Running in the Lakes District...

Jimmy thoroughly enjoyed wearing his special fell running shoes and experiencing the magnificence of the scenery again.

When he spent his second night at the Grasmere Youth Hostel, he was greatly disappointed to discover that he had prepaid for dinner there but all the other guests had opted to eat elsewhere in town.

Actually he wasn’t always alone as sometimes there were sheep on his path.

He enjoyed a beer at the Patterdale Hotel, one of our stops for a drink as well. 

Jimmy was especially impressed with the Haweswater Hotel, which was across the lake from where we hiked. His room had this crazy Japanese deep-style bath.

He spent his final night at a youth hostel in Penrith, where he celebrated the end of an excellent adventure.

He found the Penrith station quite charming at the start of his very long train journey home.

Back in the Lakes District....

The following morning, I got a train back to Holland while Jimmy caught several trains to get to St. Bees, where we started the Coast-2-Coast back in July 2016. This time Jimmy intended to run from St. Bees to Penrith over four days, averaging 22 miles per day. He had his suitcase transported to the end, so all he had with him fit in his small running backpack.

Here he is at the official starting point of the C2C at the Irish Sea.

This time he knew better than to try to feed the cows bananas. Instead he just petted them on the nose.

He didn’t take a lot of photos, but here’s the rugged coastline...

...and another selfie.

He finished his first night at the Black Sail Hostel, England’s most remote hostel. It was full and very lively, but Jimmy went to bed early because he was exhausted. We hadn’t gotten there in 2016 until after lunch on our second day and were happy to have had a place to dry off. Jimmy had crazy rain and wind on his third day with just a rain jacket to keep his upper body dry while his lower half was soaked in running shorts.

Tackling Helvellyn...

Our goal was to summit Helvellyn, the third highest peak in England at 3,117 feet (950 meters).

Once at the top of Dollywaggon Pike, we saw that the trail continued up and up some more. As you can see, it was steep but at least no hand scrambling was needed.

As we neared the top, we finally saw Striding Edge, the daunting ridge that can be taken as an alternative route down to Patterdale.

It was cold and windy at the top...

...and the fog came rolling in incredibly fast.

After summitting, we had lunch on a bench behind a stone wall, which helped protect us from the wind.

Later we stopped for a snack along the tarn.

Luckily the fog didn’t follow us down the mountain, so the weather got better as we descended. 

Carlin couldn’t resist taking a moment to lay down when we reached the first waterfall on the way down. Overall, we both enjoyed the hike a lot.

After discovering that there were no buses running from Grasmere, Jimmy had a first time experience on his way to Keswick to go to an adventure store to buy fell running shoes: he hitchhiked. He then caught a bus to get closer to Helvellyn. His starting point was different than ours and he eventually reached the summit behind us. He thoroughly enjoyed his 13-mile (21-kilometer) run, especially that he didn’t see another person for over two hours. He eventually met me at a pub near our B&B and then we met Carlin and Kent for dinner at their hotel.

Back to the Lakes District...

Two weeks before departing for Nepal, I joined Carlin and Kent for a weekend of trekking in the Lakes District. Jimmy also came along to go fell running (hill running). Unfortunately, his suitcase went missing so he had to go shoe shopping while we set off for our first trek.

The first part of our route was a repeat of Day 4 of our Coast-2-Coast, starting in Grasmere where we were staying for the weekend.

While the views were similar, it was definitely much drier than two years earlier. 

Somehow it seemed much easier this time as I didn’t even need my trekking poles for much of the path to Griesdale Tarn (mountain lake) at 1,770 feet (540 meters). Last time, we stopped at the tarn for lunch and then continued down to Patterdale.

This time, we crossed around the tarn and went up Dollywaggon Pike Trail, the faint zigzag seen in the background.

Last Day in England...

From the outside, our inn did look rather adorable...

...but we weren’t impressed by their attitude or breakfast.

We took one last walk around the village in the search of pins for our backpacks, which we were happy to find.

Our journey back to Holland was a bit complicated. We took a taxi from Robin Hood’s Bay to Scarborough to catch a train to Hull, and then another taxi to the port to catch a ferry across the North Sea, where we caught a bus to Rotterdam Centraal for our normal train journey back to our village.

Hitting the Beach...

It was strange waking up and realizing that our hiking days were behind us. After the most disappointing breakfast of our trip, Jimmy and I went for a long walk on the beach.

I enjoyed finding reflections in the puddles...

...and making shadows on the beach.

The cliffs were beautiful and colorful.

We also enjoyed seeing shells, presumably filled with sea creatures...

...a horse...

...and funny trails presumably left from sea creatures.

Our relaxing walk quickly turned into a beach clean-up after Jimmy came across this bag and plenty of trash to fill it.

C2C Day 16: The End...

 Stage 16: Egton Bridge to Robin Hood’s Bay

Then we made our way to Wainwright’s Bar for a traditional photo...

...at The End.

Our innkeeper wasn’t impressed that we were late for our dinner reservation, but we wouldn’t let her bad attitude ruin our night.

Apparently, Robin Hood’s Bay has a tradition of smuggling, hence the name of our inn and the interesting names of the local drinks.

After dinner we did some bar hopping, including watching the sun set from Wainwright’s Bar...

...where we also paid a few pounds to get official C2C certificates and sign our names in the registry.

It was apropos that I wore these socks on our final day as I was feeling pretty darn tough.