Coast To Coast Day 6 - the (terminal) breaking of the fellowship

[Mick]
Day 6 Keld - Richmond. 35km (181km total)
After about an hour of walking we realised that Eddie & Martin's walk was over. Martin's toes had got no better and Eddie's knee looked bad.

A plan was formed for Tony and I to carry on as planned while Eddie & Martin would find their way back to Bradford to pick up a car, then come back to drive 'support' for us.

So, Tony & I set off at mega-yomp pace to make Reeth for lunch - which we did at 1.30ish - 12 miles on from Keld.

Reeth is a beautiful, picturesque place with a large central green bounded by B&Bs, tea shops and pubs. Perfect. Definate place for a stop nest time.....

PM was 12 miles again, so we aimed for 7pm arrival in Richmond and set off, earmarking 2 stopping points en-route. We made very good time through showers and wind and a bit of sun as well. Eventually a rainbow appeared over our destination and we headed towards it gratefully through fields of new-born lambs.

Keld - Reeth was along the Swale (not as recommended by A.W.) but Reeth - Richmond was over the hills through countless farms & fields. Both 'legs' were absolute typical picture postcard Yorkshire - a lovely walk in all.

[Tony]
We arrived in Richmond ahead of time at 6.15. It took a little time to find our B&B but when we did we felt that we had found somewhere a bit too posh for us, our smelly clothes and our kit explosions. It was a grade 2 listed Georgian building with furnishings to match. The double bedroom was complete with a book of love poems on one bedtable and a book of insults on the other...

[Eddie]
Martin & I left the Swale at the first road we crossed, considering stiles and gates too difficult and expecting to make better progress on the tarmac.

We decided to hitch-hike and were picked up by about the 10th car to pass (note this took about 45 minutes as it's a very quiet road!) We now recommend this technique: Both hitch, both turn to the traffic & both smile!

Martin & I were picked up by 'the man from the Pru' who took us all the way to Richmond (we waved at Reeth) in time for a late lunch. The afternoon was spent formulating a cunning plan whilst sitting with an ice cream in the river.

Cunning Plan = Ruth rescues Martin & Eddie and returns with them to Bradford.

Coast To Coast Day 5 - the (temporary) breaking of the fellowship

[Mick]
Day 5 - Orton - Kirkby Stephen 21km (127km total) Martin & Mick; Orton - Keld 40km (146km total) Eddie & Tony

Well, it's happened. 2 of us have failed the Coast to Coast unaided.
11 miles before lunch took it out of me, and Martin's feet were very sore, so we got a taxi to Keld, thus missing out on another 11 miles.
I feel disappointed, but there was no way I could do two 22+ mile days back to back and then do over 50 miles during the next 2 days. Hopefully the rest this afternoon will be enough to psyche me up for the next 2 yomps. I'm sat in front of an open fire, washed and dry, looking forward to dinner and I feel so much better than I did last night. HURRAH!

[Eddie]
I am very very tired. Perhaps I should have joined M&M in the taxi! The climb out of Kirkby Stephen was most unwelcome. The 9 standards was a complete whiteout with a terrific wind. The route down was boggy, but way-marked. The weather has certainly caught up with us today. I even wore my legs! M&M felt so sorry (or guilty?) for Tony and myself that they even made our neds... niiice.

Coast To Coast Day 4 - the (first) long day

[Martin]
Day 4 Patterdale - Orton (37km - 106km total)

The day started with a hard pull out of Patterdale towards Angle Tarn. Overtaking the two older C2Cers on the way up, they caught us up as we had a short break by the tarn. We left them there and headed up to Kidsty Pike where we caught the first rain of the trip. We 'Gore-d up', continued and managed to leave the weather behind as we dropped to Haweswater. The 'flat' walk round the lake was actually quite rough underfoot as we got going after lunch at the head. We yomped round, passing the dam and left the lakeland fells behind as we headed out into limestone country.

Shap was shut, so we carried on through stopping on the M6 footbridge for 'Third Of The Way' photographs.

The trog from Shap to Orton proved longer and harder than we thought, and we arrived in Orton at 1910 with sore feet and tired legs. A quick change of clothes and a chemical bath later, we departed for the final, but most necessary km of the day to the pub for tea.

