Wainwright’s Coast to Coast - We are in St. Bees!

We made it! A little bit of fun but managed 😊 Looks quite wet out there…but green! Quick recap so far.

Met Greg around 1:00pm in Toronto Pearson airport. No problem for time as our flight was leaving at 7:55pm 😂. It eventually left around 8:45pm 🥲.

I thought we would be able to relax…chat…read etc in a comfortable environment. Not sooo…it seems like this airport is not setup ie seating…sparse eating facilities for folks who arrive prior to 4 hrs before an international flight. 🙄 Luckily they have restrooms!

This may have happened to me before however these things always come as surprises…too many things to remember…must have forgotten.

Pre-swabs on our carry on and then somehow whisked into a special line ahead of many others waiting. Hey quite the start!

Printed Boarding Pass

Last few trips I finally saw the light and simply flashed my Apple wallet Boarding Pass…a few years behind maybe 🙄.

While printing luggage tags the option to print boarding passes was there…why not for old times sake? We flew Air Transat and had purchased an Options Plus deal…extra leg room…snack…free ear plugs for videos…some type of comfort bag (no idea what is in yet). 

Air flight attendant asks for my boarding pass as I was not on her paper list for Options Plus. Proudly showed my Apple Wallet pass. BIG PROBLEM it does not show Option Plus on it sooo I whipped out my paper boarding pass which clearly showed I was entitled.

End result I thoroughly enjoyed my small can of Pringles as the treat item. Oh my…is this a lesson learned? 😂

We did have one snafu very early…supposed to be 4 train/tube trips…we ended up with 5! We had prepaid tickets however we still had to get our physical tickets at a machine after enduring a looong lineup.

Fine go to platform 4 and get to Victoria Cross station…we board the first train however…we do not see Victoria Station as a stop! Greg notices that we can get off at the first stop and board another line…note to self I think the young man will do just fine.

We get to Victoria Station…no signs at all…massive wave of humanity going somewhere…we follow. Finally I see an information booth and am told…”go down the stairs”. Ok we huddle and decide more information is required and I double back. “sorry we aren’t quite sure…do we take the underground…and is there a specific line?” Yes and yes is the reply…hmmm why not say this the first time?

Being bright lads we noticed an opportunity existed to shorten the train journey by 2 hours…Greg used Google Maps…I used the Trainline app. Success…

Daily Information 

In the spirit of my latest zero sleeps blogpost the day by day walking number details will be slimmed down considerably from my PEI Island Walk blogposts. I know for some this may be really difficult to accept however…😊

Pretty simple - daily information first then the cumulative information within [   ].

Distance:   X  Kms   [Y Kms]

Walking time:   Xh Xm [Yh Ym]

Avg walking speed:   X Kms/hr  [Y Kms/hr]

Elevation G/L meters: X(X)  [Y:(Y)]

Total Daily Steps: X [Y]

Took another peek at weather forecasts and things are starting to look very interesting…Oh my the Packa raingear is going to get a real live test!

Sep 18, 19 😳🥲

We are staying at the Stonehouse B&B where we received a warm reception by Carol and her daughter Jill. Our room…see below…is huge!

Not shown is 3rd bed!

Jill provided us with two restaurant suggestions being the Queen hotel and The Manor. Queen was not serving in their restaurant tonight and The Manor was booked until 8pm so we walked a ways ro Seacote Hôtel and had a delicious meal!

Chicken and mushroom pie, great veggies, chips and apple cider

Jill also recommended walk tomorrow on the Coast to Coast Trail to the lighthouse…couple of hours which loops back to St.Bees…along with a map sketch. No I will not be laminating it 😂.

Mac’s Adventure package is here..allowing me to dump some paper. We now have a Trailblazer guide on the C2C trail and a “light waterproof » Harvey map to follow.

Unfortunately Smidge product has not been received which is odd as the delivery app shows it as delivered. Oh well still tomorrow as a possibility…otherwise we will have to live in hope on the midge front!

Off to a very good start…but long travel days are tiring…tomorrow a day to explore…before Sunday’s long walk starts!

Still smiling 🙂