Rob also revealed that he was walking with them despite being 39 (which really surprised me). I don’t know if Susan invited him in but probably suspected it at the time. As told in the Pendle Way entry , the B.O.G. situation deteriorated in the course of 2003 and I was relying on my new employment to bring in a few new members or we were finished. By April 2004 I had got half a dozen or so new names on paper but none had shown up to anything so I swallowed my pride and emailed Susan for contact details.
Even though I was now 39 myself and, in truth, slightly resentful of this new group for “poaching” a valuable member like Rob, I figured it was better than finding ourselves alone as B.O.G. expired. Besides which, Julie and I were moving up the list for IVF treatment so it probably wouldn’t be a long term involvement anyway. Susan was helpful though she explained she now walked with the Cheshire equivalent with her new fiancé. I made contact and went along to a new member’s night in Whalley. It wasn’t well attended but the chairman, Mark, seemed like a good bloke, a Preston fan who remembered past games against Rochdale so I felt reasonably welcome.
At exactly the same time,the new members started turning up in B.O.G. and our fortunes steadily improved throughout the year. As a result, my involvement with the Lancashire Group in 2004 was sporadic and peripheral on spare weekends. I was very self-conscious about my age despite the fact there were older people than me besides Rob, one of them on the committee. Later that year there was a bit of strife on the Group’s messageboard about the age limit and Mark had to step in and say categorically that no one would be pushed out when they turned 40. Once he’d said that I thought I should make a contribution and offered to lead a couple of walks early in 2005.
These were reasonably attended and well received so I came up with a couple more suggestions for the summer , one of which was a short linear walk along the first part of the Cumbria Coastal Way from Silverdale to Arnside. This had first come to my attention towards the end of the Lancashire Coastal Way when we’d had to buy a map for the bit beyond Morecambe because we couldn’t find a leaflet that covered it. The CCW looked very enticing both on the map and as a vista across Morecambe Bay but I reluctantly discounted it as impractical for Julie and I. I submitted it purely as a one off easy walk with no intention of taking it any further partly because of the very negative (and plain wrong ) response from Carlisle Tourist Information Centre when I asked about a guide -
The Cumbria Coastal Way was a waymarked route covering 124 miles between Barrow in Furness and Carlisle and a leaflet was produced many years ago by the Planning Dept of Cumbria County Council. It did include sections of the route which were not public rights of way and has never been reproduced.
Whether or not these waymarks still exist and if the paths are accessible is unknown to us I'm afraid. Maybe some one like the Ramblers Assn may be able to help with a book
Fortunately by the time the walk came round I’d found a guidebook for it in Bolton Library. The adventure started on a roasting Saturday afternoon in July 2005. Despite the lovely day there were just five takers and I only knew one of them. Two of the others, Matt and Helen, would go on to be mainstays of the Group but they were newcomers then. The walk went well, the tide being in improving the view, and everyone seemed appreciative. On the next walk I attended, Helen told me how much she’d enjoyed it so that encouraged me to submit a Part Two for the autumn programme.
This was a supposedly fourteen mile walk around the Kent estuary to Grange-over-Sands. I was a bit worried about the amount of tarmac road on this stretch but thought the scenery would compensate. The weather was not as good that day but I was blown away by the turnout, 26 if I remember correctly but certainly the highest for a walk I’d led with any group. It was a bit of a marathon, all agreeing that it was least three miles longer than advertised and I won an end of year award for the most misleading walk description. It was enjoyable despite a real soaking on the most exposed part of the route and a mid-walk mutiny where two pacesetters became detached from the rest of the Group. Mark in particular became enthused about continuing the trail though the lack of a Sunday train service beyond Barrow would cause problems.
That walk was a bit of a watershed vis-à-vis the balance between the two groups in my life. Going back to B.O.G for a moment, we had boosted numbers in 2004 and with that extra security I pursued a strategy of more adventurous events the following summer. The primary purpose was to entice particular people namely Rob and Mike, because more than anything I wanted those who’d dropped out to come back and admire what I’d done in resurrecting the Group, and two girls in their twenties who’d recently joined, because, well, they were very attractive ! In that respect the adventure programme was an utter failure although well-subscribed and enjoyed by those who did turn up. With B.O.G I now had an appreciative audience of predominantly middle-aged women which was starting to make Julie feel uneasy. My disappointment at this "failure" and the unexpected enthusiasm generated on the Grange walk shifted the tectonic plates and the opportunity cost of each Sunday spent with B.O.G. started to seem much higher.
