Day 17 – Cumbria to The Fylde
The Bull’s Head in Milnthorpe was a good choice. I was welcomed warmly, given a space for the bike in the courtyard and shown my room which was up a couple of flights of stairs which was the usual struggle with two panniers and a battery. However the room was a good size, the bed very comfortable and the shower adequate. As it was only about 4pm when I arrived I had plenty of time to wash everything and hang it to dry by the window. I pootled about for a bit and went down to supper at 7. A table had been reserved and leek and potato soup, chicken casserole in a cheese sauce with (wonder of wonders) seasonal greens and potatoes and an unnecessary sticky toffee pudding sent me to bed feeling a bit bloated. I also had a couple of pints of good IPA, the first proper ale since Inverness. This morning breakfast, included in the price of £75, was cooked and served by the landlady and very good it was too.
The weather forecast was not good, strong winds and showers throughout the day. I set off at 0942 and went across to the Morecambe Bay coast, surprised by the steepness of some of the early climbs. I dropped down to sea level at Arnside, looking across the Bay to Grange-over-Sands where I had been yesterday
The tide was rolling in rapidly as I climbed up a steep hill to Arnside Knott and back down to sea level round the corner at Silverdale. I headed on to Carnforth with occasional squally showers spoiling the journey. I took shelter on more than one occasion, and the camera didn’t feature for much of the early journey.
Next stop Lancaster where I got a bit lost before joining a rough canal path which deteriorated so much that I diverted onto the nearby road
The wind was howling as I made my way south through Cockerham and on to Pilling where I stopped at a bus stop to eat a bar of chocolate and rest for a while. The roads were straight and I was caught up in road dressing which gummed up my tyres for a while.
My original plan had been to cross the River Wyre at Knott End as it disgorged into the sea at Fleetwood but the ferry was unreliable so I decided to go and make the crossing at the first bridge which was about five miles upstream. By the time I got there the wind was so strong that I had to GOAP over the bridge for fear of being pushed off the narrow cycle way.
I was now at the northern end of Blackpool and hit the coast at Norbreck
From now on I was on cycle paths all the way to my destination at Lytham but I still had to contend with very strong winds which were blowing me sideways. Past Blackpool North Pier, looking out for trams
And the iconic Tower
And Pleasure beach on which we have had hours of fun as a family when we lived in nearby Lytham for five years
Rounding the corner, so that the wind was helping, to St Annes-on Sea, full of hotels and retirement homes and finally on to Lytham, with its windmill on the Green, where I am staying the night with a friend.
The wind has been a pest, and I can only hope that it drops away for my final leg tomorrow to Chester. The forecast is for more rain but I’ll trade that for less wind
