Coast to Coasting #3: Squirrel tales

Growing up in the 1950s in England often involved reading Squirrel Nutkin by Beatrix Potter and / or being taught how to cross the road by Tufty Fluffytail the road safety red squirrel. But in today’s England, red squirrels are an endangered species; they have all but been pushed out by the bigger, introduced grey squirrels except in a few  remote or island locations, mostly in Scotland or Wales. 
But you don’t have to go to a remote location to see English red squirrels. The National Trust looks after a reserve of ancient Scots pines running down to the beach at Formby, near Liverpool - one of the top 10 picnic sites in the UK - that is also home to a thriving colony of 400+ red squirrels who have dodged predation by local cats and grey squirrels.

Coast to Coasting #1: Starting out

Let’s walk across England from west to east in one go, starting at St Bees Head and ending at Robin Hood’s Bay - the Coast to Coast hike.
Getting to the start of the Coast to Coast (C2C) was cheap and seamless thanks to Virgin Trains and North-West Rail, booked through Trainline. Cheap at under 11 pounds because being over 60 qualifies me for a Senior Railcard @ 30 pounds a year. Almost too seamless because catching the train from St Helens, I had 5-minute windows for changes at Wigan and Carlisle and almost missed the St Bees train.

Here I go again

A small part of the packing for 2 months in the UK - cat not included

Just about a year after the last packing photo, here I go again: 

• piling up stuff, wrangling gear lists; 

• trying to figure out likely weather; 

• working out how many combinations of clothing and layers can get me through an unseasonably warm UK summer into autumn, through hiking and socialising; 

• getting on and off public transport - so the bags have to be small (no lovely Indian porters and kind locals to take pity on an elderly tourist on this trip).