Day 0.5: Quick Start!

An excellent place to start the walk

Day 0.5? Day 0 was done. Day 1 hasn’t started. So it has to be Day 0.5!

Three ironic things:

1. One of the classic nature walks, Coast to Coast Walk, starts at St. Bees Village, a village which is sandwiched between a nuclear power plant and chemical works factory!
2. The west to east direction Coast to Coast walk starts in the west direction!
3. After an year of planning, I started the Coast to Coast walk a day ahead of schedule!

After an early start from London, I reached St. Bees on Wednesday afternoon. The initial plan was to take rest for the rest of the day getting ready for the 14 day walk. However my land lady had a different suggestion. According to her, the weather hasn’t been this good for such a long time, and I should not miss a walk today. The suggestion was to cover the first 8 kilometres or so of the walk and then return to St. Bees. And on the next day, start from St. Bees again and rejoin the walk where I left it off the previous day. Sounded like a good idea. This will also give me an opportunity to see St.Bees head (a hill with steep cliffs facing the Irish sea) and the St. Bees light house leisurely without being worried about the long walk ahead on the first day.

So I started around 1:00 PM for the first part of the walk. So it is Day 0.5.

St. Bees is a small village with the biggest attraction being that it is the start point of the Coast to Coast walk. There are also a few shops, a few pubs and some B&B places for the walkers. A typical quiet English village.

St. Bees Village

Apart from that there is a very old church (and some mythology around it, as always) and an equally old school.

St. Bees Church

St. Bees School

The actual starting point of the walk, the St. Bees beach is slightly over a kilometre away from the village (and that walk doesn’t count!). The beach was very crowded – and I am hoping everyone in the beach did not come for a Coast to Coast walk – if so it will be a crowded walk! Fortunately most weren’t there for the walk – they were just having a picnic and some fun. I saw only a few walking up the St. Bees head.

As a ritual, I too dipped my foot in the Irish sea and started the walk.

 

The start of the C2C walk – Beach at the Irish sea

As I start climbing up the St. Bees head reality kicks in. Things are very different compared to what I practiced in Singapore. The climb to the top of St. Bees head is steep, walkways are non existent at certain points, and there is no fences on the sharp edges – one wrong step and it is a few hundred feet down! This is going to be much tougher than what I thought!

 

View of St. Bees from St. Bees head

As you climb up the St. Bees head, there is a magnificent view of the entire Village, that of the Irish sea and the farmlands in the background. After a couple of kilometres, I suddenly realize there is no one walking with me anymore, the few who were walking with me have disappeared, and the long path is front of me is deserted. And then the path almost disappears among thick growth of ferns. Time to get the map out and brush the map reading skills!

The red cliffs at St. Bees head

 

After crossing the St. Bees head, the must view thing is a few centuries old light house. I am not even sure whether it is operational. There seems to be no one around, even though there is a decent road leading to the light house.

St. Bees light house

Once the St. Bees head is covered it is a long walk back to St. Bees village. The walk back to the village is more than 5 kilometres. There goes the saving. I just covered 8 kilometres and to do that I have to walk an extra 10 kilometres.

I was back at the village around 6:00 PM. A quick bath and it is dinner time at a crowded village pub.

     

First night accommodation at Stone House farm

Day 0: Train Ride to St. Bees

Today early morning I took a train from London Euston station to St. Bees. This involved two transfers, one at Preston and one at Barrow in Furness. There was only few minutes between the transfers. But everything went like clock work!

British train system has lot of bad press. But is not as bad as what people and press say. In fact after reading such articles, I had such low expectations of Britrail, they exceed expectations most of the time, which turns out to be a pleasant surprise for me.

My family and I have used the British rail service a few times in the past. Without doubt I can say trains are the best mode of transport when you travel around with young kids. They can move around (and run around), play with other kids, they can sleep comfortably lying down when they gets tired, the scenery keeps changing, try different food, get out an explore stations on the way – it has got all that can keep kids engaged and educated. After trying many types of trains in many countries in Asia and Europe it is my favourite mode of transport as well – even though I not young any more.

From London to Preston it was a Virgin Express train with all the bells and whistles, like in seat dining, Wifi and mobile repeaters. Unfortunately the first two were for business class and I wasn't in it. At Preston I changed to a TransPenine Express Train – with just two compartments. At Barrow when I changed the trains again, the new train just had one compartment!

20 minutes from London, the scenery changes to the country side. Grass lands, yellow and purple flowers, canals and boats, sheep, sheep and more sheep. There is so much sheep in UK, it will make New Zealand look bad. Strangely lamb is such a small part of restaurant menus in the UK, I wonder what is done with all these sheep's?

