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Twenty Stramblers met at Hightown Station for today’s walk. We couldn’t have picked a better day – blue skies and bright sunshine. Leaving the station at Alt Road, we walked along School Lane to the aptly named Blundell Road. This took us to a footpath through fields to Crosby Coastal Path. A sculpture here, “Pebble” (known locally as the “Wedding Cake”) is a memorial to James Myers, a former pupil of Newfield School, and was created by year 11 pupils from the School and artist Julian Taylor in 2006. The path is popular with cyclists and several groups passed us with cheery waves. We were soon walking parallel to the beach with West Lancs Golf Course on one side and the Crosby “Blitz Beach” on the other. The rubble here was dumped when Liverpool’s streets were cleared following the WWII blitz. At the RNLI Lifeboat Station, Dave fed the birds and had starlings eating out of his hand. Although it hadn’t seemed windy, the waves here were crashing against the slipway. We carried on along the prom – it was a busy time on the Mersey. The Van Oord “Rhone” dredger was dredging the shipping channels near the wind farm, while the “Seatruck Precision” freighter, the “Wenche Victory” tanker, the “Stena Edda” ferry, and the “Friedrich Russ” freighter were heading off to Dublin, Norway, Belfast and Spain. The Iron Men were just keeping their heads above water to watch over them. The prom became a bit sandy as we reached the Leisure Centre where we had a drinks break. After our break we struck out across the beach past some more Iron Men. One must have been feeling the cold as he had his coat on! As we neared the Container Terminal, we left the beach and took the path along the edge of the Marine Lake. A mural on the side of one of the Transit Sheds shows the Titanic, Liverpool Overhead Railway, tramcars and a Liver Bird. It was funded by Waterloo Residents Association. The Titanic is included as its Captain, John Smith, and many of the officers and crew were from Waterloo and Crosby. We followed the lake’s edge past the Lakeside Centre and turned up South Road. We had our well earned lunch in the Wetherspoons “Queen’s Picture House”.

Thanks to Anne for organising and leading the walk.