The Word from the Walkers

As you may know, some of the serving team decided that a ‘different’ way of fundraising for our church this year would be to do a sponsored walk. The 17 mile coastal route from Southport, back to Waterloo was chosen, as it would prove suitably pleasant and challenging for those choosing to participate. Therefore on Saturday 31st May the newly formed ‘St Faith’s Ramblers’ met up early in the morning at Southport Fair to commence the walk. Whilst organised by the serving team, the invitation to participate in walking was open to all, and I was really pleased to see so many taking part. The line up included David Jones, Ken Bramwell, Martin Caesar, Brian Evison, Judith and Gary Moizer, Emily Skinner, Sue and Grace Walsh, Paul and Chelsea Jones, Cathy and Mike Taylor, Christine Spence and of course yours truly. We were also joined by a few other friends, all of whom made the event even more memorable. Upon leaving Southport Fair, we left our baggage and sundries with our support team (Geoff Moss and Kevin Walsh) whose job it was to meet us a specific points along the journey to provide refreshments, moral support and a lift home (if required). I am pleased to say that this last function didn’t need to be fulfilled until we reached Hall Road Coast Guard station, where two of our number decided they needed to go on ahead to the church in order to organise our welcoming committee!

The walk itself was very pleasant. We had great weather, and there was as much sunburn inflicted as there were blisters and aching limbs at the end of the day. The first part of the walk saw us take Southport’s coast road up until Ainsdale Nature Reserve. Then through the nature reserve for a couple of miles and on to the beach at Freshfield.  The group was very motivated and kept each other going as we tackled different types of terrain (i.e. tarmac, woodland and sand – all before lunch!) We continued along the beach until we got to Formby, where we met up with our loyal support team and enjoyed lunch together and a well-earned break. Limbs did start to seize up at this point, and some of our gang began to discover joints and muscles they did not know they had! However, once refuelled and suitably re-motivated, off we set again. This time along a foot path out of Formby, which led us to the boat club at Hightown. This was probably the most difficult part of the walk, as the path and shrubbery meant that we had to do this part of the walk in single file, and it is much more difficult to engage with your fellow walkers and motivate them in this situation. But we were soon at Hightown, where after another quick comfort break and rendezvous with our support team, we set off across the sand dunes with Crosby in our sights! The coast guard station passed us by and we were soon at Crosby baths, where we could almost smell the refreshments being rustled up for us back at the church hall. We came off the beach here and made our way to College Road, at the top of which, St Faith’s came into sight and we knew we were home! I felt a real feeling of pride and achievement walking into the church hall, not least because we had done the walk as a team and enjoyed a lot of fellowship during the course of day. Of course there were lots of aches and pains to be dealt with, but the objectives of the day, those of challenging ourselves with such an event and raising funds for our church had been achieved. Many thanks to Ruth and to Eunice who were on hand to dish up scouse and foot massages respectively for our weary walkers (and I think even Kevin managed to get a foot massage after a hard day of driving the van!) 

In all, I think everyone who participated had a great day, and I look forward to us making this a regular fund raising event. Speaking of which, I shall be more than happy to relieve any readers of their sponsorship money if they didn’t get round to sponsoring anyone. All sponsorship gratefully received will go towards church funds and I will report back as to the final total in next month’s Newslink.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us in this event.

Leo Appleton