St Bees Day 0

Geordie & Gen were indeed waiting for us in Whitehaven. We hadn't seen them since that morning in October when Gen announced at breakfast "well we've had a talk ... and we're coming!" So there was much to catch up on, which we did over a delightful Indian meal at the unlikely looking Ali Taj Restaurant (strongly recommended).

Next morning our gracious host Jackie drove us the 4 miles to St Bees giving us a bit of a tourist guide and commentary along the way. Read Guesthouse in Whitehaven is also recommended - very obliging people.

We dropped our bags at the Abbey Farmhouse B&B in St Bees (more on that anon) and having half a day to fill in we decided to get a head start on our trek by walking the St Bees Head section of our itinerary. This worked out famously except that we weren't fully togged for a longish and at times strenuous walk (15 km). What it achieved for us was to cut about 7 km off the next day's walk which was otherwise going to be about 22km, and it eased us in nicely.

The Official Starting Point of the Coast to Coast walk (after we had each shamelessly collected our de rigueur beach pebble and wet our boots in the Irish Sea)

In training for the rigours ahead

St Bees is utterly different to its much larger neighbour Whitehaven. It has much more of a rustic charm, is home to an ancient monastery (St Bega's, which gave the town its name) although the monastery no longer exists as such and it now serves as the church-cum-museum (Priory Church). Well worth a visit.

Maybe our expectations were too low but on a scale of 1 to 10 the AbbeyFarmhouse B&B would have to rate close to 11. This establishment run by Steve and Janet seemed to have everything carefully thought out and provided. Our own downstairs room was almost palatial in dimensions, fittings and provisions but done in such a way that you immediately feel comfortable and welcome. Steve and Janet (who have a great story to tell about how they got together on the Coast to Coast walk themselves) seem to have no other purpose in life but to make you feel at home, but in fact each leads a busy life especially during the walking season. However, that life was just about to get busier...

At 2am we were woken from our luxurious sleep by the incongruous sound of dripping water from nowhere near the bathroom ("en suite" wouldn't do it justice). It turned out that a pipe or a join had ruptured behind a wall upstairs - no fault of our hosts - and the drip was soon to become a steady trickle onto our carpet. We woke Steve and Janet who diagnosed the problem and after some minutes had no option but to cut off the water until the morning when hopefully a plumber could be called in. All the time, despite the seriousness of the problem, their concern was for their guests and they managed to find us another well appointed room to sleep out the night.

Breakfast (our choice was haggis and smoked salmon) was superb and arrived as if nothing untoward had happened yet our hosts must have had not much more than 4 hours sleep.

Good service can be measured best when things don't go strictly to plan. If you are ever in the vicinity of St Bees, do yourself a favour and try to get a night's accommodation at the Abbey Farmhouse (but you might have to book early!)