It was warm enough for shorts and tee-shirts under our jackets this morning! The sun shone all day with a light tail wind.
We were not looking forward to doing battle with cars and trucks on the A595 for the first part of the morning but it was reasonably quiet and soon we turned off at Bootle to enjoy some coast road and found ourselves in an MOD firing zone with the red flag flying and the boom of close artillery fire.
We were then able to look across to Ravenglass less than 0.5 Km away across the railway bridge - but apparently (according to several locals who we chatted with ) too 'difficult' for the Railway / Copeland Council to add a bridge for walkers and cyclists.
The only way for us to get to Ravenglass was to rejoin the busy main A595 to get around Muncaster Castle and in spite of walking rights of way through it there was no possibility for cyclists to use the grounds to avoid a very dangerous section of this main road. There is no pavement to escape onto and there are steep sections of fast main road with blind corners. This is the worst section of coastal route we have encountered.
Once at Ravenglass and a stop for soup and bread, we were then on the NCN 72 and enjoyed a walk/cycle bridge and good route through quiet roads.
It then followed the railway line along the beach and dunes to Seascale.
The cycle path passed next to the nuclear power centre at Sellafield with the towers and huge metal sphere dominating the skyline.
The rather scary experience passing through Sellafield was made worse by a fleet of police cars arresting a man outside the fortified perimeter fence.
It would be great if some of the 53 billion pounds due to be spent decommissioning Sellafield over the next 120 years could be diverted to improve the walker/cyclist infrastructure for people in Cumbria!
St Bees is nestled at the most westerly point of Northern England and is the start/finish of the Coast to Coast journey. We walked down to the beach and bought an ice cream from Hartley's cafe- thereby getting another tick in 52 Weekends By The Sea!
The 400 year old independent school that opened in 1583 and educated Rowan Atkinson, is sadly due to close in July this year. The grand buildings make up a large part of the town, what will it become?
We had a small cottage at Stonehouse Farm B&B and the bikes got to sleep in the Barn. Dinner was at Lulu's in the old station buildings that have been converted into a restaurant.
Figures:
Distance:- 52.9 km
Cycle Time:- 3 hours 48 minutes
Average speed:- 13.9 kph
Total Distance:- 1359 km
Nick's all time top speed so far: 62.9 kph
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