First thing the rain was lashing our window and visibility was poor so we waited hoping it would clear up. The weather forecast was promising for later in the day but not the morning.
I decided that I wanted a short walk along the coast so drove to the car park at Lane End Amenity Area near Pilling. It’s a few ponds enclosed by a man made dyke that stretches from Cocker Bridge to near Knott End.
Waterproofs back on we walked to our right from the car park along the dyke only to be thwarted after a couple of hundred yards at a fence with a sign “ no public access”. Why not? I have no idea.
So we retreated and walked along the dyke left. Met a few dog walkers but the mist was rolling in and out across the estuary. Some times you had a good view as on the photo above and others just the grass on the flood plain. A butterfly was spotted but it wouldn't open its wings in the rain and also wild oregano was plentiful.
Gatekeeper Butterfly
We saw a solitary Sandpiper, a couple of Egrets and thousands of Mallard. Probably where all the local duck comes from in the restaurants.
We were quite enjoying our walk until we came to another barbed wire fence with no access. Looking at the map we were only a very short distance away from another car park just near Fluke Hall. I thought that there must be a local path through here somewhere but alas not. We had to turn back again.
We drove to the oh so near car park to check out if there was a path from that end but there wasn’t, just more barbed wire. I think this is really stupid. For the sake of a few hundred yards of coastal grass why does the owner have to restrict the empty land so that it causes long detours for people doing the coast path. Surely the council should do something here.
No Access across the dyke.
Pilling Old Wind Mill.
Anyway the rain was lashing down and we just sat in the car, had a coffee and went back to base.
Lo and behold at 2.00pm it cleared up into a lovely afternoon.
I'm afraid I just walked on at those signs. As you say there seemed to be no reason whatsoever for the restriction. If you want to see what you missed there are some photos on my post from last February:
ReplyDeletehttp://conradwalks.blogspot.com/search?q=Cockerham
Hi Conrad, we were all for just ignoring the signs but the barbed wire right down into the marsh put us off. I was concerned that I would catch our wet gear. If I was heading in a northerly direction it was possible to make it to the northern x by a local path in the marsh but not easy to get over the fence. You did very well there.
ReplyDeleteHi, I walked from Knott End to Pilling in March just before the lockdown. Very bracing.
ReplyDeleteI met the farmer at the duck farm and he said he had over 40,000 ducks!
I know where the barb wire stopped you, and me, it all seemed unnecessary. So much for an English Coastal Path.
Hi BC, thanks for commenting. The ducks were so noisy and so many of them that it looked as though the ground was moving. 40,000, wow. Yes so much for a coastal path, very annoying that about 300 metres causes that diversion.
DeleteSounds like you had a therapeutic trip, Alan, despite the annoying barbed wire. Well done!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. We needed to get away. Great area for planning a day walk. No mountains but lots to see.
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