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!
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