Breakfast Deal

I'd met another group of cyclists coming into Preston on the rather nice Preston Guild Wheel cycle route, and the offered directions to my hotel, which I politely declined, having the combined power of Garmin and Google Maps on my phone.  But it was getting dark (that's my excuse anyway) and I got a bit lost, ending up on the wrong side of railway lines and making a few extra hills to go over.  The landlady was very friendly: perhaps she took a shine to the smelly, exhausted cyclist in fromt of her.  But it's probably  just Lancastrian friendliness.

The kitchen was broken so there was no breakfast, just a help yourself cereal and toast offering, which suited me fine for an early start.

As I left, I cycled past Rob's family's old place.  Someone else lives there now, and it looks different from when I last visited around 1979.  The chap two doors down remembered them though.   I was quickly out into countryside, spinning along the lanes, and passing Rob's old school on the way.

I'd done twenty miles before I saw the sea: heading out along the Ribble estuary there are several miles of salt marsh between you and the estuary.  When I did see it, I could still see Blackpool across the river, the Tower and The Big One rollercoaster clearly visible.

Nine o'clock and I was in Southport, looking for food.  Southport is a bit like St Anne's, town well separated from the promenade and the sea by sand dunes.  There's a very long pier, which didn't reach the sea when I was there.

I had to go into town to find a café.  I quite liked it, with its wide, tree-lined main street.  Nice café - the Poundbakery, whose baps were averagely sized but their unique selling proposition is Tasty Baking at a Tasty Price.  A pound an item for a la carte breakfast, but I chose the Breakfast Deal, which works out at 5p an item, if you count each baked bean separately.

Cycling down a smooth esplanade in the sunshine, wind behind you, Breakfast Deal inside you - life is good.  After more sand dunes, you're approaching Formby on a track through scented pine woods.  Ahhh - it's like taking a Badedas bath.  Formby and environs is nice: new houses, pine woods and golf courses, all near the Merseyrail services if you need to go into the office.

It was another fifteen miles until I saw the sea again, at Crosby.  On the extensive sandy beach, loads of life-size  human figures, spaced out randomly and at different distances from the sea.  An Anthony Gormley art installation. Some were chest deep in water.  There were a few (real) people walking on the beach, making it more surreal.  And the real people would almost always interact with the figures they passed, often touching them.

In front of me was the Mersey, and I guess the Wirral across the water.  Liverpool was just round the corner.