24th March day 383

It was a lovely sunny morning and i had no doubt spring had now officially arrived. After breakfast I set off to walk the shoreline to Workington. The beach passed the port was quite unusual. At first I thought it had been concreted over to prevent coastal erosion but the further i hiked i realised that it was a natural phenomenon.

The horizon ahead was not that of gorgeous hills or mountains but instead very industrial. Dozens of wind turbines spinning and a huge processing plant of some type. Beyond the processing plant which i later discovered had once been a power station i could see the vast expanse of concrete and stone that formed Workington. Still following the coast i passed a small woodland and a few more wind turbines before reaching the boundaries of the port.

Workington rnli was based at the entrance to the port and is the only station that launches their boat using a crane. The crane is the only one of its type in existence and can launch the lifeboat in around 7 minutes. Waiting for me were richard, ian and joe. Ian had been following my progress for quite sometime and meeting up with him was fantastic. All to often anonymous followers comment and like my posts but it is only on rare occasions that i actually get to meet them in person.

After the usual coffee, biscuits, meet n greet richard treated me to tea, anything i wanted. The first thing that sprung to mind was pizza express but there wasn't one my next choice was something I hadn't seen for months and a place I'd spent several hours using free wifi and charging my phone. It was if course McDonald's. Although the chicken legend probably has very little nutritional value every bite felt good. After finishing my little indulgent feast we headed back to the station so i could relax, check my kit and catch up with social media.

Later that evening the boys returned to take me to their local boozer for a few pints, 5 pints to be precise. By 10:30 i was already beginning to feel somewhat woozy. Lager always seems to get me quicker than spirits not that i was complaining.

Back at the station i was once again left to my own devices. Looking at the satellite images on my phone i could see the coastline ahead could prove to be dangerous and if nothing else challenging. So i hatched a plan; start early, have breakfast, make a dash in front of the cliffs to st bees, don't get cut off or caught out by the tides, arrive alive