It’s raining and did I mention I have a cold! A Frenchman coughed on me at Windsor Castle on Saturday and I started a cold that evening. I’ve been trying to ignore it ever since.

We had a good night’s rest, though, sleeping about 8 hours I reckon and after breakfast at St. Bees Beach Cafe we headed out for the first days walk, about 14 km’s, an otherwise easy distance for Rob and I, with the packs though and wet, cold weather we needed the wet weather gear from the outset and it ended up being a fairly tough day, especially for me.

This little guy was on the cafe window and you can see beyond the start of the walk, up and over the cliffs above St. Bees.

Me at the starting point, took a picture of Rob also but no one about to assist with a good shot of both of us.

It was a steep climb up the cliff from St. Bees and we missed all the good views out west to the Isle of Mann due to the weather.

Round the cliffs was very pretty especially seeing the baby lambs but I enjoyed the changing views further inland later in the day much more as they constantly changed and the weather was less extreme.

At least half of the walk was along the coast line and at times, with the wind blowing it was bitterley cold and eye wateringly strong. I was really looking forward to a break and a cup of tea at the Dog and partridge in Sandwith but when we got there it wasn’t open. We found a seat and rested but it was too wet to make our own tea so we didn’t stop for too long.

The rest of the walk was through fields, country lanes and public footpaths sometimes across working farms and took lots of turns, ups and downs. I was feeling quite unwell by this point and didn’t take too many photos.

About 2pm the sun came out and it warmed up which was great but I think I overheated a bit as I started to sweat.

I was really pleased to see Ennerdale Country House and Hotel at about 3pm and spent the rest of the day in bed.