[Eddie]
Orton B&B - The Old Barn
A most welcome sight about 1km short of Orton itself. Martin and I shared a kingsize double whilst Mick and Tony shared a much less intimate twin room.
Whilst I had previously conducted a survey of Martin's ex's, I was still surprised to find that he is a duvet hog! Consequently, I did not sleep too well :-(

Coast To Coast Day 3 - the wussy day

[Tony]
Grasmere - Patterdale 12km (69km total)
Yes, today was designated the wussy day - even though it was intended to be the biggest climb of the walk, up to St.Sundays Crag.

The day started with a very satisfactory lie-in, getting up at around 9am. We decided that we were going for 'The Whole Hog'. Not only were we confident that we would make the whole journey, bet we decided that we would treat ourselves to breakfast at 'The Piggy In The Middle' restaurant - and it certainly was the whole hog. Bacon, sausage, steak - not to mention egg, beans and chips. Plus veggie alternatives for Mick.

[Mick]
Yes, we started our walk at 11.30am with no intention of eating lunch due to the size (and lateness) of the breakfast. The weather was sunny with a cold wind - prime sunburn weather - as we headed up towards Grizedale Tarn, 'summitting' around 1.30pm.

[Martin]
A nice sit in the sun for a Mars Bar and a swig of water was had, then we set off up St Sunday's Crag. Good views were to be had in all directions, hence Ed stopping every 2 minutes and requesting someone to retrieve his camera from his rucksack!
The summit of St Sunday's provided another suitable sunbathing spot before dropping down into Patterdale.
We stopped by at the Post Office for provisions for tomorrow (and an ice cream) before going to the pub. One pint later we staggered off to find the YHA...

After dinner at the hostel (Cumberland Sausage for the 3rd time in 3 meals!) Martin retired to the dorm. Thinking himself alone, apart from Ed who doesn't count, he decided to "let one rip". And rip it did - right into the face of the bloke asleep on Martin's bottom bunk... Well, at least it didn't smel...

[Mick]
As we sit here in the pub we are realising that our patchy red and white bodies are due to uneven spread of suncream. Amazingly, if you dab suncream on one part of your arm / knee / face, it stays white, whilst all around goes PINK!! As Martin observed - "We're not very good at suncream are we"..... honestly, blokes.

QUOTES: "Who's going to join me in the shower?" Mick
NEUGH POINTS: "They've crosswired the speakers and cancelled the vocals" Ed. "Oh really" we replied...

Coast To Coast Day 2 - spirits still high!

[Mick]
Day 2. Ennerdale - Grasmere. 26km (total 57km)
The day dawned bright and early. We dawned achey and not-so-early. All felt more than capable however of the trials and tribulations, the highs and lows, the food and beer that lay ahead of us.
Black Sail, we were reminded after 90 mintes, is a long way away. Martin and Eddie hot-footed it in trainers while Tony and I stomped along in boots.

[Eddie]
The climb up to Seavy Knott was hard in the sun, but it was nice to know that we weren't going over Red Pike. We began to discuss how much later than us the three chaps going that way would be upon arrival at Grasmere.
The long descent along the tramway and then the old road might be seen as disheartening as ahead, behind Glaramara, was the path up to Greenup Edge. Lunch was taken in Rosthwaite as the cafe in Seatoller was found to be expensive. Lunch in Rosthwaite was also expensive. But this was because we all ate lots!

[Martin]
We left Rosthwaite towards the Langstrath and began our ascent of Greenup Edge. This was hard...
At the top we logged our phones in and called ahead to secure dinner at Grasmere YHA. Descending via the Easedale Valley, we reached Grasmere Thorney Howe at 1820 hrs, feeling thankful that we hadn't come down the ridge. We did manage to see lots of Bog Asphodel though... (see AW [Alfred Wainwirght's Coast To Coast Book] for clarification)

[Mick]
Unfortunately, only one shower for ALL the men (are they trying to say we don't wash, or that we smell sweet enough anyway) meant that Tony and I had to wait until after dinner to clean our sweaty bodies. Never mind, Martin provided the entertainment by pouring coffee into the tea pot while I tucked into my cheese & lentil bake.
After supper (& showers) we trooped down to Tweedies Bar for a pint of Jennings / Old Peculiar before heading back to Martin's bedtime stories from the Langdale Mountain Rescue book.
Tomorrow: Wussy Day. Hurrah.

Stupid Points: Martin deciding to top up the half empty teapot by using the coffee pot...

Quotes: "My only soiled clothes are my pants" Mick
"I think I need some vaseline for my bottom" Ed

The Coast to Coast Debacle

On April 30 1998 the Smeggie Book had it's first entry. As this is a blog version of the book, I feel it is important to quote from it as often as possible. So here we go...

