The Meanderthals: November 2015

Sunday 29 November 2015

Thursday 26 November 2015

A CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH THE MARSHIANS

HESKETH BANK 7 Miles (?)

Walkers :- John R, Danny, Anthony, Paddy.
Martin, James, John W, Mike.

Captain's Blog - Stardate - BO26R11I2015NG

John promised a boring walk - Maybe ! But it turned out to be full of incident. After collecting John R from Cop Lane we found a parking space at the end of Becconsall Lane. No we didn't. We turned around and headed back to the car park of the West Lancashire Light Railway where we were advised to park ..................at the end of Becconsall Lane ..... and so we returned , parked and set of to "Boldly Go" ...........................
After donning our protective suits we were soon heading into the unknown.

First stop - celestial ground where heaven felt close. Well to Danny at least. Almost immediately afterwards we entered a large boat yard where we temporarily lost Paddy who wandered off to nostalgically salivate over the various craft in the yard.

There goes Paddy already drooling !!!

The footpath , not unusually, proved elusive to find but was eventually discovered, after a circuit of the yard, near to where we had originally entered the boatyard.

The tide was flooding in and conditions underfoot were poor but were soon to become BAD ! The levee upon which we were walking was obviously a "Sheepy" version of the M6. The passage of hundreds of cloven feet had churned the surface into a muddy skating alley.

Whilst the more determined folk pressed on along this muddy track some opted to drop down onto the marshland below. This, possibly, proved an unwise decision as our approach spooked the sheep who fled across the water-logged terrain. One sheep failed to jump over a narrow but deep dyke and was soon in trouble as its fleece rapidly got waterlogged and prevented it from scrambling out. Once more SHEPHERD JOHN came to the rescue. (With a little help from John W.) Taking handfuls of wool in their hands they managed to haul the sheep onto the bank where it most ungratefully shook the water from it's fleece all over the rescuers before running off.

In the background you will see Danny preparing to leap over a similar Dyke but as Paddy had already leaped "into" the dyke (Waterproof socks to no avail) he changed his mind.

And so our Muddy, Marshian March continued. Coffee was taken on the levee overlooking the swollen river. The "Asland or Douglas". Here we listened to the jet planes roaring their way across the skies from Warton across the Ribble. John R was able to give us a well-informed commentary on their activities.

The Mud began to diminish but we were about to enter a "Parallel Universe". With the planned walk consisting of straight lines it might seem impossible to get lost BUT one straight line is much like another especially when their are lots of them. WE CHOSE THE WRONG ONE. and happily tramped on until we came to a cross roads. Parallel lines ! Who needs 'em ??? Here we found that we were lost !!! " BEAM ME UP SCOTTY !" thought John W who was embarrassed at being totally clueless as to our whereabouts, and was "allegedly" in charge. "We'll take lunch here." he decided hoping for time to sort out the problem.

Lunch over - Where to now ? ............Erm !

Our choices were:-

To continue following a straight course along what was the main dyke of the area or....

Turning right and rejoining the original planned route. Still feeling somewhat embarrassed, leader John W decided that the shorter route would end his discomfort sooner. So....straight ahead with "Klingons on the starboard bow ". (They were swans actually.)

At the next junction - more drama - James had left his stick behind. He set off back along the 49th parallel (well it felt like it ) but was quickly recalled and generous volunteers John R and Mike offered to retrace our steps, searching for the stick, and meeting up with us at a further junction. The stick was duly returned to it's owner.

Just before our reunion, Danny crossed the road and disappeared behind a rather neat and characterful (real word ?) house. The home of his brother. He brought back leaflets about the areas history. One for each of us - THANKS BROTHER ! And so back to the cars and once again to Martins generous gift of welcome shandy.

Next Week -- "TO INFINITY AND BEYOND !" and as nobody knows where infinity is we cannot possibly get lost. Can We ?

P.S. Our final photo shows a group who can travel hundreds of miles without getting lost ---- Clever sods !

Part of a large skein of geese

Thursday 19 November 2015

Is it Morecambe or Lytham??

What a democratic bunch we are!

Our Great And Noble Leader had declared that today's walk would be along the prom at Morecambe (because of the state of the fields after the recent down-pours!

Alas, dissension in the ranks suggested (very forcefully!) that Lytham prom would be a more acceptable walk. Our GNAL agreed and we set off for Lytham.

Preparing to fight the elements at the car park near Lytham green. (It wasn't like this in Spain!)

Coffee Time at the far end of Fairhaven Lake

The Leader of the 'mutany'!

"You're not taking my picture in this ridiculous hat!"
("Oh yes, I am!")

El Playa de Lytham - not exactly the Costa Tropical!

(Words fail me!)

Even Les Dawson's turned his back on the rain!

(Spain seems a million miles away!)

The sun sets on a another good walk!

(Footnote: Three members of the group were so disorientated by the weather that they continued to walk past where the cars were parked and would probably have continued on to Preston if it hadn't been for a phone call from our GANL!)