Introduction


When we started walking the coast of England we had no intention that this would become a major lifetime project. Having to make a last-minute arrangement for our summer holiday in 1987, we said "Let's go to the nearest piece of coast and see how far we can walk along it." It turned out well and we started adding further stretches of coast, initially once every two years, but soon annually, or even twice a year.

We had always enjoyed the coast - there is something refreshingly "edgy" about having the sea always at our side, and one of us was into marine molluscs. We also enjoyed long-distance walking and had long been involved in general natural history recording. This project enabled us to combine all three interests.

You soon discover when embarking on a project like this that you need a few rules, which evolve from the first experiences. Our main rule was that we should walk as close to the coast as possible, which meant beach-walking whenever we could (unlike the official coast paths that largely remain above shore, recognising that at high tides the beach may be inaccessible). The route should also be capable of being a continuous walk, so that when we came to an unfordable river we walked inland along its banks to the first place at which we could cross, whether a bridge or a ferry.

We only carried light packs, so that at the end of each day's walk we had the problem of getting back to our car where we started. Initially we walked back, but soon realised we would be walking the coast twice this way! We used public transport whenever this was available - buses or trains, sometimes adjusting our start and finish points to make this easier. Failing this - and it was often not possible - we would phone for a taxi (an increasingly costly option over the years). Having our car with us gave us more freedom as to where we could stay at night - and after a day walking and only light food we were usually ready for being spoiled by a good meal and a comfortable bed! Even so, we stayed on the coast itself whenever there was a decent option.

Each walk was made for enjoyment, it was not a route-march to see how quickly we could get it finished. We therefore took it gently at times when passing through pleasant scenery or where there were many plants or creatures to record.

In terms of biological recording, we systematically noted every bird, butterfly, creature or sea-shell that we came across, sometimes spending time searching for the shells. We could not record every plant in the same way - there are too many common ones - so we were more selective, noting all coastal plants and any others that were not run-of-the-mill.

In our daily posts, edited from our original diaries, we include a star-rating from no star to **** according to our subjective estimate as to how special that day was from the point of view of natural history. This score (and our daily records) will, however, have been affected by the weather - it is difficult to appreciate the environment fully, for instance, in torrential rain, and there are many more butterflies and other insects to be seen in warm sunshine!

A summary of all our natural history records on the walk can be found using this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1LLGD55lKRHYXd1SGU1QndrcUU/edit?usp=sharing





Friday, 24 January 2014

Lancashire: Glasson Dock to Overton 18/6/2004


 

 
 
River Lune & StGeorge's Quay
 
 
 
Sweetbriar
 
 
 
Common blue
From the car park in Glasson we went by the side of the pub to the embankment above the saltmarsh and soon joined the track of a disused railway, the way closest to the coast here.  This was now a walking- and cycle-track, with picnic facilities and regular seats.  This was easy to follow all the way to the outskirts of Lancaster, but increasingly hard rain began to make us damp.  We had to leave the track to cross the saltmarsh, before then enjoyed only by redshanks, and walk through long wet grass until we reached the Lune, and then beside the river into the centre of Lancaster. We walked uphill by way of the castle to the information centre for some timetables, leaflets and taxi phone numbers.  The climb made us realise that until we went up Tithe Barn Hill at the end of yesterday our route had been entirely flat – we would no doubt encounter more hills as we approached the Lake District!  We then sought out a café for lunch, as well as to help us dry off.  Re-finding the river was a matter of following streets that went downhill.  We crossed the Lune and took a riverside track on the north bank, with the weather now dry and occasionally sunny.  Along here were some calciphile plants, like marjoram, salad burnet, sweetbriar and hairy St. John’s-wort, while the common blues were encouraged to fly.  We passed a large sports centre and supermarket at Salt Ayre, where we left the track to take the road passing south over it down the Heysham peninsula, past a children’s nursery and a landfill site.  We had to suffer two sides of the latter, and the roadsides were littered with rubbish, both deliberately left, or dropped and deposited by high tides, for part of the road here was daily flooded, right up to the Golden Ball inn, where the high tide line was marked in the car-park at about the level of the top of a car!  We continued along the road through the little hamlet of Heaton and into Overton, by which time the rain was falling again and we had to call an end to the day at The Ship and phone for a taxi from Morecambe.  While waiting, a heavy thunderstorm started and accompanied us in the taxi back through Lancaster where we were grid-locked by rush hour traffic.  By the time we arrived back at Glasson, however, the storm was finished.  We drove our own car back to the main road, over the River Conder Bridge and to our hotel The Stork at Conder Green; very close to the former railway we had followed on foot at the beginning of the day.  It is a large rambling inn and we had a view back to the Conder Bridge.

 
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