Stone House Farm, St Bees to Rickerby Grange, Portinscale, Keswick
Mostly Not by Foot.
At breakfast many excited new Coast to Coast walkers eating the Full English. Nothing cooked for me. Toast? No toast please.
Carole my hostess gave me a warm hug and hoped I would return again someday. Hard to say, but after 4 sleeps in her house that is probably enough.
As there no longer is a bus from St Bees it was necessary to take the train to catch a bus. Isn't it usually the other way around? The train was at 10:28 so with plenty of spare time walked back to the Beach for a final farewell to the Irish Sea. Also to watch the newest crop of C2C people departing and doing that first hill climb up the bluff, step, step, stop, pant, step, step, remember to breathe and try not to think about the size of the fells ahead in the coming days.
Found a sweet Father Horse standing with his Son Horse in a pasture right near the soccer field. Both were posing nicely for me showing off their maleness.
The St Bees Prep school for boarders and day students closed about a year ago due to finances, but there are plans to open in the next year. The school was founded in 1583 by the Arch Bishop of Canterbury, Edmund Grindal.
Too bad my photos can not be shared as there are some nice ones from inside St Bees Priory Church. Lots of old tomb stones dating from the 1300's
There was a stone carved above the door which probably dates from 1100. It is of St Michael and the Dragon. The influenced clearly by Scandinavians who were settling here at that time is clear.
Talked with an elderly man by the church cemetery. He lives some place up High on a ridge. Out one window he can see some special Fell (can't remember what), out another window he can see Scotland, and out another the Isle of Man - if the weather cooperates. Today was not a cooperative day.
He had just gotten a new car yesterday with a giant monitor that does all sorts of things. But he had left his iPad at home so couldn't play with the new toy. He used to work for the railroad and went on to tell me his various routes.
One train and Two buses to get to Keswick. This person was feeling tired. Had planned to do a hike once in Keswick but between the heavy cloud cover, rain, and a tired body did not. Tomorrow is supposed to be great so will get out then.
Instead went to the Derwent Pencil Museum. It was interesting. The museum was "a journey of graphite and pencil discovery from its chance beginnings through to modern day production. There was also the secret World War II Pencil developed to hide a map and a compass.
Graphite was discovered by accident in the Borrowdale area.
Saw the Worlds Largest colored pencil
According to a sign "14,000,000,000,000 pencils are made every year (not just here), and those would be enough to circumnavigate the earth 62 times."
Queen Elizabeth II visited the Pencil factory at some point (it was a Big Deal). They had a commemorative Pencil made just for her. Well, they actually had two made. One was presented her, and the other is on display at the museum. Where the eraser typically would be these two special pencils were topped with white gold and were encrusted with 60 diamonds in the shape of a crown.
Tonight's B&B is 1.5 miles out of Keswick, but there is a flat footpath connecting the two locations. A bit muddy, but what is more mud. Only problem is now that Walk is needed to collect food. Back from food collection. Had scampi from one of the many Fish and Chip shops. It was so so. Deep fried, heavily battered. Probably will not get that again. Found rhubarb yogurt at the large grocery store Booths. Finally! Used it to "cleanse" the mouth of grease.
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