Coast (half-way) to Coast, Day 1.

A half-day of travelling, a half-day of walking, and a Priory.
The railway journey for the three hundred miles or five hundred km from Bristol took six hours and three changes, but put us in St Bees after some wonderful views over the cold Irish Sea by 1pm. By two we set out on our first leg, taking the time to dip our feet in the grey waters before we commenced the steady trudge up the first hill to the cliff-tops.

Red cliffs, seagulls and cormorants, and the Isle of Man in the distance.
Sad post-industrial villages, just this side of slums, with unhappy looking gardens.
Views of Whitehaven, where five of my cousins were brought up, the last English town to be invaded during wartime. (And that was by Americans in their war of Independence / Rebellion. Their leader was from Whitehaven, and the raid ended in a pub, getting drunk. It failed.)

Then through green lush valleys to another sad town, Cleator, whence we were picked up to be taken to our first night's lodgings.