No hills – other than an ascent of the bridge on Birkdale Cop which traverses…a muddy stream!

This was my first walk for quite some time so I kept it short, and urban! I left our house and yes, I’m still very happy to refer to where I live now as a house and not ‘the flat’, and headed to Tesco at Kew. From here it was a nice, if somewhat noisy (lockdown, what lockdown?) amble in a south-easterly direction towards Ormskirk until I turned off at Turning Lane – I do like it when things work out like that! I’d only ever walked along Turning Lane once before and that was in the opposite direction and as part of an epic route home from work, so was a bit too knackered to appreciate its charms, of which it has many. Who knew that we had a caravan park quite so close at Alderlee Park? The gardens were pretty much standard, nothing spectacular, no houses were draped in Wisteria – a great shame as this can be a truly remarkable sight, of done just right. The views across to Kew were mesmerising and if I had not already been using my phone to track the route I would have taken a lot of photographs, which doubtlessly would have impacted on the time taken.

At the end of Turning Lane I took a right and on to Jacksmere Lane where again I was afforded more views of lots and lots of greenery. We may be expanding the town with regards to the amount of new estates popping up, but there are still large tracts of relatively unspoilt greenbelt land at which we are still able to gaze. After a short while the pavement ran out, not literally, although I think most people would pay to see such a spectacle, but physically the pavement was no more. And for the next mile or maybe even two (because it felt like ten!) this was not a nice perambulation! I rounded the corner and onto the road effectively known as Birkdale Cop – to me it was purgatory! The wind was driving into my face and for over a mile, the notion of a pavement appeared to have been a none-entity in the minds of the town planners. Given that this road incorporates a 50 Mph speed limit for most of the stretch that I was (by now) hobbling along, this was something of a nervy and debilitating slog. I have walked this stretch before, it was not quite as windy then and the traffic was around the same for speed in passing me and regularity. What was different? My preconceived perception! Because this road is essentially the backbone of our estate, I had expected the speed limit (which is now 30 in places) to have had more of an effect that it has really had. At some point in the future, there will be driveways leading to houses on the land that I was grudgingly traversing. It appears that I was wanting things to progress at a quicker pace than is occurring, ultimately my fault, but not that bloody wind!

Eventually, after much swearing into the dry maelstrom I reached Town Lane, this is closed for the most part, a determined trespasser could, if clean footwear is not a motivator, make it on to the estate by foot, the rest of us simply take a right then a left and onto the tarmac path at Kew Woods – South, I thought it best to give the area a name; given that the Ordnance Survey has not yet deemed this a necessary measure!

At last the bloody wind calmed somewhat! I could hear noises other than vehicular traffic and my own curses! Now distant bird cries of Herring Gulls, Starlings and the ubiquitous collared doves were all around…and the sun was out, to be fair it had been out for all of the walk thus far, it had just been hard to appreciate with traffic whizzing past and the wind trying to get me squished! Soon enough I had ventured onto the only-recently re-opened Wight Moss Way – my new favourite road, as it leads onto my estate. And from here it was only a few minutes walk to home.

It was by no means a big walk at a mere 4.00 miles and thirty-something floors (390 feet or thereabouts!). Further to this my overall speed was not one for the record books – well possibly for my slowest walk ever on flat terrain! I can’t let myself get bothered about these things, I’m still very injured as my right leg will attest. I have an appointment with a physio / consultant online next Tuesday. If I thought this walk was an arduous slog then words might fail me when attempting to describe the uphill battle for which I am attempting to prepare myself in connection to getting some help / therapy. Dam lockdown, I remain adamant that lack of exercise lead to this horrid condition which blights my every footstep one second and then leaves me alone the next.

But, I will return to the pavements…just not necessarily the ones covered on Tuesday 6/4/21, for a while…

Rather useless map: