Day 144 Morecambe bay walk

 

Date: Saturday 31^st August 2013   Distance: 9  Miles

 

Instead of riding we walked across Morecambe Bay to Grange over Sands. It had to be this way round as we joined the team from our son Andrew’s walk and the guides vary the direction probably according to tides.  It would have been easier going the other way round because of the head wind, and the sea would have been on our right as usual.

 

We arrived at Hest Bank Railway station not knowing what to expect. There seemed to be a lot of people trying to find parking spaces and we parked quite a way down the sea road. Dogs, children and adults of all ages started to mill around expectantly awaiting the guide, one of the 2 people authorised to cross the bay with, today, about 200 people in tow.

 

The group from our son’s workplace were walking for Marie Curie nurses and 2 of them were there to see us off. We were shivering in the wind and were glad of our coats but some people only had T shirts and most of us were in shorts expecting to get wet. Worrying a bit about the tide the minutes seemed to go by slowly and we eventually set off following a guy in a pirate headscarf and a white coastal walk T shirt. He said something about survivors catching buses back to the cars and to follow him closely heeding his instructions. How was he going to keep control of us straggling out in a long broad line behind him?  Aah, he had helpers! He had people marking the way with flags when we walked over the quicksands in groups of ten and at intervals.” Don’t stop, whatever you do” was his advice and no one seemed to get stuck. It was like walking over jelly that was just beginning to melt at the edges.

 

Some people walked bare-feet but today the sand was compacted and hardened into ridges by the waves and it was uncomfortable even in our trainers.

 

We walked through water several times and at one point there a mass howling of dogs, who may be picked up on the anxiety of the walkers expecting the water level to be high especially for the smallest of us.

 

 There were several tractors, polluting the air with their diesel, running back and forth with groups of children and some elderly people especially on the very long stretch by Silverdale, with Grange seeming to never get any closer. This bit was more a push than a walk, the wind being even stronger. It should have taken 3 hours with the buses at 4 pm but we still had more seaward river to wade through and the buses left at 5.

 

Everyone agreed though that 4 hours went quickly (in retrospect!) and the sea air was lovely. There must have been a lot of sun as some of us were sun burnt. Our socks and trainers took ages to clean but Bob’s eventually went in the bin. A tidy sum was raised for charity.

 

We stayed in Lancaster with our son and next day, limping, rather, we did the peninsula cycle ride down to Heysham and back to Lancaster where we’ll start from next time.