The walk of Sunday the first of September, 2019.

I had planned on doing another mamoth walk home from work the preceeding Friday but ultimately this never happened owing to a lack of drive on the day. As such I was practically chomping at the bit on Sunday to get out and about for a walk. The weather was looking decidedly inclement with regards to the West Pennines but the outlook for Southport was sunny spells and breeze. This would suffice so by 09:50 I was out the house and en route to the Moss, Churchtown Moss.

I decided to go through Hesketh Park, there would be virtually no other high points to the route which I had thought out so it made sense to summit the Astronomy hill and its neighbouring peak early on in the day. Don’t get me wrong, this is not a large hill…it’s not even fifty feet in altitude, but it can be a little shock to the system if one has not done any walking for some time.

The summits conquered I now had around three miles of totally urban dominated plodding to do as I meandered through one district, across invisible boundaries and into another. This did make for easy progress with the streets being dry and as always I was afforded the opportunity to peep into other people’s gardens, an activity of which I doubt I shall ever tyre! In time I successfully located the one of the illusive gateways that would transport me from urbanisation and onto the North Marshside Coastal path. Although the very nature of the terrain would notably reduce my speed, the pay-off is the dramatic change in scenary and environment as the Irish sea makes the odd appearance on the far left hand side and a couple of golf courses a bit nearer but also on the left and occasionally on the right – they do like a round of golf in these parts.

After some time, the Marshside section of the Coastal path is considerably longer than what I tend to recall, I crossed the road in order to take on the Fiddlers Ferry / Banks stretch of pathway, which is not a part of the greater Sefton Coastal path. This is less exposed and more green and certainly gets one nearer to the neigbours as you are practically in their back garden! This pathway can go on for some distance but I turned off after half a mile to pick up Banks Road, I now had over a mile of pavement walking ahead of me as I ambled through the tiny and quaint village of Banks. I called in at the Co-op shop in order to get some drinks as I am a bit prone to dehydrating and, well, it’s never fun and gives me a horrible headache.  I saw my partner’s mother in there and we had the briefest of all chats, before she could invite me back for a bacon butty!

I next made my way towards the gigantic bypass which is the A565, the plan being to safely cross this monster and head down Gravel Lane. Crossing this hi-speed road, it’s only a 50mph road but with an average speed checker setup, this makes for some sporadic driving and adrenallin-fuelled traversals. After the insanity of the 565 crossing it was with relief that I was to say farewell to traffic for the next few miles. I was now heading for another stretch of Southport’s “The Moss”. Personally, moss was a plant when I lived in Bolton, however, it transpires that in many parts of this fair country it actually refers to an area of near-deserted farmland…or just a vast patch of wetland as in the Lake District’s various “Mosses”. Whatever, if you are looking for a nice stretch of piece and quiet then head off for your nearest ‘moss’.

Until now the weather had hinted that it could rain. About a mile into the walk across the moss, it did but only for around a minute or so. Further down the road, about two miles I would estimate, the rain came back with a vengence . I put the hood of my coat up…and then decided that the world was a better and more beautiful place with it down again…plus everything sounds rubbish when you have your hood up! By the time I had finally made it to a real road “Moss Lane” which in time would lead me back to Churchtown proper. I felt no need to enter The Spar for refreshments, although by this time a sit down for five minutes would have been great and I have to say, well-deserved! The gaping hole in the surface of the road however, was making traffic back-up and after so long in the fresh air, it was a bit of a let-down, so I simply carried on.

I opted not to do an oft-repeated plod down Roe Lane and thought that I had down enough miles without adding more on by detouring over to Cambridge Road / Preston New Road and instead took a turning own Chester Road, crossed Wennington Road then down Chester Ave. I hopped across Norwood Ave and then down Norwood Cresent before taking the footpath onto the Grange Road estate and before long I had landed on Row Lane once again. then I passed the church and made my way down my home street.  Some five (ish) hours after leaving it.

All things considered this was a really enjoyable and much needed walk in some varied terrains. I only stopped to speak to one person (Chris’s mum) and managed to eat nothing calorific…in fact I ate nothing at all and only had a 250 calorie milkshake at the Co-op. The song I had stuck in my head was: Stereo Love by Edward Maya, Vika Jigulina. 

To be honest this was probably the nicest walk I’ve done in a very lazy year!