Skipool creek is home to the local yachting club and when the tide is in the large expanse of water is full of yachts racing, water-skiers and the like. Looking at all the boats that are moored here along the ramshackle and derelict looking jetty's I am surprised that any of them float!
Once past the jetty's the path turns and follows the coast line above some salt marsh and mud flats for the next mile. Now I am not a bird watcher but the sight of some wading birds and funny colored ducks caught my eye.
Another reason that I wanted to do this walk today was to keep my mind off the hospital visit, sitting down here was making my mind wander so as I really did not want to dwell on what might be I headed off again. I came across the first people I had seen on the path here, on bikes! Not long after the mud flats turn into salt marsh and I saw a couple of swans sat on the grass, this was tuning into a festival of different birds now! I had lost count of the number of small “tweety” birds that flew around the trees and hedgerows alongside the path, much too small and quick to snap! It had been funny that way, walking in the Lakes you do not really hear much, here the wind made all sorts of “rattling” noises in the rigging of the boats, the bird song seemed very loud and even the odd sheep sound came from the fields alongside the path.
Soon the path came out at the “other” end at a place called Stannah that has a visitor centre and a café, I was tempted but time was getting on! Now I could retrace my steps or do a bit of road walking and then a different path that would lead me back to the coastal path near the end of the jetty's, I chose that one. A mile along the road with no sign of a car and I took the track that led back to the estuary. Quite a lot had changed in the hour or so since I was last here, the tide was coming in! I was very surprised to see just how quickly the water level rose, one minute a mud bank covered in seagulls, the next a large expanse of water and the birds in the air (don't they know they can float!).
Away in the distance was Shard Bridge . This was built in the 1980's to replace an old cast iron toll bridge, it used to cost 2p to cross and then horror of horrors it went up to 8p in the few years before it was replaced. The new bridge is toll free. They do similar things at the Highways Agency today, build new roads and bridges to replace old ones, but now a days the new ones seem to be toll roads, that idea won't catch on! As my wife used to live “Over Wyre” as we call it on this side of the river I crossed that bridge many a time whilst courting!
Now I was retracing my steps back towards the yacht club. I had a look at some of the boats, now way would you get me in or on any of them, but then again there was the odd one or two in Skipool Creek that took my eye, maybe, just maybe!
One last lonely duck swam down the creek as I got back to my car. This was a “normal” sort of duck; perhaps it felt at home here instead of out on the estuary with it's more fancy and colorful relatives!
So that was my treat for the week. It was great to be out and about again, even though the only hill I could see was Black Coombe away in the distance on the other side of Morecombe Bay . I had only been walking for an hour and a half and I felt pretty tired out, not even any ups and downs! I know that I will need much more of this sort of walking before I would feel happy venturing onto the fells again. So all I have to do is get tomorrow out of the way and then concentrate on more walking, another month or so and I might be up for Latrigg from Gale Road ! Who knows?
One day at a time…………….
Just some final thoughts……..
Whoever said that tea and coffee and food taste so much better when you stop smoking…..they lied!
Whenever I am offered something to eat or drink I have to consider if it is good for me or not. If I know it tastes good, I have to decline!