Sefton Coastal Walk 14 July 2013

Sefton Coastal Walk-Sunday 14th July

On Sunday, 18 of us set off on what was a very unusual and thoroughly enjoyable walk up part of the Sefton Costal Way. Things got off to rather a bad start when four of the party were led astray by their sat-nav and landed up in the centre of Liverpool instead of Crosby. It was decided that the main party should set off on the walk , whilst a few of us waited for the stragglers.

After a ten minute delay we set off passing the lakes in Crosby Coastal Park and then reaching the sea. Here we went to visit "Another Place", the 100 cast iron figures by Athony Gormley. Much hilarity followed as various poses were created with the statues. We set off again and shortly came across the rest of the party who had stopped for an unauthorised coffee break at the leisure centre. We were just about to set off when the ice cream van arrived, another delay! Eventually I managed to persuade my rebellious group that it might be a good idea to do a bit of walking. It didn't last long, soon we found some exercise machines on the prom, another delay.

From this point it was through the sand dunes and I felt at least now there would be less distractions. How wrong can you be, it was soon demanded that we had a relax and coffee break. Progress was steady for the next twenty minutes until we came across Alt Sailing Club. Here they were holding an event to raise money for the RNLA and it was not long before some of the party wandered in. I decided to throw in the towel at this point and declared lunch on the seafront in front of the club. Several of us bought delicious beef burgers, and a few managed to down a quick pint from the bar. By this time I was getting a bit worried as we had only travelled three miles in three hours!

I decided to crack the whip and apart from the odd stop for a rehydration break we made much better progress. At Formby we took the Red Squirrel Walk through the pine trees and over the sand dunes. It was requested that we take a look at the beach, but surprisingly we were soon sat on it. Several people went for a paddle and not to be outdone, Campbell went for a swim. I finally managed to drag everyone away and we managed to pick our way through hundreds of scantily clad bodies and down the road to the train station. From here we were quickly whisked back to our start in Crosby. Altogether a most pleasant and amusing day out.




Jack