Weather: Fine and cold.
Distance:
25 km (15.5 miles) Total Distance: 3520 miles
The family were in Ireland for half-term so I took a day off and headed off
to the north-east. I set off about 7.00 from Coventry and treated myself by using the new M6 toll road, thereby avoiding the traffic
in Birmingham. Arriving in the quiet
village of Hightown, I parked near the railway station and then went to the local shop
for a sausage roll and to stock up on biscuits and pop etc.
I took
a path down the side of the army base to the sea and then over the dunes. As it was half-term I was expecting to see
lots of bored teenagers setting fire to cars etc and true enough it was
not long till I saw some smoke, though I think it was just flotsam and jetsam
they had lit in this case – just practicing I guess.
I
could tell I was nearing Liverpool by the number of large ships and ferries
heading in and out of the port.
It was
nice to be walking on or near the sand. I was making the most of it I guessed
it could be the last I would see on this coastal walk. A track of sorts took me down to Cosby with
the wind turbines in the distance. Soon
I realised that I was walking around the outside of Marine Lake but my path
along the coast was now blocked as it was the start of the massive Liverpool
dock complex.
As I
headed inland the scenery changed. There
were large brick houses now looking more like student accommodation and a rural
park. I soon found myself heading south
on the main A-road and fortunately it had a pavement on it and enough of
interest to keep my attention away from the heavy traffic, though I was not
able to see the ships in the docks themselves.
I was pleased however to be able to cut down off the main road to follow
a more minor road into Liverpool itself.
I stopped in a greasy spoon café for a cup of coffee but wasn’t tempted
by the ultra cheap fried food. There
were even showers at the place for people to pay and use. Now that’s what I
call a real transport café!
This
road, although quieter was a lot drearier.
I has to carry a banana skin about two miles before I found somewhere to
throw it away, not that anyone would have noticed in among all the other
rubbish, it was more the principle of the thing.
As I
neared the city I passed the service shaft for the Mersey Tunnel and was
tempted if I could talk anyone into letting me walk through any service tunnel
there may have been. All of a sudden I
turned towards the sea and the scenery changed again. Modern corporate buildings with their own
security gates appeared and these led to an excellent docklands development
mixing in the old shipping buildings such as those with the Liver Birds on top
of with modern apartments. The most
pleasing thing was that there was an uninterrupted path all along the coast
with nothing to force me inland for miles.
I never did see the Mersey Ferry – is it still running?
I
walked over the cobbles or granite ‘setts’ and was reminded that my grandfather had spent time in Liverpool Docks cutting and laying
‘setts’. I could have been walking over
my grandfather’s work!
 |
| I wonder if these are my grandfather's handiwork or more like hard toil. |
The
dockland development faded away and parkland bordering the Mersey
appeared. This continued all the way to
what I guess is Cressington. This is a
strange place in that there was active discouragement to anyone wanting to walk
along the seafront in that my way was blocked by a fence. I took to the sands thinking that I could cut
up into the streets later but the wall got taller and taller and there were no
steps up. I eventually scrambled up the
first embankment and into a freight terminal but there was still no way into Cressibgton
itself so I carried on through the freight terminal and was not challenged once
all the way.
The
last stretch was along a dual carriageway and into Allerton where I was lucky
enough to get a train straight away all the way back to Hightown. I then did a bit of my new hobby – trig
point bagging – well, this one was in fact a bolt on a bridge near Formby -
even sadder!
After that I went to stay
with friends in Leeds. The following day I did some more trig point
bagging before going to deliver a lecture at York University.
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