Then TQ (as mentioned in The Pendle Way entry) threw a hand grenade into the mix by inviting along a friend she’d met through another outdoor interest. I’ll have to be careful what I say here but her friend’s “enthusiasm” (not everyone would put it that way) ruffled a few feathers and I twice had to step in when she was in danger of treading on toes. At the same time Julie’s relationship with TQ was steadily deteriorating which was causing me problems.
Against this backdrop Part 3 of the CCW from Grange-over-Sands to Cark with a time-filling detour to Humphrey Head came and went smoothly with about 12 attending in February 2006.
Shortly after this TQ politely informed me that she and her friend were going camping in Snowdonia over the May Bank Holiday and would be inviting other members along despite the fact that I had a walk down on the programme for the Sunday. Of course it was moveable but that would be conceding my event was second rate; on the other hand leaving it there now meant a real risk that my only taker would be an old pompous buffoon who I couldn’t stand (and who they definitely wouldn’t be inviting to their event) and a full day walk with just him for company was unthinkable. Faced with this Hobson’s Choice I fired off an intemperate email to TQ who responded in kind resigning on the spot.
Any remaining enthusiasm for B.O.G. evaporated there and then. I was hoping enough people would follow her example, the Group would collapse and leave me free to devote myself to the LYPWG . Unfortunately nobody did – her friend had never actually joined – but they didn’t (Julie apart) give me much support either, they just sat on their hands and rather sullenly waited for me to repair the damage. This would have been difficult anyway since our main advertising outlet had ceased but I had no interest any more. The very last new member we got, Jo, I advised to join the LYPWG instead and she came on a couple of the later CCW walks. I’m very loath to compare TQ to Michael Smithson but it did feel very similar to the last days of the Travelling Society after he left. I just kept things ticking over hoping people would fall away and they gradually did. Then in March 2007 Julie finally became pregnant and everyone knew the game was up. We tried to arrange a merger with another YHA group but they weren’t having it so we put forward a motion to dissolve the Group at the next AGM , the last walk taking place in September 2007 (ironically Mike turned up for that one). Just one member opposed this saying he would get in touch with some former members to try and save it. Julie immediately guessed what I didn’t, that he meant TQ and her friend and it soon became clear that he’d kept in touch with them all along. Julie was livid since it was the same guy who’d originally precipitated the fall out with Susan but I was actually quite happy as it now meant I could make a total break with them , finally achieved in February 2008. They continue under a different name but they’re not getting any free publicity here.
So much for B.O.G. The next CCW stage to Ulverston looked quite tricky as it was forced into the hills by a lack of access through the Holker Hall estate so I decided to do a “reccie” in advance. It was a very pleasant walk as far as Greenodd (this is the bit of the Furness Way I’d done before) where a complete lack of paths on the other side of the Leven estuary forces you to walk along the main road for miles into Ulverston. The book deceitfully says the Way is “under development here “. I thought a bus from Greenodd would cover this bit but there were none on a Sunday so I had to do this unpleasant and not entirely safe stretch after all. The reccie turned out to be a very good idea since my car broke down on the way up to the actual walk in September and I never made it. I was reduced to phoning in hints from afar while they struggled on with a map but apparently had a great time.
The next stage, a long walk to the end of the Furness Peninsula at Roa Island was in November, probably a little too late in the year. There was another problem, Roa Island was some distance from a station so I appealed for someone to meet me an hour early in Ulverston so we could park a car at the end of the walk. At this point we acquired a Good Samaritan. Earlier in the year a blind guy John had started walking with us occasionally; he wanted to come on this walk and what’s more his dad Alan , a keen walker himself, volunteered to do the driver ferry at the end for us. I immediately took him up on this and also gave John a lift to the start of the walk. It was a very windy day and despite some very good views a bit of a slog along the shingly beaches. By the time we had to go up to the Coast Road (quiet as the grave at that time of year) for the final stretch the light was fading. Nevertheless there was a welcoming pub in Rampside and Alan proved as good as his word.
