Spirit Trail Day 12 - The end is nigh!

Nearly done!  Our inaugural lap of the

#SpiritTrail is coming to a close - neither of us can quite believe how the time has flown.

Today we started in Cockermouth (I'll wait while you finish sniggering) and followed the route of the River Derwent all the way to Workington.

Karen was in an extra special good mood on account of the fact that a) the heater in our room was stuck on "super nova" setting so we were super toasty/ roasting like pigs in blankets all night and b) there was blue sky!  We'd both put our rucksack covers and waterproofs on at the start of the walk - an age old way of guaranteeing fine weather, we really should have tried it earlier in the trek!

Both of us have noticed how much fitter we've got during the past 2 weeks. We were far from couch potatoes before but today we hoovered up the 12 miles to Workington - the slowest part was dragging Karen past the shops, especially after she spotted Debenhams.

I'll be honest, I'm no fan of shopping but my motivation for pushing on was driven by nothing more than a desire to see the sea - honestly I'm like an over excited 5 year old when it comes to the draw of crashing waves.  It may sound cute but trust me, it gets tiring after a while - there are old family cine films of me on the beach aged around 2 or 3 and each time someone lets go of my hand I waddle straight towards the sea, I literally had to be tethered to avoid causing an incident. I may have forgotten to mention that to Karen...

Our sea seeing duties completed we headed back for the train to Whitehaven - if you follow in our footsteps and prefer to walk there is a beautiful stretch of coastal path you could take instead.

Once collapsed in my hotel room (ok, maybe the 12 mile hike wasn't such a breeze after all) I realised that all our hikes were now done - tomorrow we are meeting the fab folks at The Rum Story and then heading home.  We shall be celebrating our achievement with a chippy tea later but, for now, I've decided to celebrate with a glass of Lakes Distillery whisky in my beautiful Cumbria Crystal glass - which I still can't believe has made it this far intact!

Click here for Cumbria Crystal

Click here for Lakes Distillery

And if you happen to be near Whitehaven tomorrow (14th September) do pop along to The Rum Story to say hello - we'll be there around lunchtime. 😀

As always PLEASE spare a moment to support our supporters - give them a "like" and a "follow" and we'll love you forever!

DON'T FORGET OUR THREE BOOKS - perfect as a pressie or just to treat yourself!  Click HERE to learn more!

Click on the pic to learn more!

Day 11 - One way or another

If our adventure has had a mission statement that's it - one way or another we'll make it

work.  Before we set out, finding accomodation and liaising with the producers was a challenge. Since we've been on the road it's taken on a more literal meaning - we appear to have chosen the 12 wettest consecutive days of the year for our hike, so many of my carefully planned routes have had to be re-jigged on account of the weather.

It's not that I mind walking in the rain, it's more that the terraine underfoot in some areas could, at best, be described as "soupy". Our completion of the route should perhaps be comemorated with swimming certificates rather than hiking awards.

Not that the water is all bad - far from it - today we learned how the clever folks at The Lakes Distillery take all that lovely water an turn it in to whisky, gin and vodka. They'll be feeding the 5000 next.

Click here to visit Lakes Ditillery website

Their distillery is on the northern shores of Bassenthwaite and is a very different kettle of fish to many of the other tiny producers we've met - this is production on a big scale, but the majority of the processes are done on site so it's still a proper Lake District product.

Following the tour - which included several samples - we enjoyed a lovely lunch in the bistro before heading for the hills, or in today's case, hill.  Our short (5 mile) hike took us up through Setmurthy Plantation and down Watch Hill into Cockermouth.  While I stayed at the top of the hill taking a few photos Karen literally ran on ahead to try to beat the rain shower - she failed, but who doesn't enjoy a 20 minute jog down a boggy field with a pack on their back only to get caught in a massive downpour anyway? (Clue - Karen) 😀

Incoming storm

I enjoyed a lovely couple of hours exploring Cockermouth, though I am curious about this lane, especially as Jennings Brewery was at the other end of the street - I feel a spot of research coming on...

It's hard to believe our adventure is drawing to a close - we have had a lot of laughs and it's all flown by so fast.  Everyone wants to know how we've gotten along and I'm sure some folks are hoping we've had a huge fight, but we haven't. When we've disagreed we've talked it through and we're both so laid back that we can't be bothered to fight. Honestly, we'd be rubbish on a Channel 4 documentary!

Tomorrow we have a hike & a bus journey to our final destination, Whitehaven.  I have a HUGE soft spot for the town and can't wait to see what Karen makes of it. If she hates it maybe we'll have that falling out everyone has been waiting for... 😉


We are SO nearly there so please, before we finish, take a moment to "like" and "follow" all our sponsors - they really have helped to make a soggy trip enormous fun. Thank you! 😀