“Oh this hill-walker’s website features coastal Southport! That could be creative!!!”

It’s true, as far as towns go Southport is pretty damn flat. Our highest point above sea level (excluding buildings) is probably about 25 feet, maybe less – it is a sand dune and as such prone to erosion by the sea. Well read on to see why my walks in and around this lovely town are going to be featured…a lot!

I used to be one of those people that swore by the saying ‘it is not a walk if there is no summit to ascend’ – this kind of rubbished my walks in the 80′s and 90′s around ‘The Jumbles’ reservoir at Bolton upon reflection but it is something that I used to feel to be true…for me!

2010 saw a general cut back in journeys to the Pennines, The Lake District, in general anywhere, we did manage a trip to Lllandudno to journey up the Great Orme but even then we used the tram on both outward and inward jorneys and as for the trip to Llanberis to do Snowdon, erm no!. Instead I had no alternative than to explore my more immediate surroundings in Southport – not a region renown for its’ hills, the heighest point being a sand dune some 25′ in altitude. All the same walking is walking and when one has no hills to ascend the distance of the trek increases. Most of my spring and summer evening walks around my home town averaged around eight miles – roughly twice the distance of going up and down Whernside from Chapel le Dale!

I have a lot more hills to climb this year but by the same token even now as I type this I long to be back walking the flatlands of “The Moss” where the noise of distant car engines is but a gentle hum. The “Peak Bagger” within me has been gratefully subdued in favour of a more honest simple appreciation of the environment that I find myself within. Yes I’ll be back in training to do the “Yorkshire Three Peaks” again after last year’s botched attempt. Yes it won’t be long before I’m bounding up the last few steps on the assault of Rivington Pike and yes dear; sweet old Pendle beckons louder than ever before but a revitalised love of my own town’s environment, to be on Black Brook Bridge listening to distant sheep and to spend a little time watching the rabbits scurry around at Town Lane is more that just filling in time ’till I get to the hills.