Weather: Warm with
intermittent clouds.
Distance:
19 km (11.8 miles) Total Distance: 3456 miles
I was
up and out of the campsite by 7.45am having made myself a cup of tea on the gas
stove and bundled all my stuff into the boot of the car. The roads were pretty quiet and the only
people on the promenade where I parked were a few caravanettes and a few
fishermen.
I headed off south, along a concrete promenade that seemed to
go on for miles, lower and hidden from the road it was completely
featureless. I passed the occasional
people out walking their dogs. In fact,
dog turds were all that broke the monotony of the concrete. I had heard that Blackpool boasted something
like 12 miles of sandy beach and promenade but honestly, if they are going to
boast about it they should try a little harder.
I was
trying to keep in a positive frame of mind about Blackpool. It was not the sort of place I would ever
visit voluntarily but I was trying to look upon it as an experience. As I neared the first of the town’s three
piers the promenade got smarter. The
first thing that hit me on the breeze was the smell of candy floss! As I rose from the promenade to street level
I was eager to see what Blackpool had to offer – the first sign I read was ‘lap
dancing club’, the second, Mecca Bingo and so on! Never mind, it was still only 9.00am in the
morning and at least I was not being mown down by louts! Youngsters who had not made it to a B&B
tried to grab some sleep on the benches as I neared the famous tower, looking
rusty, or is that how it is supposed to look?
I took
a break on a bench as the holidaymakers were just beginning to venture
out. Heading on I passed the amusements,
the Illuminations – seemingly just one big advertisement for McDonalds. At the final pier the Leisure Park with its
giant Big Dipper was just carrying out its morning dummy runs – making sure
everything stayed on the track. The bouncy
castle was being inflated on the prom.
To the south again were all the B&Bs standing shoulder to shoulder
and then suddenly the end – sand dunes began near the airport and I was on a
pretty quiet beach enjoying the solitude once again. I had survived without a
nervous breakdown!
I
trekked behind a couple of family groups out walking the sandy beach and then,
after a few miles, I spotted houses and tried to get up onto a path for firmer
footing but it was a busyish road and not very attractive walking so changed my
mind and stayed on the sand, under the pier. More people around by now.
The dunes gave way to sort of mud and
unattractive scrub for a mile or two and then as the sea appeared so did a
promenade and with it a fishing competition. They seemed to be catching fish all the time and needed five hands to
fish, cast, measure, weigh, prepare bait and whatever else fishermen in a
competition have to do. There seemed to
be either too many fish for some or they were too small (the fish not the
fishermen) and had to be thrown back. I felt very sorry for them because the
fishermen had to give it real welly to reach the sea from the sloping promenade
and being flat fish they entered with a belly flow. I guess that’s where the name skate comes
from.
A
sudden poshness appeared and the wealth of Lytham compared to Blackpool was
evident by the houses. I stopped in
Lytham reasoning that had I carried on much further it would be hard to set
back to the start next time. I didn’t
know where to get a bus back and the blighters had moved the TIC from where it
was indicated on the OS map so I dashed into an art exhibition where two ladies
told me the bus stop was virtually outside.
The divers told be that I should get their bus back to the tram terminus
at Star Gate and go by tram from there which I did – but the tram takes an
awful long time!
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