The Walk of Friday December 31st, 2021

As much as I would have liked to have journeyed down to Rivington and packed in one final Pike and Winter Hill ascension for 2021, I favoured Ainsdale as the journey to the start was quite close – it was my front door! The weather looked calm and inviting – for a change and to be honest I wanted to have a bit more of a discovery type of walk whilst at the same time getting in my ten thousand steps for the day.

It’d been a few years -five, since I last walked this root and the memories did come flooding back from a distant 2016 – ah what a year that was. I exited the estate via the western edge and down Moss Road and onto Guilford Rd. At the turn off for Heathfield Rd I stayed on Carr Lane and then onto the A565 / Liverpool Road which goes through the heart of Ainsdale calling in at the Tesco on Station Rd for a bite to eat: a delicious Roasted Vegetable and Pesto wrap that I consumed in the privacy of the dunes off Shore Road / Chatsworth Road before re-joining the Coastal Road and heading off on the path parallel to the main road to which I managed to cling / adhere for all of the trek to the Weld Road roundabout, which I never took, preferring instead to amble through to Westbourne Road / Selworthy Road, the street(s) of many gorgeous mansions.

After this I stumbled onto Crescent Road and after a moment of feeling somewhat disoriented, headed onto Eastbourne Rd, Compton Rd, Birch Rd, Warwick Street then up to Kew Woods and back home after a delightful yomp in stunning weather (for New Year’s Eve). This was a fantastic way to complete my 2021 walking and is now available to watch on You Tube: