The first section of the path led behind some houses above a small culvert. Away to the left was open farm land, very flat and featureless. Looking at the maps of the area I could never really understand why the Lancashire Coastal Path did not start nearer Preston, in fact why did it not start on the other side of the River Ribble nearer Southport ? The actual boundary between Lancashire and Merseyside is somewhere around Banks on the other side of the river. A look at the lay of the land went someway to explain this, flat marsh land, many small tributaries flowing into the river and nothing to build a path on. With these negative thoughts laid to rest I carried on. The last house along here had a drive way and turning circle complete with caravan on the drive way, a gate led from the path into the drive and immediately out of it, helpful signs said that access was for Coastal Path walkers only, that will be me then! Once through the gates I had to walk up the road to the signs that I had seen before, my initial confusion was cleared up and I felt happy that I was on track and raring to go.

Along the road I soon came to a pub, temptation already but it was not open yet, I wonder if a similar establishment will be waiting for me at the other end? At the end of the lane was another helpful sign post and walking through someone's drive way I found myself walking along side some fields. It was a great path that looked well looked after, in fact most of it looked new. It alternated from bare field on one side to walking through a tree lined section. To the left a larger tributary flowed into the Ribble, soon a boat yard became visible below, somehow the path had gained a bit of height so instead of walking along side water I was quite a way above it. I began to think about the weather now, it was overcast and the wind was starting to pick up. A few drops of rain started to fall but not enough to warrant stopping to put on the wet weather gear. A few minutes later and it stopped raining, good decision on my part! The path came across some farm buildings and changed directions. A fence separated the path from a field full of geese here, the only problem was the fence being quite big had fallen over slightly so I had to lean to my right as I walked along the narrow path to prevent my head from banging into the fence, I was a tight squeeze between the fallen fence and the hedgerow on the other side of the path but I managed it somehow. Somewhere along here I came to a strange conclusion, normally I would not like walking along the flat farmland sort of area I was in, but today I suddenly realized that I was absolutely lovin it! I am still not sure if it was because I was at the start of something big or just glad to be out and about somewhere new, whatever the reason I was feeling very contended with myself!

The last field before the Ribble came and at the far end of it, overlooking the river was a trig column. I had to go and investigate as I don't think I have ever come across one of these not at the top of something, well not many and usually they are high up something or other! It was a strange sight, a couple of benches nearby overlooked the river and I was tempted to sit a while and enjoy the view. It was too cold to do that as I now left any shelter from the wind and realized just how windy and cold it actually was! I dropped down to the shore line to be confronted with another helpful sign, even I realized the way to go here, I had it in my mind “water on the left, land on the right”!

According to the map I was at the junction of the river, the map says Longton and Hutton Sands which is a daft way of describing rivers. Rivers are rivers and sands are, well they aren't rivers are they! Further investigation of the map revealed that the river that I could see opposite me, the River Ashland or Douglas (even the OS can't make there mind up!) at Tarleton became part of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. Later this started to make some kind of sense to me as over the last few years there have been some works going on along the main road between Blackpool and Preston that I could never figure out. A sign indicated something about the “Millennium Link”, in my ignorance I thought it might be a new road link towards Southport, but actually it was linking the Lancaster Canal to the River Ribble. This would then mean a link between the Lancaster Canal and the Leeds & Liverpool Canal along the section of the River Ribble that lay before me, it all makes sense now!

As I looked along the shore line my heart began to sink. This is not a medical term associated with my recent heart attack but a feeling of dread as I was confronted with no path but lots of wet mud and grass, I wish I had brought my boots now instead of my Merrell's, but then again I did not know what to expect and I had promised myself never to wear my boots again after all the pain I experienced on the last walk in the Lake's. My pace slowed down as I tried to hop from dry bit to dry bit without much joy. In places bits of wood and old planks had been put down over the worst areas, occasionally a section of what is best described as jetty helped but mainly it was mud and hard work. The river looked like it was flowing the wrong way, the tide must be coming in. Was I to be stranded? Old channel markers stuck out of the river and the water pilled up against them as it came in, I was very surprised by the speed of the water. At one point I noticed what I thought was a path running just above the high water mark, huge amounts of little round black things made me realize that it was a sheep track, I was very grateful for it even if it meant me doing a lot of ducking under the overhanging branches of the trees that lined the shore, this made my pace a bit quicker. At one point a path of stones helped and soon after that in the area of Naze Mount the path headed over much drier ground towards a bridge over another small tributary at the start of the BAE site at Warton.

From here on I was once again on dry ground as the path followed the security fences around the aerodrome. I was looking forwards to this section as I was hoping for some interest to be added by some airplanes. Whenever I have worked on the site or in nearby places there always seems to be something going on, engine testing, flight testing, something. Today nothing! With the amount of security cameras visible along the fence I decided to keep my camera in my pocket in case they thought I was a Greek plane spotter, or is it the other way around! Now it was a case of trudging along the side of the fence. My toes started to hurt now, I have managed to convince myself that all my problems with my feet are down to my boots when I walk downhill, now I am walking in my Merrell's along the flat and ouch, I give in, I really do! Mind over matter time. Trudge, trudge, trudge. I met one other person along here, he was with his dogs complete with a rather large telescope, perhaps he was Greek! Eventually the path started to leave the fence and I left the BAE site behind. I came across a road and a few cars parked up. Some people had big cameras or telescopes and I though it might be an approved viewing area for planes taking off and landing or something. Time for a coffee break any way and as I stood there a pair of Eurofighters taxied along the runway turned around and headed straight towards me as they took off. The sound was enormous, something that I actually like, just raw power! I managed to take one photo, as I looked around the people that I had seen carried on walking away, intent on something else, perhaps they were not plane spotters after all.