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.
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