Midge Walkers

Walk  No. 8

4th September 2010-Glasson Docks.

Fourteen hale and hearty walkers set out from the car park on Saturday 4th Sept and 14 footsore and weary walkers returned a good 5 hours later.

The walkers were soon on the coastal path overlooking the mud flats across to Sunderland Point. A ferry could be seen coming into Heysham and there was “a little bit of heaven” in the sky where a tiny rainbow could be seen in a gap in the, then cloudy, sky. As we were looking up we also spotted parachutists descending from a small plane. You would have expected the novelty of this to wear off when we realized the pilot was dropping parachutists at a rate of every 10 mins and we were out for 5 hours. Also on the coast was the ruin of Cockersands Abbey that Rodney had hoped to look inside, but unfortunately the door was padlocked. Anyway, it was decided that this was an ideal photo opportunity.

Very soon after this, the first injury of the walk was sustained, as Leigh “fell” for the view in a big way, grazing her knee and severely bruising it. But she was more concerned with the new tear in her trousers, that may be seen as trendy in a teen- ager but not at her age. The pain soon disappeared as laughter was heard again as Judy, leaning against the “Cockersands Caravan Park” sign (5ft by 3ft) asked if this was Cockersands Bay! We rounded the corner and found 2 seats that were an ideal place to sit for lunch.

Still in sight of the plane and parachutists we continued across fields until we reached what looked like an impassable stretch due to the overgrown nettles and weeds. Walkers with sticks and long trousers were encouraged to go to the front to clear the way for those in shorts.

We then crossed a few more fields with extremely long grass that made walking a bit laboured but it was worth it to come to a track running through the middle of a cornfield that was at least 6ft high. (Reminiscent of the parting of the dead sea). At the end of this path was the Catholic Church of St Thomas and Elizabeth (in Thurnham) with an unusual square building in the grounds that was the mausoleum of the Gillow family of Lancaster. Also, buried in these grounds was Rodney’s uncle to which he and Margaret paid their respects. At this point energy levels were pretty low and Steve and Leigh were hatching a plot to get transport for the rest of the way back. We plodded on and around the corner came across a lovely large building we discovered was Thurnham Hall and Country Club. The temptation for the women to stop for a Jacuzzi or Sauna was immense but we were shocked out of our dreaming by the vision of the men asking for directions from the hired hand. They then led us around the building to the field at the back that was full of bullocks who found the sight of 14 weary wanderers interesting. We were followed by these beasts to the canal and, needless to say, the pace of the group was quickened. We back tracked to go over the canal bridge and met up with another walking group who had got off a coach at the same car park as us earlier in the day. We wondered what their impression of us was. We had a gentle amble beside the canal for a while, passing a couple of locks and elegant swans, and then turned off to find a disused railway track leading back to our beloved car park.

By now some of us were longing to get back to the start so when we veered off in the opposite direction hearts sank but it was worth it to stroll the last bit along a well-worn disused railway line to our starting point.

18,800 steps had been recorded by Len and although all admitted they were weary it was hailed as another success with the weather and scenery both fantastic.