Finn and I have had to have a couple of days off – the rain has been horrendous and we’ve also suffered broken tent poles again. My tent is very small, plenty big enough for me and all my crap, but not quite big enough for me, all my crap and a vile smelling damp dog. Note to self: buy bigger tent if we’re going to do this again!
Finn and I have been gently steaming all day along the sea wall, along lanes and then through farmland, due to very changeable weather conditions – which ranged from driving rain to bright sunshine, with the odd bit of blusteryness thrown in for good measure.
We started at 9.30 am and soon found a display panel on the sea front telling us that, on a clear day, you could see Scafell Pike and the Old Man of Coniston ….. it wasn’t a clear day.
The first three miles or so were lovely – all on the sea wall to Pilling, where we had to detour inland due to unsafe marshes. The tide can come in pretty quickly along this stretch of coast.
We then had a horrid few miles on pretty busy lanes then before finally getting out to the sea wall via farmland. In the far distance, we’ve seen the huge ferries and container ships that cross the Irish Sea to far flung destinations.
The wind really blew as we got back to the sea wall and we were walking in some pretty tough conditions, so it really dragged and slowed our progress. As we got to Old Glasson, we had to detour again across farmland – very boggy farmland at that – and shared our path with sheep and cows. We didn’t hang about!
It was then just a short sprint into Glasson Dock to find our bus stop and we found a picnic bench to wait the thirty minutes or so for our bus. Luckily for us, entertainment was provided by the lock keepers who were letting a couple of large yachts out to sea, while a catamaran was making its way into the marina from the harbour. I started to get a bit frazzled as my bus was due any minute and they were about to close the road and swing the road bridge open. My bus eventually turned up so Finn and I had a two hundred metre dash across the lock gates and down the road to where the bus had detoured to. The driver really didn’t want to let us on but I was buggered if I was going to wait another two hours for the next one. There then followed a slight altercation with the bus driver who complained that I was taking too long to settle Finn, find my purse and pay the fare. I did point out that if he hadn’t been twenty minutes late, the road would still have been open and I wouldn’t have had to sprint for the bus, thereby causing me to lose my purse at the bottom of my rucksack. Luckily before he threw us off for causing a commotion, he managed to reverse into a minibus so then had an altercation with the driver instead – Finn and I slunk up to the back of the bus, me biting my lips trying not to laugh!
So, after a bus back to the car, Finn and I made it back to camp to find we’d driven our neighbours in the next caravan away after only one night. Must have been Finn’s snoring!
So, I guess the epilogue to this is that, we only managed two days walking in the week that we were away, but due to aforementioned tent pole breakage, torrential rain and disgusting dog, the decision was made to come home, a whole eleven weeks early! However, as I (finally) type this up, I still have another month off, so watch this space ….. there might be some good news about the walk soon.
Monday, 30 August 2010
Day 214 – Wednesday 14 July 2010: Blackpool Tower to Fleetwood: 10 miles walked today: 2385.5 miles walked in total
Well, this feels a bit odd ….. five years after walking eleven hundred miles in six months from Newquay in Cornwall to get as far as Blackpool Tower, the walk started up again – finally. A few differences this time – Dizzy, my trusty campervan, is gone, but I have a car and a tent. And I also have Finn, my bonkers dog to make things more interesting. I’m also unemployed and have a mortgage. Oh, and live in a completely different county, two hundred miles away! Amazing how life changes in just five years …..
When I found out that I was being made redundant, my first coherent thought after “oh f*ck!” was to start planning the next stage of the coastal walk. For the uninitiated, this started properly back in 1999, on my 33rd birthday to be precise! I started walking from Cley – my parents were living at Bacton on the north Norfolk coast at the time, so I could keep popping up for weekends and to walk that stretch. At the time, I lived in Portsmouth so I could also trek back and forwards along the south coast to do all the bits down there too. To begin with, the walk was undertaken on weekends and on annual holidays and this was how I clocked up the first thousand miles or so. The six month stint decision was taken after I’d had enough of my job – eight years for the same construction company – and Andy had just been sent to Iraq, supposedly for a four month post which turned into four years. Since 2005, I haven’t done a single step of the coastal walk – preferring to walk hills and mountains instead! However, with four months off – all sponsored by my soon to be ex-employer – the maps and guidebooks came out of the loft and many happy evenings were spent, plotting paths and campsites. Unlike the big national trails, the coast path itself doesn’t exist – it’s made up of footpaths, county-wide coastal paths, lanes through villages, along beaches, and sometimes along quite major roads, so takes quite a bit more planning than just heading to the library or Waterstones to get a guidebook.
