Sunday, July 28, 2013

Heritage Ride 13

The road to Cockerham runs parallel to Pilling Sands, a great area of salt marsh and sand for seeing flocks of waders. When I was at school a teacher brought me and a friend here to watch the Knots and Dunlins in wave after wave as the tide came in. I have never forgotten the experience. Near Glasson Dock I pick up the old railway line that is now a Sustrans route into Lancaster. I discover the Cafe de Lune cyclists cafe and follow the route through the town before picking up the Lancaster canal again as it heads north. It is a lovely contouring route above Hest Bank and Morecambe Bay. I come to Carnforth, where a friend and I had a ride in a Diesel cab when I was about 11 courtesy of our French teacher who was ex-British Rail. The route leaves the canal and heads on back roads to Silverdale. The limestone hills that hang like a collar to the south of the lakes are usually overlooked, they cannot compete for grandeur or majesty with the mountains of the lakes, but I love them. They are to the Lakes what the Wolds are to the Dales – less dramatic, less visited, very evocative

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