This morning in Broughton I discover that the delightful parade of shops in the main street are all owned by the same person – the butcher, the baker, no candlestick maker, but a wonderful greengrocers, wicker baskets overflowing with fresh fruit and vegetables. We stock up…..
Cark and Cartmel station is a five minute walk from our BnB in Flookburgh, and it’s a four minute train ride to Kents Bank, where we finished our walk last time. It’s a grey morning but we’re not expecting rain.
Walking up the minor road northwards we pass the entrance to Abbot Hall – I had wondered if it was possible to take a shortcut through the grounds of the hall, but there are No Access signs everywhere so we carry on up the hill, past rows of neat semi-detached houses. As the road dips down, I find the footpath I’ve been looking for off to the left – a battered old signpost shows us the way. The Cumbria Coastal Way is actually not marked on OS maps anymore as I’m told there are a few farmers who have withdrawn their permission to let walkers on their land. We do however come across quite a few signposts helping us on our way.
Not such a lovely day as yesterday but not raining – a good start. Finding ourselves at Arnside railway station, we cross the railway bridge and head off down a permissive path which runs northwards, parallel to the road. The route around the estuary will be quite complicated today, particularly because we will be trying to avoid waterlogged fields and flooded footpaths.
It is again the Patrington Pumping Station that calls the shots, forcing us inland towards the end of the walk, but as it turns out the deviation is more than acceptable.