Distance: 20 miles
Ascent: 420m
Weather: warm and sunny
Stonechat, oyster catchers, skylarks, gulls, fish in the harbour.
We left Seascale under blue skies. A heron was paddling in one of the rock pools and the tide was out, with a few dog walkers out on the sands.
We walked along the higher gravel path above the beach to get some miles under our belts. The grassy banks to the sides filled with wild roses, cranesbill, yellow gorse, daisies, dog rose, broom, foxgloves and yellow poppies, with small blue butterflies and skylarks overhead.
At Calder Viaduct we crossed the water outlet in front of Sellafield and walked along a massive barbed wire fence to the station. We arrived just as a train pulled in, and saw a couple of families getting off and walking towards the beach. There were lots of policemen about.
The CCW is diverted around the site and there was a sign with a map showing the new route. I meant to take a picture of it but forgot because I was distracted by the matt black armoured police car and men with guns.
Just passed the station we were stopped by a patrol car and had a chat with a couple of officers who had noticed us walking up the road but hadn't seen us get off the train. We exchanged pleasantries and carried on.
After a bit of road walking and confusion, we saw a footpath sign that went towards and through a pretty grass meadow and across a railway bridge to reach the beach. It was leg achingly slow going over the shingle. We found some good walking sand, but not for long, then it was back to shingle. We made a detour up and around Nethertown, stopping at new bench for toe repairs.
Back on the shoreline, it was pebbly with red, lumpy sandstone that when dry was good and when wet was slippy and bad. At the first opportunity we took a beach side lane with lots beachhouses, and people doing what normal people do on bank holiday weekends, sitting in deckchairs sunbathing and reading the paper, washing their cars, drinking and painting walls. Some of the beachhouses were small and ratty looking, some very new and fancy looking. When the lane ended we were back on the shingly pebbles. It was hard work, and my attention was drawn to all the flotsam and jetsam washed up. There were hundreds of plastic bottles, buckets and food containers, including a nearly full looking carex bottle, many of those little yakult bottles, bits of children's toys, plastic gloves, shoes (mostly trainers) and string and ropes.
At the sea defences, there was an aborted attempt to climb the concrete wall thing, resulting in a grazed knee, and we dropped down onto gravelly sand. Approaching St Bees, we encountered a closed footpath sign at the end of a damaged bridge. The sign explaining that the path was closed was at the end of the bridge, so we'd already crossed it. Rather than endangering our health and safety by walking back over it, the simplest course of action seemed to be to get off the bridge and carry on along the beach. So we did.
We had lunch at a picnic table at St Bees, which was heaving, and then set off up over the cliffs. The route is shared with the Coast to Coast for a few miles, I think most people assumed we were doing that.
We stopped at one of the RSPB spots to watch the nesting birds (gulimots and puffins were mentioned on a sign, need to check pics) on the precipitous cliffs, then saw some people with a bouldering mat on wrong side of fence. God knows what they were thinking.
Coming down to Whitehaven we passed a plaque commemorating its opening in 1985.
We followed the Whitehaven industrial heritage trail and round the quayside, before getting a bit lost in Tesco carpark. The lane leading out had a sign post for the English Coastal Path national trail, and then lots and lots of signs. It's very well marked. At Parton we left the Path, heading up passed the Roman Fort to Moresby Hall, where we're staying tonight. It is a Grade I listed building (1620) and very, very grand.
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