Cumbria Coastal Way -1

Wednesday 14th December '16

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Tuesday 13th December '16

After today's outing I spent a pleasurable and informative half hour finding websites that I would not otherwise have visited, which provided discoveries about flags and old street signs, to say nothing of the diversions one finds whilst browsing. So walking and blogging are, apart from their individual merits, catalysts for further fulfilment, and making new friendships - layers upon layers

I am an addicted browser, especially with maps. Although I was aware of the Cumbria Coastal Way, I found myself looking at it in relation to the railway. I have not yet plotted each stage, but I reckon I can walk this LDP (long distance footpath) in sections using the train, setting off from and returning to Arnside each time.

It was only a few hundred yards from home on the way to the station before I found the first item of interest. At the edge of the suburban road, nestling up to the kerb were two apparently stainless steel plates about three inches square and two or three feet apart carefully riveted into the Tarmac. I looked, pondered, and walked on, then after twenty yards turned back and took photos.

Arnside's unattended station has been equipped with an eerie loudspeaker, its location unidentified, but  sort of frightening as there was no one else about - all a bit Big Brother. Anyway, it gave me the predictable news that my train to Grange-over-Sands was running nine minutes late. The eerie feeling continued with only one or two other occupants in the one of two coaches creating a silence unusual for public transport. Nobody came to collect my fare; a ghost train? It is only a few minutes across the viaduct to Grange and I alighted guiltily, not having paid, then I saw the guard at the end of the train, and intending to offer payment I headed towards him, but he jumped back inside and off they went. I assuaged my guilt,  "Branson's Virgin Trains can afford it more than me, and it was nine minutes late."

A cloudy day was forecast but Grange, final resting place for well endowed retirees, drizzled. The long, posh promenade is furnished seaward with stout Victorian decorative iron balustrading, and landward well tended flower and shrub beds, sporting palms and other exotics surviving on the supposed Grange micro-climate.

Almost everywhere you go they tell you they have their own micro-climate.

At Kents Bank, Cart Lane had an old cast iron street sign with "Briggs, Barrow, 1883" inscribed. Internet research revealed only one reference: CLICK HERE , but I trawled through lists of other trades, retailers and manufacturers of services and goods long defunct from Victorian local authority publications in tight knit, hand assembled typeface - fascinating.

From a distance I saw an unusual flag flying at a private house - more Internet searching later, but I was disappointed with myself for not recognising for Greece

Drizzle, and more, persisted, on and off, for the rest of the walk despite a rainless forecast, so it was head down and battling on. I walked the whole ten miles without stopping in exactly four hours, arriving at the deserted Cark railway station at half past two - next train to Arnside - three fifty. There is an electronic sign board apparently sponsored by the BBC with a running band of updating BBC news to augment the arrivals and departures info. I sat damply in a lonely shelter and had my flask of coffee and munchies and played Freecell on my iPhone - should have brought a book.

After Kents Bank weather had restricted views, but there were still items of interest.  I passed an industrial estate close to Cark - despite its tiny village status, Cark is home to the nationally famous Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding, seen on pub menus throughout the land, and also internationally famous Morecambe Bay shrimps - both headquarters were side by side on that industrial estate.

At the start of the long loop back to Cark on the seaward levee a tractor came past and trundled off into the sea. It was followed later by a few more. They went off, put-putting far out into the bay, where all was sea, but apparently very shallow - shrimp catchers - the sounds stayed with me almost all the way to Cark - there is always some sound on a walk.

The strange metal plates fixed in the road - see below for close up - any suggestions?

The normal approach to Arnside is under that railway bridge from where you see these well maintained shrubs  tended to by volunteer locals

The retirees promenade at Grange.
 It would have been a popular spot on a summer's day in Victorian/Edwardian times

What I might have seen but for drizzle and low cloud.
 Top right is Fleetwood and the Wyre estuary, venue of my recent Wyre Way walk.
Click to enlarge

A good and unique example of cast iron railway architecture

The last of the apples

Good fodder for Internet research

We band of outdoor bloggers collect tractors for Alan Rayner, an enthusiast. I try to keep mine to what I as a layman consider to be unusual - this one so qualifies if only for its colour - identify please Alan.

Unusual, off-set squeeze stile

Approaching the Greek flag

Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding...

...and next door, Morecambe Bay shrimps

Huge zoom to tractor shrimping in Morecambe Bay.
 You will have to take my word for it - zoom was not very successful

Thin red line is Cumbria Coastal Way. I have walked the rest of it up to Arnside previously

Wyre Way in sections - 7

Wednesday 7th December '16


Fifty yards after parking at Fleetwood we found ourselves bent into wind and rain looking forlornly into distance down the diminishing vanishing points of the promenade, glistening with surface water and portentously deserted - not a soul to be seen anywhere. That last point causes one to wonder if one is embarked on folly.

But, I had the advantage of being with the ever optimistic BC with good cheer and new anecdotes about his recent trip to Austria and then pioneering an apparently non existent finish to the GR 131 accross theTenerife section of this GR which traverses the various Canary islands.

Within quarter of an hour the rain had stopped, but visibility was poor, and then the promenade was barred by active flood defence work. A drop off the wall onto the beach would have been suicidal and the wall on the landward side was too high to climb. We retraced our steps to find a ladder-stile over the landward wall where it would have been helpful to have a diversion sign.

Rossall public school  appeared, silent and gloomy - Bradford Grammar was not so good but it was better than going to boarding school.

