Earlier in the year a group of young people expressed the wish to walk the Coast to Coast route from Cockermouth to Hartside, at the time we don’t think they realised the task they were taking on. However with great enthusiasm the activity was organised to take place in August.

Day 1: The minibus picked up from Consett at 8 a.m. to make an early start, as expected plans do not always go accordingly with 2 young girls suffering from travel sickness during the journey. We arrived at our departure point around 10 a.m., to say the weather was against us would be an understatement, the rains came and did not stop. Jeff, our driver, brought everyone waterproofs which were much needed and appreciated.

“Let`s do it”

Bearing in mind most of the young people had never participated in such an activity they braced themselves against the weather and went for it.

Our bus met us halfway through the journey where we were able to eat packed lunches, have a drink and refresh for the rest of the journey. And yet the rain came heavier than before but they were not to be deterred.

We met up with our bus around 5 p.m. where we were taking to Keswick Methodist Church, who kindly offered us accommodation for the night. This in itself would later prove to be an adventure.

“Wet but happy”!

After freshening up everyone was gathered together and went into town to enjoy much needed supper of fish and chips. Thinking this would tire them out – oh no! Of course the hall was haunted and much noise and excitement went on throughout the night!! They were sorry in morning when Debbie & Arthur called them up for breakfast.

Day 2: A great improvement in the weather, in fact it was a beautiful day. We all piled on the bus to head for Penrith for the second leg of our journey. Today we were joined by Owen, our Treasurer, and his wife giving the young people a boost knowing they had extra support.

The walk took us through some lovely villages with some beautiful scenery, we covered about 7 mile before stopping for our packed lunches. All I heard all day was “how many miles now Jackie” as I was tracking on my phone. In total that day we actually walked 16 miles and I think the group actually amazed themselves.

Eventually we met up with our bus just outside Penrith, where Jeff was waiting with drinks and snacks for everyone before heading off the Penrith Methodist Church for our overnight stay.

After freshening up it was voted that the supper tonight would be Chinese take away, enjoyed by everyone and ready for another early night – NOT!

Day 3: Ready for the last leg of our journey, and everyone definitely feeling it by now. The walk should have taken us from Penrith to Hartside Café, which is the highest café in England. However, due to the previous heavy rains the workers decided it would be better to reverse the walk so the bus dropped everyone off at Hartside to commence day 3.

The views from the top were spectacular, although the walk down perhaps not so. It was quite a difficult walk due to the very wet and soft ground. As this was the final day everyone was in such a hurry to get to the end and we had to keep gathering the group back together. We were all more than happy to reach our final destination feeling very tired but elated.

When we stopped for lunch one of the young men commented how much he had enjoyed the task and asked if the workers would look into him doing a lead walkers course as part of his future career.

All in all the activity was a huge success, with many of them expressing the wish to do something similar next year.

Surprisingly the young people had also decided themselves to do this as a sponsored event to raise money to enable them to do more future activities.

Our thanks go to:

The Dulverton Trust who funded the activity

Jeff (our driver)

Penrith & Keswick Methodist Churches for accommodating us

All the young people who took part and made it a very enjoyable activity.

“We did it”