Well it was a lovely evening, not as hot as I had imagined that it was going to be so I treated myself to a stroll. The ambitious plan was to repeat a ten miles walk around Southport than I had completed last year – but common sense prevailed and I opted for splitting the walk into two halves – I’ll do the second half soon. The walk starts at the southern corner of Hesketh Park in Cambridge Ward and heads south straight into Southport town centre. Next we stroll over Eastbank Street (doesn’t Poundland open until late? – it was 18:45 when I walked passed there and still customers were leaving the place!) and onto Lord Street before going up the alley way (or cooey if you’re from these parts!) and hitting Promenade. Now I turned right after the pedestrian crossing walking passed another war memorial and over the wooden plank bridge then taking a right hand turn just before Princes Park and heading towards the bridge parallel with Marine Parade. From there I took a left and walked through the car parks by Pizza Hut and McDonald’s before finally hitting the Coast road (Marine Drive).
After all these turn-offs it was now a case of “straight on” for the next few miles as I had the Irish Sea (very distantly) by my side and was occasionally accompanied by cyclists and joggers. I must add here that by this time I had zipped up my fleece as the wind on this road is the stuff of legends! After some time I eventually hit the Marshside area which I have to admit is one of my favourite places to be in the whole world – it’s special because it’s like a long gulp of water when you’ve been thirsty or a chicken sandwich when you are really hungry – or more pragmatically it’s so serene after walking by the side of a 50mph B-road! Such a shame that nobody had conveyed my sentiments to the countless midges and horse-files whom were in a rampant mood – my insect repellent kind of worked in that it did repel them…but they had to get up close and personal before it had any effect!
Marshside Road terminates at the junction of Preston New Road (A565) and Manor Road (A5267) and here was my final treat for this walk as this now presented me with the chance to call in at the Spar in order to buy two of their Red Apple flavoured water – which is not only extremely low in calories but very cheap as well! Here I turned right onto Preston New Road and walked for a further mile or so south towards the town centre eventually walking past Hesketh Park before arriving at home some one hour and 55 minutes after departing.
I plotted the route on google maps and was impressed to see its’ length was over 6 miles – not bad for a Tuesday evening!
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