Round the bay-Arnside to Grange over Sands

Arnside Viaduct with Arnside Knott on the left

As a walking enthusiast, living in Arnside, circumnavigating the bay is an obvious route. Walks are similar to rock climbs: one looks for an elegant line incorporating interesting features, and above all, with a walk, avoiding return by the outward route. After living here for nearly eleven years I finally accomplished this outing yesterday. The statistics recorded on my Memory Map Adventurer 2800 GPS were:

Total distance:                            exactly 17 miles

Average speed whilst walking:    3.49mph (I did stop for about ten minutes with a flask of          coffee and some nibbles)

Time taken: 5.5 hours

Average speed including stop: 3.09 mph - (my own calculation).

Arranging a circular walk can have logistical problems, and difficulties also arise with a linear walk. On occasions I have dropped my bike off at one end then driven to the start and cycled back to the car afterwards.  Yesterday the train was a satisfying solution. In contrast with 5.5 hours walking the return train journey over Arnside Viaduct took just 6 minutes.

Would I recommend the walk?  Well, I would give it about 7.5 out of 10 - it rarely rises more than 33ft above sea level and is therefore flat and  good for fit geriatrics who are capable of distance but not ascent. There are some inspiring views over the water, and marine bird life is abundant, but there is too much tarmac for a higher score.

The route is shown as a red line with blue waypoint dots

Clicking on the pics will enlarge them (well it does on my Apple).

Photoshop painting - Land Rover

Here is the finished pic of the Land Rover. Of all the paintings I have done this has been the most time consuming, but very interesting and absorbing. If you click on the picture you should see it enlarged.

This post was inserted last night. I since noticed I had not completed the background through the rear window of the Land Rover, and I have now done this.                                                  

Fife Coastal Path

The Fife Coastal Path starts from North Queensferry and finishes at Newport-on-Tay linking the coast between The Firth of Forth and The Forth of Tay. Different web sites give different total distance, but there is some consensus on 82 miles.

I have booked a rail ticket from Arnside to North Queensferry for  29th March.  This will be a valuable first backpacking trip of the year staying close to civilisation whilst providing apparently attractive walking - it should take less than a week, allowing me to make any required fine tuning before my Welsh border walk starting on 20th. April.

The route includes a short section called The Chain Walk utilising a series of chains and ladders fixed to the rocks. Due notice has to be taken of  tides.

Other than printing the OS 1:50000 map onto sheets of A4 I have made little other preparation.

Field and Trek blacklisted again

Back to Field and Trek again today to use the fifteen pound credit voucher I was fobbed of with in lieu of a refund for my map case.

I wanted some Sorbothane insoles for my boots. Field and Trek did not have my size. When I asked if they could get some the manager said "no". He told me they use an automatic stock control system and he has no authority to order anything for a customer.

My credit note is valid for eighteen months, but I reckon if I don't use it soon F & T will have gone out of business.

I did write to F & T on 14th February but so far have had no reply.

Land Rover painting progress

I have  recently taken up with my Land Rover painting again using Photoshop. Here is progress so far. There is a huge amount of detail in this pic which will not be apparent in  this copy. I am now working on all the background stuff, and then I will go over the whole thing revising details. It looks as though I may need to lighten it up a bit with Photoshop - I did some enhancement preparing this pic for blog size and I think I have made it a bit dark, but this can easily be remedied.

Field and Trek (thumbs down)

I've just been to Kendal to buy an Ortlieb map case. The last one came apart along the black sealing strip which is not good news, but it had a lot of rough treatment, and this is still the best product for the job available that I know of.

On the Internet I noticed Ortlieb do an A4 version as well as the larger one. I print my maps on A4 so it looked like a good idea. Field and Trek only had the larger size.  Against my better judgement I bought it, then went to Nevisport and found they had the A4 version so I bought that expecting to get a refund from Field and Trek - I was back within twenty minutes of my first visit - no such luck they, would only issue a credit note. When I have used  the credit note  I will not be buying anything from Field and Trek again.

In contrast Nevisport told me that their policy would have given me a refund under those circumstances.

Welsh Walk Preparations

This post relates to my proposed walk of approximately 1000 miles round the borders of Wales - for more details see two previous posts under "Welsh Walk" label.

The date is set. I bought a senior railcard and ticket for the seven hour journey from Preston to Fishguard departing 20th April (My daughter Jill will drive me to Preston to catch the 6:00am train). For followers not familiar with UK geography my train will be traveling from the north (see map below), and to get to Fishguard it has to go to Cardiff  on the south coast of Wales before going north again to Fishguard.

Originally I intended to go after Easter but on realising this coincides with the royal wedding and its attendant bank holiday I would not have been able to go before the beginning of May to avoid that period, so I will  take my chances on accommodation over the various bank holidays.

A saving of £5.95 has already been achieved via the senior railcard on this one journey.

A more convenient starting point, closer to home could have been selected, but I know the North Pembrokeshire Coast Path from St Davids to Fishguard as a delight of littoral scenery as good as anywhere in England and Wales, and it should provide a fitting finish. The pragmatic choice would probably be Connah’s Quay - not quite so inspiring.