All of a sudden it started raining heavily. Along with rain and the mist the outside initially it looked like “Middle Earth”, but as the rain became strong the outside scenery completely disappeared. I turned my attention to a few magazines I bought at the station about walking and trekking (there are quiet a few!). In one of the magazines they were describing how to go for walking in summer at the end of each day after work, camp and be back to the office the next day morning on time!

30 minutes later and after change of trains the rain has completely disappeared and everything looks bright.

At Preston Station while I was clicking heavily one of the station attendants insisted (nicely) that I have to see the Plaque unveiled by the Queen. Here is a picture of the Plaque.

The Station itself looked grand with its bright red and green architecture.

Finally after almost 5 hours of train journey I reached St. Bees station – as expected a very small train station.

Day T-1: London

Today’s Walk: London

Planned distance: Unplanned, Actual distance: 21.44 km; Time taken 4 hours 10 minutes

Whether you fly a A380 or just a normal plane, a 13 hour flight is tiring. Two movies, few hours of sleep, a supper, a snack and a breakfast later I am still dazed.

In the morning 7:30 itself I managed to get an early check-in (at no cost!) at my favorite Rhodes hotel in Paddington. I have stayed here 4 times in the past, and is very impressed with this hotel. It is relatively inexpensive, has all facilities including Free WiFi and I even got free calls. After freshening up I did the best thing to avoid a jet lag – go for a long walk.

London is my favourite city for any holiday. After been here more than half a dozen times and after spending considerable amount of (holiday) time, I still find something new (which itself may be very old!) every time I come here. And, I have to say this, is the best city for pedestrians. There is so much to see by just walking.

There are very few cities in the world where the old and new mix so well. As a prominent financial nerve center of the world, cutting edge innovations happen (including some of the now disastrous financial products) in some of the buildings that haven’t changed even a bit over centuries.

Yes, the city has its problems of over crowding, crawling traffic (complemented by a wonderful underground train network), violence, pick pocketing and what not. But don’t most cities in the world have all of those?

As always today I went for a long and directionless walk with only one objective – come back to where I started after few hours.

The weather was terrible – it was dull, dark and damp – with frequent rains. So by British standards just a normal day. See the attached photo. No, it is not a black and white photo – that is how London looked today.

The weather motivated me to do some quick shopping for a better weatherproof clothing other than what I was carrying. I managed to get a Goretex jacket (which guarantees to keep me dry) , almost one third the price in Singapore. I am surprised!

In the evening I am going for a guided walk - what do you expect out of me anyway?

London has a variety of informative and educational walks like British Museum Walks and Tower of London walks where a knowledgeable guide takes you for a couple of hours of walk at interesting locations and tell the stories behind it. But who cares about such walks when there are Jack the Ripper Walk, Harry Porter Walk, Da Vinci Code Walk, Sherlock Holmes walk, Ghost Walk and Pub Walk which is much more fun!

Net connection is going to be choppy in the coming days. So you may not hear from me everyday.

Here is a collection of random photos from today trip.

 

Day T-2: In the beginning…

May be it is the mid-life crisis.

Early in 2008 I realized, that in 2009 I will be 40 years old and I want to do something worthwhile, something tough, something inspirational and something I can tell my kids with pride when they grow up. Looking at myself then (and weighing around 77 Kilos) I decided if what ever I do has to be a tough task, there should be an element of fun in it, otherwise I cannot motivate myself to do it anyway. After a little bit of research I come to a conclusion, I cannot climb Everest, I cannot do a Triathlon, I cannot swim the English Channel and I cannot even run a marathon. The only thing I could do worthwhile is a long distance walk (and that too listening to music).

I chose the “Coast to Coast” walk in the UK devised by a gentleman named Alfred Wainwright. “Cost to Coast” walk is a 308 kilometre walk across England starting at St Bees in Cumbria, the west coast of England, and ending at North Sea coast at Robin Hood's Bay, the east coast of England and can be done in about two weeks. It had all the elements I was looking for – a reasonably long and tough walk, English country side, Moors, Lakes, Nature parks, Inns and of course pubs.

I started practising lightly towards mid of 2008, and started taking it seriously by November 2008 when I started this blog describing my walks and my plan to do a Coast to Coast walk. Once you go public on a blog (with 4,582 unique visitors from 100 countries/territories to date) you cannot go back on your word. So I have taken my walks more serious and have covered 829.5 kilometres in the last 8+ months and in the meanwhile as an added bonus, I have lost around 5 kilos. The details of my every single walk to date is here.

The Perils of Travel:

Terrorism, Bird Flu, SARS and now H1N1 (Swine Flu) - the world is becoming a more dangerous place. The effect of all of this on travel is significant. It makes all of us worried, especially when UK has now become a hot bed of H1N1.

