Weather: Fine and breezy.
Distance: 3 km (1.9
miles) Total Distance: 3583
miles
The
last stretch. I had contacted quite a
few people before today telling them of my plans and inviting them to join me
on the last leg. I had heard back from a
number of people and in the end quite a few turned up on the day which was a lovely surprise. As well as Margaret and the boys there were Terry who I had worked for and lived not
too far away, John who had traveled all the way from Brigg and was combining the trip
with a visit to his parents, Andy who had traveled all the way from Northamptonshire to be there
especially. There was also Tim who I went to Swansea University with and his wife and daughter and our friends Mary
and Andrew and their daughters who came down from Catterick. Representing my school days was Richard partner. My family was represented by my Uncle and Aunt and my postgrad days by Michael and
Debbie and their children.
We
left plenty of time to drive up from Coventry and was glad we did in the end
because I was distracted for a second whilst approaching the Thelwall viaduct
by a smoking lorry on the opposite carriageway and missed my exit therefore had
to go over the viaduct and back though Warrington.
Getting
going was a little tricky as people kept arriving. Richard couldn’t find us initially which
was no surprise as it a little off the beaten track and there is no sign of the
sea!
 |
| Last day of the walk |
The
whole day seemed like a dream in that there were people there from all
different parts of may life, many of whom didn’t know each other. The good news was that everyone seemed to get
on OK.
I had
read on the Internet the week before that if there was any firing on the riffle
range then it should be over by the time we got to the range itself. Whatever happened we should have been OK as
the range itself was actually on the Wales side of the border. It made me wonder what sort of danger I put
myself in some 20 years ago because I have a photo of me at the border with
the red flag flying.
This
time the red flags were also flying but nobody showed much hesitation in
following me the last couple of hundred yards to the border. Terry, a
professional safety officer was well up for it.
The only one who was nervous was Gareth and in fact he never made the
actual boarder preferring to lie on the floor and escape any stray bullets.
 |
| The end of the coastal walk. |
It was
quite an emotional moment striding up to the gate, posing for some photos and
saying a few words of thanks to those who turned up.
 |
| The kind people who turned up at the end |
We
walked back to the pub and celebrated.
Unfortunately the pub was not
doing any food and the landlady even objected to people eating their sandwiches
on the picnic tables outside. She
appeared very officious. It slightly
spoilt the atmosphere and people headed away perhaps earlier than they would
otherwise have done given the lack of food.
 |
| Harp Inn, Little Neston (Geograph) |
Michael had kindly invited us back for a bar-b-que after so when everyone else had
left we followed them back to Chester for a relaxing time there.
A
smashing day all round.
 |
| Celebrating back in Chester |
No comments:
Post a Comment