Further down the western promenade we cut back east across the celebrated Blackpool/Fleetwood tramway to pick up a riverside footpath, now down the western banks of the Wyre. The tide was half out revealing mud flats glistening in the now improved sunlight, squirming and snaking like Barbara Hepworth sculptures.

Soon the path was bordered by large diameter pipes emanating from the ICI works. There was no indication what might be flowing through, but the vegetation around still seemed to be in natural colours.

As one who has had a fair go at DIY plumbing wrestling with15mm copper which tries to take its own path rather than the one you have planned, I was awestruck with the vast scale and multitude of intricate structures of  exposed pipework with many variations of diameter and connections. How on earth does something like that come into being, and is there any one person who has a global knowledge of how it all goes together and works?

At Stanah there were ramshackle jetties thrown together with random posts and stakes of wood in higgledy piggledy fashion in marked contrast to the regimentation of the ICI piping. These jetties provided moorings for mostly sorry looking boats which one would guess had long since taken their last trip to sea.

By now the skies had cleared, the sun was shining but as we approach the shortest day light soon fades, but that provided us with atmospheric views back to the Shard Bridge which we had crossed to finish the Wyre Way and a ride back to Fleetwood in BC's car.

BC photos fisherman's family anxiously awaiting his return. I don't think there is any fishing still operating out of Fleetwood

The deserted promenade - for the brave only, or the stupid in this inclement weather

Fleetwood lookout station - briefly from the website :  http://www.ncirossallpoint.co.uk/the-tower/

Wyre Borough Council acquired funds from the EU, and from local business champion, Doreen Lofthouse, of Fishermans Friend Fame, to develop the sea front at Fleetwood, including the Marine Hall and Gardens and Rossall Tower. Work started at the Marine Hall in early 2011. Work started on Rossall Tower in December, 2011.

This guy was blowing in the wind waving his arms acting like a drunken sailor much to BC's and my amusement

The Blackpool/Fleetwood tramway

Back to Fleetwood (left) and Knott End (right). click to enlarge to see the red ferry crossing

ICI

Anybody know a good plumber?

Close up of one of the oversize pylons carrying electricity across the Wyre.

I thought the OS maps depicted pylons at their exact location, but the map shows one in the middle of the river which is not there - I intend to check my possibly incorrect assumption when I am out and about again

See next photo...

Atmospheric end to a  more than usually interesting walk.
Both of us were somewhat dismissive about this  debatably odd extension to the Wyre Way but it certainly proved to be worthwhile.

Wyre Way in sections - 6

Saturday 3rd December '16

Green from Hambleton - across ferry to Fleetwood, then back and return via pink.
On the Fleetwood side the rest of the Wyre Way is the green and the pink my proposed return from the finish at Shard Bridge. That may be done in one or split into two

There was more of interest to see on this section compared with the frequent mud baths on the previous one.

That set me thinking about the difference between these country/urban walks and what I consider to  be the more uplifting forays into the hills, but they both have such different merits.

Compare with photos below, this photo from the wilds of Scotland, obviously taken after achieving a good height on the hill rather than a roadside snap, therefore hinting at that achievement and demonstrating the resulting reward.

Please click to enlarge

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The huge pylons carrying electricity from Heysham Power Station across the Wyre - note the far one way in the background on the other side of the estuary - click to enlarge

ICI (I think) across the Wyre

Back down the Wyre salt marshes

The ferry from Knott End goes across the narrower gap to Fleetwood before the widening of the estuary.

Knott End is an insignificant cut off sort of place, but this is their impressive golf clubhouse

See below

Click to enlage

The ferry is on the way across - these guys were beating a retreat from their fishing

Aboard the ferry

I had to wait an hour for the return - time for a tea and bacon butty

The ferry boat, looking back across to Knott End

Lancaster Canal and Kia Soul

Thursday 1st December '16


My Thursday walking day with Pete started earlier than usual so I could pick up the new Kia Soul. When I first saw this car in the showroom my initial thoughts were that it looked quirky and a bit like an ambulance, but after a few days it is growing on me, and overall I am satisfied and do not regret the purchase because of the major benefits I have outlined earlier on this blog, but there are a couple of niggles.

I am a bit disappointed with the MPG. I knew this was not going to be as good as the Yeti, but it is petrol. After 50 miles or so it is only showing about 35mpg on the computer gismo, but that doesn't seem to stack up with the apparently slower movement on the fuel gauge,  perhaps it is doing more?The car has only done 2300 miles so maybe it will settle down a bit - I was hoping it would do about 40. In lieu of audible reversing sensors there is a camera - I've  quickly found out that the lens becomes dirty in poor weather so you are looking through a thick fog. I much prefer the audible system.

We had a short walk from Hest Bank south towards Lancaster on the Lancaster Canal. Within the last few weeks a new link road from Morecambe to the M6 has been opened after a long period of construction and amongst many other major engineering features it has involved a bridge over the canal which you do not see when driving, but we were able to view from the canal. Whilst there was no escaping a  larger structure than a traditional canal bridge a good effort has been made to sympathise with canal architecture.

An interesting array of colours under the old canal bridge. The Lancaster Canal was completed in 1826 and these old bridges have stood the test of time, even with modern day traffic rumbling across them

The new bridge carrying the Morecambe/M6 link which is motorway in all but name. When the stone weathers it will  become a decent attempt at harmonising with the canal vernacular

Looking north from Hest Bank - not sure what the distant snow covered hill is (It was shining more brightly than the photo depicts)- probably the Shap fells, but it looks closer than that - these things are so difficult to identify.