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Thursday, 17 October 2013

Wednesday 4th September, Norman’s Birthday walk

A Breath of Fresh Air

Norman’s birthday always falls on 4th September, every year. Funny that.

As well as being famous for having his birthday on the same date each year Norman is responsible for a rather pleasant 22 mile walking route just to the south of Lancaster entitled ‘A Breath of Fresh Air’. By way of a birthday ‘celebration’, Norman decided to burden his mates with a 15 mile variant of his invention. And just to make it interesting he led the walk in reverse.
It was a lovely morning for a walk, warm yet pleasantly fresh. 19 walkers, well 20 walkers if you include the dog, met up at Conder Green at the appointed hour and girded their respective loins in preparation for the walk ahead.
image Norman, 74, outside Conder Green public loo
Off we jolly well went, down the disused railway track towards Lancaster. Dr Beeching has a lot to answer for, but the footpaths & bridleways left behind after the widespread butchery of the British Railways network are now very well used by walkers, cyclists and horseriders. Good as these Rights of Way are, a comprehensive railway network might just have helped improve the overcrowded roads of today. 
P1020741 Artwork adjacent to the disused railway line – looks like one of Oliver Postgate’s creations!
Our Glorious Leader led us down to the Lancaster Canal at Aldcliffe where lunch break No1 was enjoyed:
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P1020767Lunch break No2
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Especially for Alan
Our route took us to Galgate, over to Cockerham and then to the coast. It was on this leg that we came across The Black Knights Parachute Club’s airfield. Jumping out of aeroplanes it what this lot do and they were doing it with gusto. The airfield had an excellent café which was open and many cups of tea were quaffed as we watched the Black Knights do their stuff.
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The aerial display was really impressive, unfortunately the bright sunshine made it difficuIt to keep an eye on the tiny specks jumping out of the plane. It was only when the brightly coloured parachutes were a few hundred feet above us that we could really watch their manoeuvres.
It would have been easy to spend more time at the airfield – but we had a walk to do! 
P1020797
P1020804 Cockersand Abbey
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A Big Lad!
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Plover Sands Lighthouse
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P1020815  Another one for Alan
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Glasson Dock
The finish was perilously close to a pub and, er, well…..it would be rude not to. So we did.
The 15 mile walk varied in length depending on which GPS you checked, 16 or 17 miles (ish) is about the mark.
The walk was good, so was the company. And the beer at the end. If you scrunch up your eyes you might be able to see where we went:
P1020822 Oh, and it was flat.
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4 comments:

  1. Dawn09:14

    That looks like a fantastic walk. Lovely photos too.

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    1. John J14:38

      Thanks Dawn! It was a lovely route - it helped that it was a beautiful day of course. I gather those who have done it before preferred this reverse direction option.

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  2. AlanR11:46

    You can always get a photo of John Bullen eyeing up the ladies but you don't see many MF135's together with an MF35 and an even older and sad looking Nuffield.
    Cheers John.Oh yes the other thing, the walk looks interesting.

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    Replies
    1. John J14:40

      That Nuffield had seen a lot of action and is still in regular use on the sands. The battery was held on with a bit of rope!

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