Another beautiful days riding ahead!

I was woken once more by the announcement about vacating the cabins and returning your keys; to be honest I could have stayed there for another couple of hours easily. Even snoozing for a couple of minutes was soon broken up by the announcement that the restaurant was open for breakfast. So I reluctantly got out of bed and got my gear sorted.

On reaching the restaurant there was a fairly large queue waiting to be seated, luckily being on my own, I was shown through to the Road Kings part of the restaurant where I dumped my gear and went through to get a plate of bacon and toast and a mug of tea, sitting down I could see through the windows our slow but steady progress up the Mersey to the pontoons at 12 Quays.

Whilst waiting to go down to the bike I was met by two other couples waiting to go down to their bikes, they were off to Donnington Park for the Superbike racing, I was off North towards Scotland, how far would I get?

I had the same problem as when disembarking in Belfast, my bloody tank bag. I have a replacement baseplate on order, but it is always a problem trying to get a spare part from a manufacturer in another country when all they really want to ship to the distributor is full sets. So once again I strapped it on to the rear seat and stopped in the car park to fiddle about with it, I had found one trick which meant using a very threatening camping knife I have in my kit, but it is not something I would feel safe pulling out in public. By the time I had finally got it sorted I was the last to leave the docks once again.

My first stop was a bit out of the way but all the same it was worth doing it for the photo and the personal history, I pulled into the Woodside Ferry and Bus terminal. It has been joined earlier this year with the opening of the U-Boat museum.

It used to be part of a Historic Naval vessels museum that was based in Birkenhead Docks near 12 Quays but it had to move when the trust running the museum went out of business in 2006.

The German type IXC/40 long range attack submarine was sunk by Allied forces in 1945. She is the only U-boat to have been recovered after being sunk by the Allies.

Commissioned on 23rd December 1942, the U-534 had not sunk any ships by the time she was spotted by a British Liberator while sailing in the Kattegat, Denmark on 5th May 1945. The Liberator attacked and promptly sank her with ten depth charges. There were 49 survivors. Forty eight years later, in 1993, she was raised by a Danish consortium, with the ceremony being witnessed by her own surviving crew and those of the Liberator who sank her.

A little further on I passed the now rejuvenated Cammell Laird Shipyard. The ship repair and conversion company left the Birkenhead site seven years ago after going into receivership. A group of Cammell Laird's former management team built up a new company at the shipyard - and have now revived the Cammell Laird name. This is a great piece of news for me, given a family connection, my Father was a Master Welder at the yard and welded the Keel plate on the famous Ark Royal of the TV Series Sailing when she was originally laid down at the yard in 1943 and finally launched in 1950, when she entered service she was the Worlds first Aircraft carrier with an angled deck, beating the USS Forrestal by nine months.

Between 1829 and 1947, over 1,100 vessels of all kinds were launched from the Cammell Laird slipways into the River Mersey. Among the many famous ships made by the companies were the world's first steel ship, the Ma Roberts, built in 1858 for Dr. Livingstone's Zambezi expedition, Cunard's second Mauretania of 1939, and the first all-welded ship, the Fullagar built in 1920.

The Company was nationalised along with the rest of the British shipbuilding industry as British Shipbuilders in 1977. In 1986, it returned to the private sector as part of VSEL another of the nationalised companies. VSEL and Cammell Laird were the only British shipyards capable of production of nuclear submarines. In 1993, it completed HMS Unicorn (S43) – now HMCS Windsor (SSK 877) – that to this day that is the last ship completed at the yard.

After experiencing financial difficulties, partly due to the failure of a £50 million cruise ship contract with Costa Crociere, the company was forced to enter receivership, and the Birkenhead, Teesside and Tyneside shipyards were subsequently acquired by the A&P Shiprepair Group during 2001. A&P sold the 140-acre (0.57 km2) Birkenhead site to Northwestern Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders in 2005, The Cammell Laird brand continued in use through the Royal Dockyard facility in Gibraltar, which was acquired through a management buy-out in 2001.

Peel Holdings purchased the Cammell Laird shipyard, in January 2007, to facilitate the proposed Wirral Waters development and it was announced that the current occupiers of Cammell Laird Dock, Northwestern Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders had acquired the rights to the name. On 17 November 2008 Northwestern Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders officially renamed itself Cammell Laird, stating that recent economic success made the time right, and that "Cammell Laird is an internationally recognised brand which carries tremendous goodwill when bidding for contracts."

