The Hightown - for our 28th Walk and Wednesday Pub Lunch

Let's start with a Question!
What happened last week?
My better half was at Thomas Land with our two UK Grandchildren while I was entertaining visitors from Sunny Suffolk - so we had a break.
This week, our 3.838 miles (6.1767 km) route from Formby Merseyrail Station to Hightown Station, via The Hightown for lunch, has been saved and is available at...

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=6698916

You can see what the "Pub Lunch" experience was like at...

http://maghullfoodie.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/the-hightown-hightown-our-28th-wandwpl.html

Let's just say it's =2nd for the Beers and Service League

From Maghull Station...

 ...we took the train...

 ...via Sandhills to Formby Station. 
Initially the walk was along relatively quiet roads but soon joins the Sefton Coastal Path.
We saw a rabbit in the church yard...

 ... and soon were walking along unadopted roads...

 ...along which we saw Cinnabar Moth Caterpillars...

 Entering more open footpaths...

 ...we passed Cabin Hill National Nature Reserve (well worth a visit)...

 ... saw a Cinnabar Moth...

 ...and the cattle, used along side the sheep...

 ...to control the vegetation on the dunes.
We continued towards the MOD Ranges (the Coastal path skirting the high fences)...

 ... where we saw lots of Wall Brown butterflies...

Lasiommata megera, the Wall Brown butterfly gets its name from the characteristic behaviour of resting with wings two-thirds open on any bare surface, including bare ground and, of course, walls! 
Many walkers come across this butterfly on footpaths, especially in coastal areas, where the butterfly flies up when disturbed, before setting again a few metres ahead.
The rest of the walk was a mixture of walking through wooded patches...

 ...and along the edge of the MOD Range and/or the edge of the Liverpool-Southport Railway line...

 We also saw a dead rat on the path...

 ... probably an ex-resident of the River Alt (which we crossed).
Eventually we reached Hightown and passed the entrance to the MOD Range.

 A short distance from there, past the new houses being built, we reached our lunch venue...

 After a couple of pints and lunch, it was a short walk to Hightown Station...

...and a couple of trains and a bus home.

Another enjoyable Wednesday!

Sunday's Meander (a little late posting it, sorry)

Our 7.7 miles (12.5 Km) route, from Sunday 23rd August 2015,  has been saved and can be seen at...  

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=6697880

As you can see, this was longer than most of our walks and, take it from me, my legs made me aware of that extra distance.

Quite a lot of of the early part of the walk is along fairly quiet roads; the rest along clear footpaths including the Cheshire lines.

What did we see?

Well the highlights were...

• Damsons/Bullace,
• Tyria jacobaeae, Cinnabar moth, catterpillars,
• Blackberries (tasty),
• Pygmy Goats,
• Cinnabar moth,
• Sheep,
• Partridges,
• Dragonflies, and more...

...and these collages, made with an app on my phone called Diptic, provide an overview...

...or take a look at...

or visit https://sharalike.com/s/f7Hr if the embedded clip fails to play.
I'm sure that when the USA Dalziels are visiting we will be carving some of those pumpkins...

...for Halloween; they'll be much bigger by then!

Another enjoyable Sunday walk.

P.S. it rained briefly, not long after we got home