Day 29 (18th July 2022)

 I had the nicest chat with my campsite neighbour Ollie last night. His family were from a village in Yorkshire that started with an H but wasn't Holmfirth or Hebdon Bridge. He loved the idea of following your dream and turning it into reality, something he'd sort of been doing in his transit converted into a motorhome, stopping in places where they could go walking or canoeing with his wife, young son and cute dog Stanley. Shocked at how much non members were charged to stay in C&M Club sites though.

I went a bit out of my way for the next stop but it will make sense to most of you ... stop #51

MUNCASTER CASTLE 

Sadly, I couldn't get in as it was closed, so the gate will have to do. I'll see lots of you there in a couple of months though!

My next stop was a bit of a challenge. I know roughly where it is, but when I arrived at Silverdale, the sign posts to the RSPB site all but disappeared. Having finally found the site at Leighton Moss, I discovered it was in two parts. Once again, poor signage meant I missed the turning twice and was once again cursing my non-working sat-nav.  Anyway I finally managed to get there and took off on the 1.2km round trip walk, only to realise I'd left my phone behind. I decided to give my poles a try out on my 2nd attempt to get to stop #52

THE ERIC MORCAMBE HIDE

Shortly after I took this I got painfully bitten by two nasty critters twice the size of your average house fly. When I told Guy this later, he tells me they were probably horse flies and that when he was bitten by one it went septic. I didn't get too worried by this on account of Guy being one of the worst "pickers" I've ever known. I did retreat into the Eric Morcambe Hide to change back into my other T shirt though.

I stopped off in Lancaster on my way south. Made a beeline for Lancaster Priory (closed) then Lancaster Castle (polished up to almost Disney proportions) where rather than do the cheesey guided tour, sat and had a coffee instead. On the way out, I was recognised by the English Heritage volunteer from Lanercost Priory - she was with her husband and we had a chat about this and that. They were really looking forward to going to Rievaulx Abbey and probably would have gone today only they were meeting up with one of their offspring who is at Lancaster uni. Lancaster is alright actually. Will come back one day to revisit the Priory, that's for sure.

The next destination on Germinal CCXXIV has been really quite difficult to pinpoint. I'm beginning to regret not investing in an Ordinance Survey subscription (actually, with some of the more obscure places especially in the South West, I might do this tonight when I've finished this - my friend Nick did suggest this the other night, but I thought I'd be able to steal other people's online description and map references to out of the way places).

What I could discern from various internet sites was that it is a coastal area rather than a physical man made structure and that it lies either on or around Formby Beach. So this is my effort to find stop #53

MAD WHARF

Bloody hell. How difficult is it to get from Formby to Formby Beach?! The NT carpark was utter carnage on account of today being the 3rd hottest day in the UK ever, with the Police stopping any more cars from even entering the closest road to it. So I had to find a space on a street. Luckily I spied someone leaving (it had gone 4pm by now, but the crowds heading to the beach were still pretty much equal to those leaving). Lots of pink sweaty bodies.

But there was no clear indication of how to get there. Having asked a few people, I was none the wiser. 

So I walked across a field, into a pine wood, through a forest of nettle and bramble and then across desert dunes. On the dunes I encountered 3 young women. They asked me if I knew how to get to the beach. I figured now that I could finally see the sea, that it was straight in front of me, about another 100 metres or so, maybe you just walk towards it? I said this but by this stage the dunes had made a deal with the bramble to make this a most undesirable option, and they weren't having any of it. I was past caring, boiling hot for the first time in a month and desperate to get into that sea, brambles be damned.

Did a quick pic (see above) and stripped of and headed for the sea. There were ooh, hundreds of people on the beach but about 3 in the sea. This should have sent alarm bells ringing, but by this stage nothing was going to stop me. After the third painful bite, I came out. Weird tiny little creatures had attached themselves to me. They were seriously miniscule but I've already been bitten once today, and was starting to think "Lymes Disease" etc etc.

Picked one off for a pic to see if any zoology experts can identify for me. I suspect that dark patch is its stomach full of my blood! Somewhat ironic that in three weeks in Scotland, I didn't encounter a single one of the dreaded midges, yet managed to attract 2 biting animals in as many days in England.

The walk back took me forever but a cold slurp of orange juice tasted better than an ice cold in Alex.

Campsite is in Southport. What a most unusual town!

Cymru tomorrow.

Allons-y 

Douglas Germinal CCXXIV Brain over and out