[Mick]
April 30, 1998 - Bradford
Welcome to the Smeggie Book - a chronicle of all things Smeggie.
We start on the Smeggie Coast to Coast walk. 190 miles, 10 days, 4 Smeggies, 1 objective - to arrive at Robin Hood's Bay on May 10 1998 having walked from St Bees Head in Cumbria.
The Smeggies in question are: Mick, Martin, Tony, Eddie.
Apart from Eddie, the only real training we've done was an attempt at the 3 peaks last Sunday. We wussed out of Whernside and Martin and I both strained a knee (each, not between us). My first aid kit now contains a tubigrip AND knee support, but, alas, I have a feeling it will take more than that to see us safe across country.

[Tony]
On Thursday night we journeyed speedily to our start point, St Bees, and when I say speedily I mean we entrusted our lives to Phil's hands, who was intent on showing us what an impressive driver he is. Unfortunately, he managed to achieve the opposite effect as three on the back seat were thrown from one side of the car to the other.
We were glad to get to St Bees in one piece having had several close experiences with various verges, oncoming cars and the back end of slow moving caravans...

[Tony]
Day One - St Bees - Ennerdale. 31km.
The day started with photo opportunities at the sign for the start of the walk (not to mention the nearby adventure play equipment). As the tide was out the obligatory walk to get our boots wet added an extra 1/2 mile to our intrepid journey. A chilly breeze blew from the sea as we followed the coast in completely the wrong direction - north west, when our goal, Robin Hood's Bay, was to the east.
As we turned inland and finally in the right direction we were disappointed by the view of St Bees just two miles away, when we had already walked about seven.

The plan was to lunch at Moor Row, however the solitary shop was bare of any useful products, about three drinks in the chill cabinet, and absolutely no sandwhiches, pies, or anything decent to eat for lunch.
We ended up lunch-stopping at Cleator instead, where we had a choice of two shops. One said 'no pies' on a big sign, and the other had 'no sandwiches'. Finding a decent lunch was not as easy as we had first thought.

Navigation was tricky around the far side of Dent Fell and we further ran into trouble as we headed into Ennerdale Bridge. We had to tread discretely as we wandered into some farmer's back yard.

The going in the last few miles was tough, but we clocked up the 31km in a respectable 9 hours.

We had decided to do this trip in less time than Wainwright suggested (a fact that would bite all but one of us hard later in the trip) and the first night's stop was up the Ennerdale valley at Ennerdale YHA. As I commented in The Book: Made Ennerdale Bridge at approx 3.30 but final push up the valley was V. slow as legs shagged. Made hostel at 6pm. This was a sign of things to come...

Ennerdale YHA is a lovely remote place that runs on gas and log power... We ran into our first fellow coast-to-coasters here, but due to our optimistic route planning, rarely saw the same people twice. No-one else had the same itinery as we did...

What this is all about...

Hello and welcome!
Many years ago, in 1993, I joined the Hiking Club at Bradford University, West Yorkshire, England. The following three years saw many trips on a Sunday out into the Dales or the Peak District, weekend trips to the Lakes or Snowdonia, and week long trips to Ireland and Scotland. The friendships forged in the furnace of lumpy hostel beds (!), real-ale-serving pubs, snowy, windy and usually wet summits and the Shabina curry house back in Bradford were to last for many years - and still last to this day.

During my final year at Uni I shared a house with Steve, Ewen and Geoff. Due to our initials the house became referred to as the Smeg House, and when we decided we needed to make sure we kept together after graduation we decided to call ourselves The Smeggies. In 1998 I bought a hardbacked A4 book from WHSmith and this was to become The Smeggie Book, a chronicle of all things Smeggie.

10 years later, and after many adventures, some of us were talking in a rain and wind swept bunkbarn at Ribblehead (in August...) and decided that as parts of the book made us double over when re-reading it, maybe an attempt could be made to blog it.

Will it translate to those who do not know us? Will a reading of the blog bring familiar memories back to those who have experienced similar things? Will the tale of Ruth's Amazing Redecorating Service at Ewen's housearming party following a little too much beer prove to be as funny to those who weren't there as it was to those who were (except Ewen)? I don't know! But here we go anyway...

I would love this blog to be interactive and welcome all comments as often as possible. I will update as often as possible and hope to be up-to-date in as short a time as possible.

See you in the hills, and the pubs...