Carlisle; Monday, 25 May, 2009

An even earlier start today to head off down the Cumbrian Coast. The local rail company offer a number of day tickets, one of which I was using today to go for a quick lap of the county, travelling down the line that hugs the Cumbrian coast to Barrow-in-Furness, then back round through Lancaster and the lakes to Carlisle. Whilst the route is spectacular its not what you would call high-frequency, so to get the most in you need to set off on an early train, and the 08:44 fitted the bill.

Having left Carlisle the train travels out to the coast at Maryport and then follows the line of the coast, at time literally hugging the base of the cliffs, round all the way to Barrow. However, that was a stop for later, my first stop of the morning was the small town of Ravenglass (just beyond the small but slightly more famous, and luminous, Sellafield nee Windscale!)

Ravenglass is the terminus of the Ravengalss and Eskdale railway, a narrow gauge railway which runs inland from the coast to the heart of the dales. Its run entirely as a tourist venture these days, but previously it was a working industrial line. I took the train all the way to the end of the line at Dalegarth. I had intended on having a wander around the area, perhaps wandering into the Dales, or perhaps the round trip walk to the Roman ruins. Unfortunately, by now my foot which had been twinging earlier in the day was in agony, so I only wandered a couple of hundred yards towards the village of Boot, had a quick look around and then hobbled back to the station.

Having had a very nice ice cream in the station cafe to take my mind off my foot I got on a return train back to Ravenglass. Unlike the journey to Dalegarth, the return had open carriages so I sat in one of those. By the time I got back to Ravenglass I was feeling much more relaxed about my foot as my attention was now focusing on my quite warm arms, the weather was clearly much better than I had thought it was!

I had a short wander around the exhibition at Ravenglass station before it was time to catch the train onwards to Barrow-in-Furness. Arriving at Barrow I had intended on missing the first train, visiting the ruins of the Abbey about a mile out of town and then catching the train two hours later. Sadly, by now my foot was back in control of the pain receptors, so I got on the train and headed on to Lancaster.

At Lancaster I had a 40 minute wait for a train back towards Carlisle, so I popped into the station cafe, and there, to my relief, not only was I able to grab a very late lunch and a nice cold drink, they also stocked painkillers (I had left my packet at the hotel thinking I wouldn’t need them). 30 minutes later, and with only mild twinges (and the thought at the back of my mind that I was probably causing irreparable damage to my ankle) I wandered over the foot bridge at Lancaster and caught the train north.

By the time it got to Penrith my foot was still only slightly twinging, so I got off and had a look around the ruins of the castle, directly opposite the station. I wandered back to the station, sensing that the painkillers were starting to wear off and that it might be a painful walk back from Carlisle station, so I grabbed dinner in a cafe next to the station so that I could head straight from the station in Carlisle to my hotel bed.

After my snack I caught the train back to Carlisle, and as predicted had a painful hobble back to the hotel.