Coastwalk

Birkenhead → West Kirby

Distance: 13.1 miles
Ascent: 27 metres
Duration: 3 hours 32 minutes

Round the Wirral
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I'd agreed to attend this year's Greenbelt PrOps (Programming/Operations) weekend before I found out where it was. Once I learnt its location was the heart of Wirral and that my work schedule had conspired to give me a day off before and another straight after I knew I'd made the right decision.

The first part of the walk, between the Woodside and Seacombe ferry terminals was the least pleasant part of the day. Here the industrial past of Birkenhead hasn't yet quite made way for flashy riverside boutique living, so the wharves are overgrown and slightly forbidding. Next to each ferry terminal the shafts of the two road tunnels loom large. The brickwork on the Queensway shaft is exquisite, and shames Kingsway's concrete rocket launcher.

Most of the rest of the walk was along a superb prom, making for easy and fast going. A good thing too with an early winter sunset threatening to curtail my day.

Off the Wallasey Embankment, out in the receding tide maybe two hundred cockle pickers were hard at work. I'd never seen so many in one group and judging by conversations I had with locals gathered on the sea wall to watch, it was an unusual sight for them too.

On the far side of Hoylake where the road bends inland I watched the sun set behind the Welsh hills and took the decision to walk the remaining couple of miles on the beach. It was an exhilarating finish to the day as the golden sunset transformed into a purple dusk. Across the River Dee pinpricks of light revealed villages high up in the Clwydian Range while below my feet the sand squished pleasingly. After turning the corner at Red Rocks I joined the board walk across the marsh to reach West Kirby just before all light was lost. A fantastic close to the day. Now off to my meeting!