Monday, September 3 – The Fylde District

I started at 9am with a thick head.  I don’t know what was up with me, for I felt very shaky – in fact quite rotten.  It was like a nightmare to Belmont, where I was running through a thick mist, but on the moors I revived, and before I came to Hoghton I was yearning for the breakfast I had left uneaten.  My hunger became so great I resolved to stop at Walton le Dale for lunch.  I nearly caused a famine, and when I stepped on the road again, the proprietors of the Unicorn Inn heaved a sigh of relief.  I met a Bolton chap and had a long chat with him, afterwards taking the Blackpool road at Preston.

The mist had cleared and it was now a glorious day.  Soon I turned off along the bylanes via West Leigh to Cottam.  Pottering through these lanes was a dream, all was very quiet and peaceful.  Catforth passed, I reached Inskip and commenced the big ‘Z’ route to St Michael’s, with its beautiful old church.  I took the road that runs by the dyke on the River Wyre, via Ratten Row to Cartford and across Pilling Moss (where I caught the wind) to Pilling.  Soon I gained the much used Cockerham road which runs like a billiard table across the marshy ground between Pilling Sands and Cockerham Sands to the latter village.  Then another run of five miles brought me to Conder Green, where I turned off for Glasson Dock and the River Lune ferry.  When I got there I discovered that there was none, but a fisherman said he would take me over in his yacht.  It proved a fine sail, and soon I was looking for a tea place at Overton.

I found one, and during tea I saw a couple of Bolton CTC riders speeding past.  Just as I was going out I ran into a bundle of them, seven in all, and I went back to tea with them.  After tea I left them (they were going home, I to Morecambe) and proceeded to Heysham via Middleton, where I spent some time in watching the ships loading.  One, the ‘Colleen Bawn’ I saw setting out for Drogheda in Ireland.  Afterwards I returned to Morecambe, and after some searching, found the place where my parents were staying at Bare, and got some supper at 8.30pm, watching the hills fade away in the gathering night.

80 miles, 11.5 hours

 

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