Not only that he offered the same service for future sections of the walk which at a stroke made continuing the trail beyond Barrow a much easier prospect. It was clear now that Helen, Mark and another bloke, Jon, were as committed to the walk as I was although the latter two still had to catch up Part One. Another girl, Wendy, also became an ever-present though she had more catching up to do having only joined the Group in the summer.
Stage Five took us around the bottom of the peninsula, through Barrow itself (the source of much jokey apprehension) and up to the sandy beach at Roan Head at the bottom of the Leven estuary. It took place in March 2007 and due to a clash with a member's birthday only drew seven, the five diehards, John and a girl called Catherine. It was a very windy day and I had to wade into the sea to rescue Catherine's over trousers before we'd even started out. Then we were hit by a ferocious hailstorm and got into Barrow very bedraggled. We recharged our batteries with a brew in Barrow's impressive dockside museum before a struggle against the gale on the new Cinder Path (which had the useful side effect of drying us out completely). We had lunch at the foot of a slag heap because it was the only place that was out of the wind. From that point the scenry improved markedly with stunning views across to Black Combe. It was a triumph over adversity.
Stage Six from Roan Head to Broughton-in-Furness in June threw up the mileage question again. Not trusting the book after Stage Two I'd bought one of those little metal wheels to measure the mileage on the map and that seemed to work well enough for the previous sections . I got 12 miles but on the ground it was obviously nowhere near that. Helen had to miss this one , catching up later that year with her dad and so did John but Alan was still willing to help. This was an easy section apart from one bit where we retreated to the railway to avoid a marsh (strangely, Helen and her dad avoided doing this; they must have spotted a way that I missed) and had a perfectly-timed lunch stop at Kirkby-in-Furness where we sat out a heavy shower in the station waiting area. By 2pm we had almost finished and whiled away our time in two pubs until Alan arrived on schedule at 4.
I assumed I'd misread the wheel and used it again for Stage Seven from Broughton to Haverigg in September giving a length. of 16 miles , another serious over-estimate. I later tested the wheel on a known length of road and found it was adding an extra 50% to the real mileage. I don't know how I'd managed to break it but it was consigned to the bin after that. That was another unsettled day where we got a soaking and finished up running into the pub at Haverigg where a guy at the bar started hitting on the least likely female in our party but was politely rebuffed. I also injured my finger when the door of a bird hide slammed on it in the wind but Wendy, a former nurse, patched me up.
Haverigg was a major turning point. We were about to hit the Irish Sea proper and head north after meandering up and down the estuaries. We had also reached the limit in terms of how far we could expect members to drive for a day's walk. Mark now suggested we covered the next two stages during a weekend away. This was a very good idea but posed a problem for me in that Julie was six months pregnant and I would be a dad by the time the next stage came round. But with some grovelling I got a pass out and started looking for a place to stay, the Duddon Valley youth hostel having inconveniently just announced its closure.
By this time enthusiasm for completing the whole route had spread beyond the "hardcore" four. Chris, a long standing member of the Group came for the first time on Stage Seven but wanted to catch up with the ones he'd missed and offered to do a series of catch up walks for those in the same boat. Mark and Jon had already walked their missing section earlier that year.
On the weekend at the end of February 2008 the intention was to take the walk up as far as St Bees. We stayed at Brockwood Hall near Millom in three self-catering lodges. There were 17 of us in total following two late withdrawals and an even later addition. Alan and his wife also went up but stayed at a B & B in Ravenglass. I started coming down with a heavy cold on the Friday but couldn't back out so went up with a packetful of Paracetomols. Four of us arrived a few hours before anyone else when the weather was still reasonable and it was quite exciting waiting for the others to get through a storm.