What if you get quarantined in the UK (I have heard horror stories about NHS, the National Health Service)? Isn’t the weather this year “bad”? Isn’t the British Pound strengthening? Isn’t this a bad time to travel? Questions? Questions? My take is - after all when is it a good time to travel? How would one know if tomorrow is a better day to travel?

I had decided the dates for this trip well in advance, as early mid last year. Even though the travel scene has gone from bad to worse (Singapore Airlines is likely to post a full year loss for the first time, even worse than the SARS period) I have decided I will not change the dates of my trip, even after a health scare 10 days back (not H1N1, just a throat infection, but the doctor who treated me had H1N1!). I felt it is a risk worth taking. Thankfully my family is also very supportive of this walk – they have seen me practicing for this walk for a long time. I would miss them a lot, especially the two young kids. I have never been away from them this long, ever.

Singapore to London:

Tonight (03/August, around 10:15 PM Singapore time) I am posting this blog entry from the Silver Kris lounge at the Singapore airport (benefits of being a frequent flyer) waiting for the A380 flight to London. 3.5G is great (and I hope UK will continue to offer me either 3.5G or at least WiFi). And after a very long trip to the east saving me 7 hours (which I loose promptly when I fly back) I will be in London tomorrow morning.

Day T-2: Recap – Coast to Coast Walk Distances

Day 1	St. Bees to Ennerdale Bridge	22.5 km
Day 2	Ennerdale Bridge to Rosthwaite	22.5 km
Day 3	Rosthwaite to Grasmere	14.5 km
Day 4	Grasmere to Patterdale	13.0 km
Day 5	Patterdale to Shap	26.0 km
Day 6	Shap to Kirkby Stephen	32.5 km
Day 7	Kirkby Stephen to Keld	19.5 km
Day 8	Keld to Reeth	17.5 km
Day 9	Reeth to Richmond	16.5 km
Day 10	Richmond to Ingleby Cross	35.5 km
Day 11	Ingleby Cross to Clay Bank Top	20.0 km
Day 12	Clay Bank Top to Glaisdale	29.0 km
Day 13	Glaisdale to Littlebeck	13.0 km
Day 14	Littlebeck to Robin Hoods Bay	18.0 km
Total	Coast to Coast walk	300 km

Raffles Hotel – The Video

And here is a video version of my earlier blog entry.

Raffles Hotel

Raffles Hotel is possibly the most famous landmark in Singapore.

Last weekend I spend time with my father and my son walking around the hotel and spending a bit of time at one of the famous establishments in there (more on it later).

Nestled among the modern skyscrapers, Raffles Hotel preserves quiet a bit of the history it has been associated for more than 120 years.

 

It is interesting to note that this Singapore icon was owned by many non-Singaporeans (in the traditional sense). The founders of the hotel, Sarkies Brothers were Armenians, and the owner of the building, Syed Mohamed Alsagoff was an Arab trader. Even the latest owner, Colony Capital, is a California based company. It all shows the position of Singapore as an important trading centre than anything else (as well as the importance of having enough money). Strange, it may look today; Asian’s weren’t allowed as guests in the hotel until the 1930’s.

What is the most important part of Raffles Hotel – Expansive rooms? Tropical Gardens? No. It will be the Long Bar and its famous Singapore Sling. This cocktail was invented by bartender Ngiam Tong Boon in the earlier 1900 is a concotation of equal parts of gin, cherry brandy, and Benedictine shaken and then filled with club soda.

Generations of world famous and not so famous must have drunk Singapore Sling and must have eaten the unlimited servings of peanuts with it at Raffles Hotel! For non-alcoholics there is also a Virgin Sling (does it indicates Singapore is not a virgin?)

At S$23 + taxes, Singapore Sling (with a free “flow” of peanuts) at Raffles Hotel is an expensive drink. No choice – we too had to try it out! Three generations tried these world famous drinks – except the youngest one just tried hot chocolate.  It is interesting to note that loads of foreign tourists are hurried in to be fed with one of these drinks.

 

Another curious thing to notice is that Raffles Hotel faces the Beach Road – but there is no beach or sea in sight! Land reclamation over time has literally moved the sea and the beach half a kilometer away. Raffles Hotel facing the sea - what a sight it would have been!

Here is some more interesting information about Raffles Hotel:

• Raffles Hotel’s famous guests include Charlie Chaplin, Rudyard Kipling, Somerset Maugham (who called it “the legendary symbol for all the fables of the exotic east”), Queen Elizabeth and Michael Jackson.
• The last known wild tiger in Singapore was shot at the hotel more than hundred years back. In spite of the name “Singapura” (“Singa” means Lion) there were no wild lions in Singapore.
• The hotel was scheduled for demolition in the 1980’s. But sense prevailed. Presidential suites now go at S$ 3,000 a night!