Day #58 Berwick on Tweed, Northumberland to Workington, Cumbria.

Main street, Berwick upon Tweed.

          Well that was a different sort of day, that was!! Vacated Miranda’s Guest House, Berwick at a leisurely 8.30am in time to commence a day riding the buses. At Berwick, up against the Scottish border, my eastern English coastline ran out. Time to scoot over to the west coast and commence the south bound leg of this coastal walk. The transition was accomplished easily and very economically……basically a whole day riding for 19 pounds (($33.00 Cdn). Buses were modern, comfortable and exactly on schedule, as I accomplished transfers at Newcastle, Carlisle, Cockermouth and lastly into Workington. I was struck by the friendliness of the passengers and the banter that seemed to involve all on board. Almost every passenger thanked the drivers on leaving the vehicle. A nice touch of civility in a busy world. All  English citizens over 60 are entitled to free bus travel throughout England—there does seem to be a general feeling that this entitlement may be at least partially withdrawn once the new government gets down to tackling the massive budgetary deficit.

            Crossing the Pennine hill chain to the western shores, it was immediately evident that spring is at least a couple of weeks ahead of the east coast. Blossoms are out and the fields rapidly greening in the bright sunny weather that we have enjoyed for the past 4/5 days.

           I had not planned to end the day in Workington, but was reminded by fellow bus passengers that Cockermouth was victim of a 20ft. river flood last November that half destroyed the town. As a result the town is seething with contractors who have monopolized every available tourist room---hence an executive decision to add the last 8 mile  bus stage to Worthinton, a rather gritty mid-sized town near the coast. At my 5^th./6 th. attempt I was able at last to locate a rather nice room at the Red Dragon Inn, albeit at a rather inflated room rate…..  pay the b----- or sleep in a ditch!

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  0 kms. walked today per pedometer. Cumulative Kms. covered: 1397.1
Hours of walking today including rest stops:  0
Type of accommodation: Red Dragon Inn
Cost of bed & breakfast: pounds. 49.00

Please go to Flickr.com (traveller6666) to view pics of the walk.