On the Saturday morning we drove to Haverigg where another member, Graham , joined us for the day. I was still feeling ill and wondered if I could do the 17 mile walk to Ravenglass. However the bracing three mile walk along the beach to Silecroft cleared my head and I was fine for the rest of the weekend. At one point we found a football and kicked that around which caused one of our party to drop out at Bootle having done himself a mischief. John survived falling off a bridge due to his inattentive guide. When we got to Waberthwaite the high tide meant we couldn't use the ford route to Ravenglass but had to take the walk around the bottom of the Esk estuary which added a further few miles to the route and meant we couldn't get the intended train. As we got increasingly tired it became doubtful that we would make the one after which caused a problem as most of us had a meal booked at the Hall for 8. I was trying to think of a way in which Alan could help us but fortunately the train was a bit late and Mark managed to keep the driver talking while the rest of the party made a mad dash across the bridge to get on. This incident is still talked about to this day !
We did get back to the Hall with an hour or so to spare and some of us made use of the pool and sauna. The meal was fine although there were one or two sarky locals in the bar downstairs who bravely made their comments when a female member went to get a drink.
The next day, everyone was feeling the previous day's marathon so I changed the destination to Nethertown to shorten the walk. Nevertheless two members decided to opt out of it and Graham remained at home. We had the unusual experience of being monitored by a police car as we went past the nuclear tip at Drigg but we weren't actually questioned. When we got to Sellafield station there was a diversion notice and this put another couple of miles on the route, pretty much negating the shortening I'd agreed. When Alan caught up with us at Braystones one girl opted out of the last mile to Nethertown and got a lift with him instead.
It had been a great success and we started planning for the next one straight away while Chris started his catch up series. This time Julie didn't want to be left behind so I had to consider hers and Simon's needs too. We alighted on a holiday park on the outskirts of the Lakes called Skiddaw View which had a mix of up to date lodges and traditional caravans but unlike Brockwood Hall, no central facilities other than a laundry. For a long time it looked like there were only going to be 12 of us but a late surge of interest added another 6 , three of whom had to go into a cottage owned by the same company a mile away in Bothel. Then Graham again made a last minute decision to join us and booked himself into a nearby B & B.
There was one big problem when we got there - the pub in Bothel had shut just a month previously. For any food on the Saturday evening we would have to drive. This inconvenience unfortunately encouraged the forming of two factions in the party, the other reasons for which I'm still not entirely clear about. If you've read this blog (or even this post ) from the beginning you'll understand why I was loath to pick a side and for that reason it was a boon to have Julie and Simon there. I just spent the evening with them and a takeaway and left the others to it.
The walking side of the weekend was great helped by excellent weather for the end of September. We drove to Nethertown where one girl raised eyebrows by exclaiming "oh are we walking by the sea ?" (the clue's in the title love !). Here we again fell victim to the tide which was high, leaving us only a thin strip of land to walk on and this was regularly blocked by huge piles of concrete sea defence boulders over which we had to clamber. This was difficult for everyone but especially those guiding John. After the second patch, progress was becoming so slow that I led John - who was game for continuing - to the road above and walked along that until things got better below.
Eventually they did and we arrived at St Bees. The next few miles were familiar to some members of the party who'd done them as part of the Coast to Coast Walk. They were also the scenic highlight of the whole trail and we found a wonderful lunch spot in a beachside cove. From there we descended into Whitehaven where we enjoyed an ice cream on the restored quayside. Beyond Whitehaven the scenery rather deteriorated as we reached the industrial part of the coastline. At Parton I offered the opportunity to end the walk for the day as some members were obviously flagging but the majority voted to continue to Harrington, the original destination. A fair proportion of this was a road walk where we were plagued by the local knobheads shouting abuse from passing cars and later we were accused of being "Keswick bums ". It was a relief to get out of there.
The Sunday began with a long stretch beside an old railway works on the outskirts of Workington then to the summit of a reclaimed slag heap. Whatever its origins the view from the top was gobsmacking , the Lakes, the Solway Firth, the Isle of Man and the Galloway coastline, and we spent a while up there while people took photographs. That lit up what otherwise was probably the least inspiring day's walk on the whole trail. The afternoon was very easy walking and we arrived in Maryport with time to spare, some choosing to look round the aquarium.
