Day 007 – Whitehaven

Distance: 0

Steps: 0

These bars from Rapper’s Delight in 1979, hang on the wall above my bed. Today we are just tourists, having a day off to explore this historic Georgian seaside town, to do some admin, catch up with some emails and go to the barber. We took the train for an 18 minute journey, passing through Harrington and Parton and we’re holed up in the quirky ’Room 9’ at the Waverley Hotel. Not a room at all, but a rambling former flat/apartment. Two bedrooms, a lounge, a kitchen and a few corridors. definitely not everybody’s cup of tea but we love it.

Whitehaven was once a truly great port, rivalling Bristol and Liverpool. Today it is a marina, home to hundreds of yachts, with a good selection of pubs, bistros, wine bars and even a nightclub. A busy town on a Friday evening. The Beacon museum tells the story in fuller detail and is well worth a visit. There’s a Raleigh Chopper on the 4th floor.

The Vagabond is one of the old dock side pubs.

I’m not sure what this building is, out on the harbour wall but it is proudly flying its flag.

The Met Office has predicted that for much of the UK, today will be the hottest day since 1976 but not so Whitehaven, where it rained all day. There’s a lot of redevelopment and building work going on here, some of which has affected the route of the coast path. So we went on a recce to scope out tomorow morning’s route out of town

I have been thinking about why my legs gave out on me yesterday. I put it down to a number of factors combined.

1. Dehydation
2. Heat Exhaustion
3. Walking on unstable, uneven ground
4. Unreasonable expectations
5. Parkinson’s Disease

I can and will do something about all of these issues when we resume walking tomorrow

Thank goodness Brian as there for us

All set for a nice early start, heading for Sellafield