Day 6

30th June - Day 6 Kirkby Stephen to Grinton

Started out at 6.50am temperature a chilly 4 degrees.

The road was steep to the top of Hartley Quarries with good views of Kirkby Stephen. And then on to Nine Standards as this was the first objective of the day at 2,170 ft this was the last time they will be over 2,000ft on the walk. The Cairns are massive! 

The boys were lucky to see the views as shortly after low level clouds descended and they only just found the path down in time.

 They then travelled through the peat bogs, the bogs entailed them wading shin deep for 2 miles descending…. Energy sapping!

They then headed past some of the waterfalls Keld is famous for, Keld village is officially the half way stage of the walk! From there they then enjoyed walking alongside the River Swale and into Reeth Village and then onto the hostel at Grinton.

Feet starting to feel the effects now

115 miles now completed

Tomorrow will be 33 miles but is the flattest part of the walk.

Day 5

29th June - Day 5 Sharp to Kirkby Stephen

Short update today no mobile signal, had to make do with a very short email LOL......

I'm told the hat is the wrong way not for posing but to prevent sunburn LOL.

Photo take on Marc as they departed Smardale.

92 miles completed





Thursday is a 7am start and 25 miles
Now we find out how their feet can cope with the longer miles each day

Day 4

28th June - Day 4 Patterdale to Sharp

The official route was 16 miles today but they added in the extra 3 taking the walk from its 197 miles to the 200 they wanted. Not counting the 1 and a half-mile they took a detour on due to bad navigating Lol.

Today saw them continuing with the climb and reaching kidsty Pike the highest point of the walk at 2,650 ft!

Resting stop for the night was rather aptly The Greyhound Inn where they were hoping to find a bath to soak some very tired feet.

68 Miles done!

Photo take at Kidsty Pike the highest point of the walk at 2,650 feet.

And the pit stop over night is rather apt!

Hero's

27th June - Day 3 Grasmere to Patterdale

Should have been the shortest day but actually turned out to be a long difficult day after they  came across a group of girls doing their Duke of Edinburgh award. One of their party had collapsed and neither they nor the boys had any signal on the mobiles. As police officers they have basic first aid skills and were able to put the young girl into recovery and decided it was a severe case of heat stroke and de-hydration along with massive panic attacks. After calming her down and re hydrating her they then had to set about bringing her off the mountain. Eventually once the signal on their mobiles came back they rang her support vehicle and found a place that the van could reach but it was some 3 miles away and took another 3 and a half hours to get her there. Once they had safely handed her over she was rushed to hospital! Once they had actually finished the walk they headed to the nearest pub and were met by a round of applause from people also walking the route who had seen what they had done. So far from the shortest day it ended up with two exhausted hero’s, well that’s what a group of Americans said LOL.

Photo taken at Grisedale Tairn

Day two

26th June - Ennerdale to Grasmere 24 miles!

From Ennerdale the walk starts to get serious with very difficult terrain and steep declines! Greenup Edge took them up as high as 2,000 where the visibility rapidly deteriorated and the path down couldn’t be found! Eventually they got back on course with another steep climb up to 1,600 ft at High Crag followed by another steep decline down to Grasmere their stopping point for the night!

38 miles completed!

Good job Day 3 is a shorter and hopefully easier day at just 13 miles.

Get set GO!

25th June - Day 1 St Bees to Ennerdale

Day 1

A nice easy start to the walk with a short romp of 14.75 miles!  A good chance to get used to walking with the backpacks and trying out the navigating skills LOL.Weather forecast is cloudy/drizzle and 15 degrees, so no chance of getting sun burnt today!

A time tested tradition marks the start of the walk with a paddle in the sea at St Bees before setting off.

and a photo pointing to the start of the coast to coast walk...

On your marks

So Marc and Steve are now on the way to Carisle ready to start the walk tomorrow. A big thank you to Virgin for the complimentary tickets! weather forecast is rain, rain and more rain for the first 3 days! so please leave  a comment to keep their spirits up! 200 miles in 9 days is going to be hard going.

 

9 hours later Marc and Steve arrive at St Bees just about the same time as the rain arrives!

The route

So on the 24th June Marc and Steve will leave Stowmarket by train ready for the off the next day.

This is their proposed route.

25th June - Day 1 St Bees to Ennerdale
26th June - Day 2 Ennerdale to Grasmere
27th June - Day 3 Grasmere to Patterdale
28th June - Day 4 Patterdale to Sharp
29th June - Day 5 Sharp to Kirkby Stephen
30th June - Day 6 Kirkby Stephen to Grinton
1st July    - Day 7 Grinton to Ingleby Cross
2nd July   - Day 8 Ingleby Cross to Blakey Ridge
3rd July    - Day 9 Blakey Ridge to Robin Hoods Bay

So 200 miles in 9 days has to be worth donating a few pennies to such a worthy cause doesn't it!
If you would like to donate all monies received will go to Greyhound Gap as Marc and Steve are funding the travel and accomodations costs themselves.

The week before they set off there is to be a big piece in the local paper, so hopefully that might generate some donations as it's been quite difficult on the fundraising side, times are hard and people just don't have much to give which we all fully appreciate!

Donations can be made via the just giving page or by contacting me.

Once the walk starts I will update the blog daily with their progress and hopefully they will remember to take photo's for me to add......

Right that's it for now from me walk coordinator LOL....