Our 3.93 mile / 6.32km meander today, was found by Chris at http://www.visitlancashire.com/dbimgs/RambleInLeylandWoodland.pdf
You can also view a more detailed map at http://gb.mapometer.com/walking/route_4361857
The instructions are quite clear and I don't think I need to go through them step by step.
The initial part of the walk...
...took us past lots of flowering thistles...
...and Wild Raspberry plants...
...Yes we had to try them out; plus some interesting fungi...
As the name of the walk suggests, much of the walk was through woodland...
...which was a little cool, with grassy clearings, bridges and streams.
We could hear birds around us but, they were not easy to see; apart from the ducks, later on our walk...
...that were expecting to be fed; sorry no food for them!.
Nixon Lane Wood...
...was also a bridleway, in memory of Karla Selley...
I'm not sure how many, but we passed through a number of "Kissing Gates"...
Colour was also added to our surroundings, by young developing leaves.
In Hocking Wood we walked along the bank of the River Lostock...
...(and Barrel; I bet some of you thought that as well).
In Malt Kiln Wood (me thinks that once there was a Brewery nearby!) the large fishing ponds had water lilies but no signs of fishermen (https://www.gov.uk/freshwater-rod-fishing-rules/overview)
Another enjoyable walk in Lancashire which will be re-walked at some time I'm sure.
Today we decided, as the sun was out, to revisit Eastham Ferry; It's some time since we'd been and we expected to see squirrels...
...result!
First of all we walked to our local Merseyrail Station, in Maghull, then it was off to Liverpool Central, change train, to catch the Chester train to get off and start our Wednesday walk at Spital Station.
Today's 5.2327 miles (8.4212 km) route has been saved and is available at...
Upon emerging from the station, we turned left and headed down towards Brotherton Park and Dibbinsdale Local Nature Reserve. We both noticed how many flowers were out early...
It didn't take long before we reached the entrance to the Reserve. More information can be found at...
Of course we did a slight detour to see St. Patrick's Well...
...not sure I'd consider drinking from it.
The walk through the Nature Reserve, along side the River Dibbensdale was very nice...
especially the wide range of fungi we spotted...
...and the sound of flowing water...
...along with the bird song, mallards, moorhens, crows, robins, jays and more. The fungi still grabbing our attention...
We passed under the railway line...
...via the "Badger tunnel"...
...and continued through the nature reserve...
The carved dragon's head...
...wasn't as obvious as it has been in the past. In places foam in the river was trapped in amongst fallen trees...
...and the very low sun found its way through the bare trees of the woodland.
We crossed the River Dibbensdale a number of times...
...and there were signs of the flooding in previous weeks...
We left the Nature Reserve at Bromborough Rake Station and headed towards the River Mersey, past Saint Barnabas Church...
...on the way. The views of the River Mersey were stunning...
...enhanced by the blue sky and reflected clouds...
It was then time for lunch. We had a choice but decided upon...
...the Eastham Ferry...
...no longer a hotel. Apparently people still try to book rooms!
The photograph provides an interesting insight into the history of Eastham Ferry...
We enjoyed our lunch...
...which you can read about in my Maghull Foodie Blog.
It was then time to walk back through Eastham Country Park, with the vast number of squirrels...
...past the Rugby Club, Tennis Club...
...and onto Bromborough Station...
to catch two trains home.
Another enjoyable Meander, made even better by the sun being out!
Take a look a the slide show...
Hardly politically correct and probably a name that wouldn't be allocated to any new paths but, today we walked along this path to the Sefton Coast where we looked over Liverpool Bay and the Irish Sea, with Blackpool on the Northern Horizon.
The slide show, embedded below, is made up of the images that I took with my iPhone.
Our 3.8129 miles (6.1362 km) route has been saved and is available at...
The National Trust Car Park was closed - For Public Safety Reasons - There had been high winds and some trees, observed on our walk, had been up-rooted.
So we went and parked at the railway station.
It was nice to see the Gorse in flower as we made our way to the railway crossing.
The bright yellow flowers brightening up a fairly overcast day.
There were some "Fishermen's Jackets" (at term used for small patches of blue sky) as we crossed the Liverpool - Southport Railway line. Next to the path over the Golf Course, we saw lots of fungi...
...of different types....
...and sizes...
The bright green of the conifers also brightened the day...
... as most of the deciduous trees have lost their leaves.
The sign post on the other side of the golf course didn't mention the name of the path we were following...
...mustn't upset anyone!
The Sea Buckthorn berries (also referred to as sandthorn, sallowthorn, or seaberry) were observed throughout the walk
As we neared the dunes, we saw a new bench that had mosaics of sand lizards embedded on three sides...
...a nice addition to the benches and seating within the reserve.
The Sea Buckthorn's presence increased as we got closer to the dunes.
When we reached the dunes and the beach, the tide was way out...
Looking to the north we could see Blackpool Pleasure Beach, on the horizon...
After a windy walk along the beach, towards Liverpool, we headed back in land via the dunes. then back into the forest...
I caught some glimpses of Red Squirrels but unable to photograph them...
As we reached almost the end of our walk, just before walking along Victoria Road, we did see four very active Red Squirrels that made our day!