Julie, Simon and I stayed over until Monday morning when we went on to Silloth to check out potential accommodation for the next weekend. The best we could find was a large holiday camp but we weren't allowed to look in the actual lodges. Julie had her doubts but didn't try to veto it. It came round in March and again there were 18 of us including two longstanding members who hadn't been on a CCW walk since the very early stages.
We arrived first as we had stayed in Ambleside the previous night after winning a free night's stay in a quiz the previous summer. We checked in and went to our lodge. Julie was unimpressed to say the least. I left her and Simon there to do some shopping in Silloth noting a B & B on the front. I checked availability with them then offered Julie the option of staying there instead; otherwise the potential for conflict with the other people in the rather small lodge was too great. She accepted straightaway and we decamped there. I then spent the next couple of hours at the camp directing the others to their lodges as they arrived. Later in the evening we found an undistinguished but friendly pub which was a relief.
The next day we went down to Maryport by bus, a suggestion by Andy which made sense. There appeared to be another discrepancy in the book, the distance in there was down as 11 miles but the road signs said 13. The walk itself was straightforward, the snag
being that we had seen it all on the bus journey so there was nothing surprising. We diverted slightly off route to a village at lunchtime where I asked the landlady in the pub if we could eat our sandwiches there if we bought drinks. She said yes but when we'd all sat down she came out with a pad to take an order. I thought I'd been clear enough but obviously not ! After this embarrassing episode the walk into Silloth was uneventful. Once we reached the holiday camp a number of members less committed to the trail dropped out and went to the pool but we diehards carried on up to Grune Point and back to reduce the length of the following day's walk.
The following morning we had to check out of the B & B so Julie and Simon had to spend the day at the holiday camp. The less committed went home that morning so it was a small party that set out for Kirkbride. The first seven or so miles took us across the vast wastes of Skinburness Marsh with intermittent waymarks that would have been useless in mist. We had a number of creeks to jump across which made leading John interesting and most of us managed to slip in the mud at one point. Finally we got off it, had lunch and went into Abbeytown. From there it was mainly a roadwalk though there was little traffic on the minor lanes and the views were excellent. After a slight navigational hiccup we arrived in Kirkbride where we met up with Alan.
That meant we could finish the trail on the next weekend which took place in October. By this time Chris, Andy, Wendy and Richard had caught up their missing stretches so there were 8 of us on 100 %. We stayed at Green View Lodges a small site south of Carlisle where we took up three of the four lodges. It was very pleasant so Julie was happy. On the Saturday we returned to Kirkbride for the nineteen mile walk into Carlisle. We set off in torrential rain and the first mile or so was horrendous with a fierce wind to contend with as well. It then cleared up and the day was quite bright when we arrived at the Hadrian's Wall path at Drumburgh. From there to Burgh-by-Sands was a tedious four mile road walk but things got better when we arrived at the Eden. From there it was simply a long riverside walk into the centre of Carlisle from where we caught the bus back to Kirkbride. People pursued different meal options that night then we re-congregated in the friendly pub next door to the site later in the evening. I was overwhelmed to be presented with a specially designed and signed card and a number of presents, an engraved tankard, a Rochdale FC shirt and 2 DVDs as a thank you for organising the whole enterprise.
The final day dawned and we set off for Carlisle. After paying the extortionate parking fee we set off up the opposite river bank to yesterday as far as Rockcliffe where we had lunch. From there it was just a short walk to Metal Bridge where the trail formally ends. With hindsight we should have ended the walk there (especially given the menacing dark cloud above us ) and gone back to the lodges for a pool party in the leisure suite but the book suggests walking on over the border into Gretna and it was always our intention to do this.
But it was easier said than done. The road layout had been changed since the book was published and the footbridge over the Esk referred to had vanished. It took us a while to work out that we had to use the road bridge, where there was precious little provision for pedestrians, instead. There then followed what seemed like an eternity of uncomfortable , potentially dangerous walking on roadside verges, half of it in heavy rain before we finally reached the border on the edge of Gretna. It had been the worst ending to any of the LMDPs but there was still some elation - and a few tears- at crossing the finishing line.
Having done a short stretch of the South West Coast Path , the Cumbria Coastal Way doesn't scenically compare but it was still an interesting journey through parts of the country that you'd never otherwise visit. As a shared adventure it was the best.