So, with the whole summer before us (or so we thought at the time, more of that later), Finn and I set off for Blackpool and the next stage of the coastal journey.
The rain had been lashing off the tent all night so I turned off the alarm at six, not wanting to get wet. At seven, the rain had stopped so Finn and I were up and finally parked at Blackpool, ready to walk at nine thirty. When I walked into Blackpool on 9 September 2005, it was on a very grey and drizzly day. So it seemed fitting that on my way out of Blackpool today, it should be in the same conditions.
It’s been all prom walking today – but the prom is set back from the road and tram line and there’s plenty of greensward too, so Finn was off the lead pretty much all day. He’s made loads of doggy friends and they’ve all been chasing each other around the beach and on the sea wall and having a lovely time.
There’s lots of construction work going on along the front in Blackpool – with Heras fencing up everywhere and loads of workmen standing around in their PPE and we couldn’t get access to the beach for ages. Probably just as well – knowing how much Finn loves swimming, we might never have got to Fleetwood.
The weather’s been very overcast with grey clouds and even greyer sea. I had my coat on all day and didn’t really warm up until Fleetwood. We passed one resort after another – Bispham, Norbreck, Little Bispham before the bigger resort of Cleveleys which was much more genteel than her brasher neighbour. It’s been an assault of the senses today – cars, buses, trams, people, amusement arcades, flashing lights, the smell of doughnuts, etc. I was relieved to get back to the sea wall walking – much quieter.
So a short day, but a good start to the adventure. Just hope it warms up a bit!
When I found out that I was being made redundant, my first coherent thought after “oh f*ck!” was to start planning the next stage of the coastal walk. For the uninitiated, this started properly back in 1999, on my 33rd birthday to be precise! I started walking from Cley – my parents were living at Bacton on the north Norfolk coast at the time, so I could keep popping up for weekends and to walk that stretch. At the time, I lived in Portsmouth so I could also trek back and forwards along the south coast to do all the bits down there too. To begin with, the walk was undertaken on weekends and on annual holidays and this was how I clocked up the first thousand miles or so. The six month stint decision was taken after I’d had enough of my job – eight years for the same construction company – and Andy had just been sent to Iraq, supposedly for a four month post which turned into four years. Since 2005, I haven’t done a single step of the coastal walk – preferring to walk hills and mountains instead! However, with four months off – all sponsored by my soon to be ex-employer – the maps and guidebooks came out of the loft and many happy evenings were spent, plotting paths and campsites. Unlike the big national trails, the coast path itself doesn’t exist – it’s made up of footpaths, county-wide coastal paths, lanes through villages, along beaches, and sometimes along quite major roads, so takes quite a bit more planning than just heading to the library or Waterstones to get a guidebook.
So, with the whole summer before us (or so we thought at the time, more of that later), Finn and I set off for Blackpool and the next stage of the coastal journey.
The rain had been lashing off the tent all night so I turned off the alarm at six, not wanting to get wet. At seven, the rain had stopped so Finn and I were up and finally parked at Blackpool, ready to walk at nine thirty. When I walked into Blackpool on 9 September 2005, it was on a very grey and drizzly day. So it seemed fitting that on my way out of Blackpool today, it should be in the same conditions.
It’s been all prom walking today – but the prom is set back from the road and tram line and there’s plenty of greensward too, so Finn was off the lead pretty much all day. He’s made loads of doggy friends and they’ve all been chasing each other around the beach and on the sea wall and having a lovely time.
There’s lots of construction work going on along the front in Blackpool – with Heras fencing up everywhere and loads of workmen standing around in their PPE and we couldn’t get access to the beach for ages. Probably just as well – knowing how much Finn loves swimming, we might never have got to Fleetwood.
The weather’s been very overcast with grey clouds and even greyer sea. I had my coat on all day and didn’t really warm up until Fleetwood. We passed one resort after another – Bispham, Norbreck, Little Bispham before the bigger resort of Cleveleys which was much more genteel than her brasher neighbour. It’s been an assault of the senses today – cars, buses, trams, people, amusement arcades, flashing lights, the smell of doughnuts, etc. I was relieved to get back to the sea wall walking – much quieter.
So a short day, but a good start to the adventure. Just hope it warms up a bit!
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