Distance: 23 miles
Ascent: 200m
Weather: warm and sunny
After a very pleasant stay at the Miner's Arms we were fed, packed up and off by 9am. We headed back to the sandy beach, where there were a couple of dog walkers and some people with a tractor putting a small fishing boat to sea. From then on, we had the beach to ourselves. The tide was out and we had sunshine, looking in rock pools for star fish, crabs and razor clams, with common gulls, little ringed plover, oyster catchers for company.
We left the beach at Bog Hole, up a steep pebbly track, with sand martens flocking around their holes in the low sandy cliffs. On the cliff tops we crossed a stile and walked around the tops through fields that clearly don't get many visitors. There were cows and sheep and arable fields, and we had a skylark soundtrack and saw stonechats in the gorse bushes, and a buzzard nearby. A refurbished bridge led into Hyton Marsh nature reserve, which is a breeding ground for natterjack toads, although there didn't seem to be many tadpoles.
We followed the riverbank, the path getting steeper and less distinct and then were met with a corner of barbed wire fences. Checking the map, it seems that the permissive path to the gate went up much earlier. Faced with the prospect of scrambling back down or climbing over a barbed wire fence, we carefully chose the latter.
From Selker, we went along the pebbly beach up to Marshside, where we had lunch watching the tide coming in.
The next few miles were on lanes, around the MOD Eskmeals Range, where apparently they test weapons, although we didn't see any activity. There were some Jacobs sheep and a girl in a Citroen 2CV.
The road was long and straight, passing the entrance where a sign was proudly displaying 1200odd days since the last day was lost to accident. They didn't mention anything about lost appendages, eyes, etc.
We turned off the lane and under a wet railway bridge, then passed some farm buildings and down a track which had a sign saying it was prone to flooding at high tides above 7.2m. There was a tide table to check; last year's. We carried on, crossing low fields with lots of sheep and lambs, them through woodland with duck boards.
We followed the local footpaths along the flood plain of the River Esk, making our own way through the rough grasses rewarded by ending up at a yellow footpath sign just where we'd hoped, and crossing at Muncaster Bridge. By now the clouds had burned off and it was hot and sunny, and a cuckoo was calling from the woods nearby.
The CCW follows a permissive path through the grounds of Muncaster Castle, the route having been changed recently but there are plenty of welcoming signs pointing the way. We had good view of the castle and parkland, the rodedendrons in bloom. By now the tide was coming in up the river estuary.
We passed the remains of the Roman bath house and into Ravenglass, stopping at the shop for ice-creams.
The path led over the railway bridge, with pedestrian bit on the side, passing a place called Rabbit Cat How. Which raised questions.
We followed dry but deeply rutted footpaths and lanes through farmland up to Drigg, and then the Shore Road to the sea around what's marked on the map as a Storage Facility, apparently used to store low level radioactive waste. We kept a wide berth.
At the beach we saw hazy views of the Isle of Man and walked north up to Seascale, alternating between dunes and beach, with varying degrees of hobbling.
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