Weather: Fine but cloudy.
Distance:
24 km (14.9 miles) Total Distance: 3226 miles
Another great breakfast at Wallsend Guest House shared with
a couple of young men about to start on a week long walk along Hadrian’s
Wall. Unlike most people who stayed at
the guesthouse they were walking it towards Newcastle. It was the first long distance walk they had
tried and I was not totally convinced that they would succeed given the fact
that they were planning to leave the route at some stages to see Roman ruins. I'm thinking they’d soon abandon that plan I’m sure once they got tired.
The one mistake of the morning was leaving my towel at the B&B, which I had only packed because I was going with friends tonight. It turned up in the post a day
later. Excellent service from the best B&B in the country!
I parked in a lay-by in Beckfoot, a hamlet overlooking the
sea. The hills of Scotland were just
about visible through the haze. I was
walking in trainers as I had a bad blister from the day before and my back was
very stiff which made the first hour’s walk slow and painful along the beach.
At Allonby I found a café which got some of it right – the
cakes were good, the cappuccino OK but the décor and the cleanliness somewhat below
par. Anyway, it made me feel better
added to which the path in the grass at the top of the beach from there on was
a lot better than walking on the beach. It even appeared as if it had been
mowed by the council. Every man and his
dog were out for a walk in the Indian summer we were having but fortunately the
dogs were all pretty well trained and so were their owners – well most of
them.
Allonby appeared to be dominated by a burnt out building and
a derelict church building which took the edge off what would otherwise have
been an attactive village.
A couple of miles before Maryport a promenade started. I
didn’t object to this one as it has been a long while since I had walked along
a promenade and it was easy walking.
I would like to tell you how great Maryport was and perhaps
it was but in all honesty I didn’t see much of it. The pier was being reconstructed and I
approached through the back streets and no sooner was I in the town and I was
out of it again walking past a museum or two, along side a dock or two and out
on the coast again. I think most of the
town was inland from the path I took.
As soon I was south
of Maryport the character changed and the industrial landscape started to
appear. The wind farm built along the
coast north of Workington appeared relatively new and I must say that the
spinning blades were quiet – much quieter then the only other wind farm I had
walked past some 15 years ago near Llanelli where the hum would be heard from a
long way off. That just demonstrates how the technology has improved.
The path followed the
railway track for a long while but was in a good state of repair so I made
reasonable progress. Finally it came
inland, through the wind farm and golf course below. Playing golf under a
wind farm must be pretty weird. It reminded me of those crazy gold courses
where you had to get the ball trough a rotating windmill.
Once I got onto the main road there was a tremendous traffic
jam caused by some road works and some badly set temporary lights which meant
that it was blocked both ways. The good news was that there was a bus going in
the direction I wanted in the traffic jam but no bus stop in sight.
The other commotion was a fleet of police
cars and an ambulance trying to get through the jam and also going in the
direction I wanted. As one of the police
cars edged its way through the jam siren blaring it came to a section near me
and I was able to move a bollard so that it could divert through a lay by and
out of the jam. My action and that of a
policemen on foot started to un-jam the traffic and thereby got my bus moving so
I quickly walked forward to try to find a bus stop and got to one just at the
same time as the bus to Maryport – pretty lucky considering they were only
every 2 hours on a Sunday and this one had been jammed up for 30 minutes!
At Maryport I was still less than half way back to my car
and no busses on a Sunday to Silloth. I
walked a mile up the road to the turning off to Silloth and started to hitch
but the turning was more a Y in the road which meant that the cars came around
the corner at some speed and in groups of three or four so didn’t look like
they were going to stop in a month of Sundays.
I hitched for over half an hour without any luck. I started to walk but had to take great care
as it was a fast road and narrow when there were oncoming cars. A man on a golf course told me cars would not
stop for me there because I was on a bend. He was pretty close to having some
abuse hurled back at him I can tell you!
I sort of gave up hitching after a while and walked into the town of
Allonby and out again but without so much as a sniff of a lift apart from when I fell
down a hole when walking backwards and hitching at the same time. The oncoming car
slowed down. I would like to think to check I was OK but I suspect it was
because they were laughing so much.
After about two fruitless hours I analysed the situation in
depth. Lots of youngsters were trying to
be funny and giving me the thumbs up back or worse. So what was wrong. I normally walked in boots so looked like a
walker but today I was in trainers because of my blister. Nothing I could do
about that. I had long hair which wasn’t
exactly in fashion. Nothing much I could do about that but make a mental note
to get it cut. I was wearing white socks
with trainers which Margaret always said only the English men did inferring it
was fuddy duddy. So being the only thing
I would act on I started to take them off.
I had taken one off when a white transit came around the cornet, I stuck
my thumb out and it stopped immediately – point proved. Why did he stop for a strange man wearing
only one sock? He was a builder, had
triplets for grandchildren and spent 5 months a year in Tenerife and that’s why
he worked on Sundays. He looked like Onslow in what ever that sit-com Keeping Up Appearances.
It took 4 hours to drive to friends in Brigg and I was
absolutely shattered. I had half a bowl
of pasta a tea an a coffee and after an hour we all went to bed – a bit rude to
turn up and then disappear so soon I thought!
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