Bay walk

I've wanted to do the walk across Morecambe Bay ever since I first heard about it, which was probably about thirty years ago. I'm not sure why it's taken me quite so long to get around to it but it turns out that all that was required to make it happen was for one of my friends to suggest that we do it. 

Thus, this afternoon, the Minx and I met up with Cathy and Pete in Arnside for a quick drink at The Albion before proceeding down to the beach for the pre-walk talk. 

There seemed to be only two rules:
1. To stop or start - depending on what we were currently doing - when we heard the lead marshall's whistle.
2. Not stop if we saw someone sinking in the sand: leave it to the marshalls.

If I'm honest, I thought this second instruction was just to make things a bit more exciting, but read on...

The walk goes from Arnside to Grange, but not directly; you go south for a looong way on the sands before curving west and back up to Grange, crossing a looping water channel in two places. 

It was as we were wading through the channel the first time that there was an interesting change in the sand underfoot: suddenly it was like walking on empty cardboard boxes. It was as if there were tiles of sand shifting and sinking slightly under the water as I put my weight down.

Off to our right, someone was in up to their knees, and then another person, and another. Then the first person was sunk to their waist, and the marshalls were hurrying over. 

Soon enough, though, the only people left in the quicksand were the marshalls themselves, who were adept at lifting themselves out, leaving the rest of us treading a little more nervously.

But we were quickly back on the sands and the second trip through the channel later on passed without incident. 

All that excitement aside, it was an interesting and slightly surreal experience walking on the bay; with no landmarks or pathways, it had an oddly timeless quality, and it was hard to know how far we'd come.

In the end, I think we were out there for about three hours before we took the train back to Arnside and then headed to the Silverdale Hotel for dinner.