A short break in the North West

On Friday afternoon, as soon as John and I had finished work we set off for a few days away. Our destination was 250 miles away and whilst that isn't too long a journey when going on holiday, it is after a long day at work. We stopped short of our destination and spent the night at a hotel. Refreshed we set off the next day bright and early. We arrived at Crosby beach at around 10 a.m. . We were here to see the Gormley installation 'Another Place'.

Spread across the 2 mile beach there are 100 cast iron figures. With the naked eye you could see many of the figures but when you tried to take a photo, the camera didn't pick them up clearly so I took pictures of individual figures. 

The installation was amazing but also had a spooky feel or was that due to it being October and therefore Halloween month. 

From Crosby we travelled to Martin Mere. Martin Mere is a mere near Burscough, in Lancashire, situated on the West Lancashire Coastal Plain. The mere is a vast marsh, and was, until it was drained, the largest body of fresh water in England. It is now a wetland centre. We  arrived at lunch time and so headed for the restaurant. After a delicious lunch we set out to explore the centre and do some bird watching. There are two areas of the reserve, one side has birds that are exhibition or captive and the other side the birds come and go at will. We had a quick walk around the exhibition side and came across the pink flamingos.

I liked the magpie goose.

This one is a Southern Screamer Goose.

These two wooden bears were getting a lot of attention from the numerous children visiting the site

We had a wonderful afternoon. The site is quite big so we had a good walk and spent time watching birds. We saw several species of birds in large numbers that we usually only see in ones and twos. We also watched some children learning how to fly a broom stick, it certainly looked like fun.

We drove to the outskirts of Clitheroe, to the cottage we had rented for 4 nights. We picked up food from the store on the way. We cooked dinner and then settled down for a quiet evening. I have my knitting with me and I managed to knit several rows. 

This short break is about the two of us doing things that we both enjoy so on Sunday we planned in a walk up Pendle Hill. The hill is famous for it links to the Pendle witches. You can read more about the history HERE

The walk was quite strenuous with the summit being 557 metres above sea level. The route took us past two reservoirs. This was the Lower Ogden reservoir.

This was the run off from the upper reservoir. We still had to climb up the slope to get to the top.

Early on the path was nice and flat but as we progressed it became boggy and quite steep.

As we climbed higher the scenery spread out before us. I love the autumnal (fall) colours

Whichever way you looked the scenery was similar and spectacular. I love these wide open spaces.

 I didn't take a picture at the top because the wind was too fierce but this was the view as we descended into the valley.

I always find the descent harder work than the climb. There was a path down but the surface was very rough and the steps were quite deep.

Once back in the village we had a drink at the pub before heading back to our cottage for dinner. I did some more knitting during the evening, at this rate I have this jumper finished by the end of the month. The day was another perfect day.

Lyndsey