Blackpool to Preston. Day 1

Hello. After eggs and beans on toast, I left Carol's house at 9.15 this morning. She very kindly made a packup for me to eat on the journey. It was a sunny start to the day, and after an hour I had to take my jacket off I was so hot. 

I passed the Windmill at Marsh Mill, there is a little shopping courtyard there with arts and crafts and other shops. Looks nice but I must press on.

I went through Little Thornton, Skippool, Singleton, Thistleton, and Elswick. All on tarmac, mostly minor roads and a short section on the A585, which luckily had a footpath alongside it. I did take one short cut through the fields but wish I hadn't. There was a gate I had to pass through but the ground was like a swamp. I decided to pick up some bricks and lumps of stone to lay some stepping stones. Splat, the mud showered my trousers. Luckily I had a wet wipe so I was able to remove a lot of it.

A pretty art display in the bus shelter. Flowers painted on tiles and stuck on the picture, by school children. 

I saw a lot of Anti Fracking signs all over the place. They must have an active campaign taking place. Yellow signs were all along the grass verges, along with some picture signs like this one.

Oooh look, opportunity for a selfie, ha ha.

On I trekked along a twisty minor road which is part of the National Cycle Network. Through Roseacre and Wharless, and over the top of the M55 . I carried straight on for a couple of miles and turned left towards Preston.

I started thinking about where I might find a bed. There was a Tesco Local store so I called in to get some food to eat in my room. I came to a nice looking small hotel, but at 5pm it was too early to call it a day, I wanted to go a bit further. Then I came to a place I had seen on the internet, but alas it didn't look very nice, so I tried to ring a number for another hotel but after listening to press 1 for weddings, 2 for booking the function room, I gave up and made the decision to head for the city centre where there is a Holiday Inn. Surely they will have a room.

It was 6pm when I found it, and YAY, they have a room. So here I am. The price is fine,I thought it would be more, £65 for B & B, that will do me. They serve breakfast from 6.30am, maybe I won't be that early.

I've checked the mileage, a little over 20 miles today. I have been using the green marker. The pink line is the finish of a previous walk when I walked from Carlisle to Carol's last year.

It stayed dry all day, the clouds came over mid afternoon. It looks like the next few days are going to be mostly dry and sunny, a bit windy, with the odd shower. That will do me. 

My lovely bed for tonight. There is a bath so I am just about to have a soak in that.

I'll see you tomorrow night at maybe Blackburn or Burnley, or somewhere in between. My apologies to the Anon readers, but I am leaving the settings as they are at the moment. It is so much easier not to have to deal with spamming rubbish, it has virtually stopped it.  Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip