I’ll Be Your Candle on the Water

Yesterday I woke up and was extremely surprised to find it was NOT raining, with the weather report having changed overnight from pouring to overcast.  I went for a quick run and then decided to use my good fortune to explore the South Walney Nature Reserve. 

Walney Island is a small island (about 10 miles long) off the coast of Barrow-in-Furness and the nature reserve on the southern part of the island is known for its bird inhabitants.  I found a bus from Ulverston to Barrow and a bus from Barrow out to South Walney.  I assumed this would get me close to the nature reserve as the island is only 10 miles long and I needed to be in South Walney for the reserve.  However, as is most often the case over here, I was greatly mistaken on the distance.  I hoped off the bus and headed down to the road I needed, only to see a giant brown sign stating “South Walney Nature Reserve – 5 Miles”.  5 miles!  How could I be in South Walney and still have 1/2 the distance of the island to go.  Really, it should be called Exact Middle Walney.  I decided to go for it anyway, since 5 miles didn’t seem that long for someone who loves walking like myself.

The route out the nature preserve took me along the coast of the island, where I could look out and see Piel Castle (where Kevin and I walked out to the previous week).  Unlike the last time I was out there, the tide was in.  It was about now that I began to get hungry.  Luckily, I had brought some grapes with me, because as I walked the 5 miles out to the reserve, the only thing I passed were sheep, cows and a dump. 

South Walney Nature reserve has three trails that you can follow that range in distance from 1 to 3 miles.  I figured that since I had walked all the way out there, I might as well see everything, so I chose the longest of the three route.   The first thing that I came upon was a building with a bunch of lagoons around it.  I was trying to figure out what it could possibly be, when I saw a sign stating that it was an oyster farm.  If only I liked oysters, then I could have had some lunch.  However, I find them to have the appearance of boogers and the taste of salt water, and thus refuse to eat them.  The only thing I hate more than oysters is peas and barbeque pork.

  The Booger Farm

Next up, I came upon a lighthouse, which greatly excited me.  If there is one thing I like more than castle ruins, its lighthouses.  It all goes back to when I was a kid and I would watch Pete’s Dragon and wish that I too could live in a lighthouse in a town with a ridiculous name like Passamaquoddy and ridiculous inhabitants such as Red Buttons (Pockets!) and Mickey Rooney, sing songs and have a pet dragon that no one else could see. 

Look how cute he is!

Man, now all I can think about is watching Pete’s Dragon!  Anyways, I was greatly disappointed to find that you can’t go in the lighthouse so I saddly shuffled off only to round a corner and promptly stifled a scream and I came face to face with a herd of cows, once of which mooed at me.   I managed to resist petting the cows (mostly because I had been badly startled) and continued on my way around the tip of Walney Island and to the other side.  Off the coast sits a massive wind farm.  Unlike the stuck up inhabitants of places such as Nantucket and Cape Cod, I actually think wind farms are a great idea, and pretty neat looking to boot. 

 

I wish I had brought binoculars (or telescopes like all the old men) because there were a number of hides located throughout the park for watching birds.  My terrible eyesight was not good enough to spot any birds other than the normal seagulls.

By this point I was starving and my feet hurt, but I still had to walk 5 miles back to the bus.    It seemed like a good idea earlier on to walk 5 miles out and 3 miles around but I had forgotten about the trek back.  I did make it back and learned some valuable information as well – it IS possible to blister the pads of your feet.