In February 2008 it was announced that the company had won a £28m Ministry of Defence contract to overhaul the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship RFA Fort Rosalie.

At this time of the morning just after 7.00am there was very little traffic on the road and I headed off through Bromborough and through Eastham before going down the old Ferry Road, Eastham used to be a very important crossing point on the Mersey for a long time and a former owner of the Ferry and the Hotel that also carried it’s name open a Pleasure Garden to attract more users of the ferry. Eastham also grew in importance when it became the entrance port to the Manchester Ship Canal. The canal was opened by Queen Victoria in 1894 Eastham Ferry was known as the 'Richmond of the Mersey', but its popularity declined and the last ferry crossing took place in 1929. The Pleasure Gardens, Iron pier and Jubilee Arch were later dismantled. The area around the hotel and ferry pier now form Eastham Country Park. It was then down a back lane through the centre of one of the many Oil Terminals in this area, before getting on to North Road which takes you along behind the Vauxhall, Ellesmere Port plant, the interesting point about this road is that it used to be a perimeter road around my next ex-airfield.

RAF Hooton Park (32) I wouldn’t normally have spent so much time researching these details however it does have a significant historic past. Originally built for the Royal Flying Corps in 1917 as a training aerodrome for pilots in World War I. During the early/mid 1930s, it was one of the two airfields (with Liverpool Speke) handling scheduled services for the Merseyside region. Hooton Park was home to No. 610 (County of Chester) Squadron and, post WW2, to No. 611 (West Lancashire) and No. 663 (AOP) Squadron.

The aerodrome closed in 1957 after the disbandment of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, but the three pairs of Belfast Truss hangars, erected in 1917, have survived the closure.

War was declared on 4 August 1914 and the British War Department requisitioned the Hooton Park estate for use as an army training ground. The hall became a headquarters, hospital, and officers’ mess. Lord Derby recruited the first Pals regiments and Hooton became the training ground for the 18th Battalion of the Kings Liverpool Rifles. They left for France and fought in the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916.

Hooton Park then became the No.4 Training Depot Station. The Royal Flying Corps moved in to form the fighter squadrons so badly needed in France using Sopwith Scouts, Sopwith Dolphins and Avro 504s. Some of the pilots killed in training accidents were buried in the local churchyard at nearby Eastham. A large number of American and Canadian pilots were also trained at Hooton Park.

On April 1, 1918, the Royal Flying Corps became the Royal Air Force. By the end of the First World War, the 37 aircraft on charge were moved to RAF Sealand and RAF Hooton Park was closed. During the following years the aerodrome reverted to farmland. The hangars were empty and the hall was so damaged by military use it was sold as a redevelopment opportunity and subsequently demolished (although the racecourse and polo ground remained).

The airfield site was purchased by a Mr. G. Dawson, an air enthusiast. In the summer of 1927, the Liverpool Corporation held an air pageant at Hooton as part of its civic week. This show was such a success that the Liverpool and District Aero Club was formed. Dawson allowed the new club to use his aerodrome for a fee. The club became one of the most successful in the country in only twelve months and was the centre for aviation in the north. For three years the aerodrome served as Liverpool’s airport.

Dawson persuaded two RAF engineering officers to resign and set up companies at Hooton – Nicholas Comper, who as the Comper Aircraft Company designed and built the Comper Swift single engined sporting monoplane; and Douglas Pobjoy, who supplied the Pobjoy radial engines. Dawson ran into financial trouble and died in 1933. In the same year, Liverpool Corporation opened Speke airfield across the Mersey as its permanent airport. The flying club subsequently moved there for cheaper hangarage and clubhouse facilities. Comper moved to Heston and closed his company. He died as the result of a practical joke in 1939. Pobjoy went to work for Short Brothers at Rochester, but was killed in a mid air collision in 1946. Despite these setbacks Hooton was still an important aerodrome with many private owners and several small airlines continuing to operate out of it.

In 1935, Martin Hearn, an ex-pilot and -ground engineer and who had previously worked for Cobham’s Flying Circus as a wing walker and aerial trapeze artist, created Martin Hearn Ltd., employing a few mechanics to service the aircraft using the aerodrome. In, 1936 number 610 (County of Chester) Squadron Auxiliary Air Force was formed at Hooton Park. Most of the pilots took private flying lessons to qualify. One person said, "Never have I seen so many Rolls Royce cars in one spot at the same time’ – an indication of the pilots' typical social status. The unit was initially a bomber squadron equipped with Hawker Hind and Hart bombers and Avro Tutor trainers.

In 1939, the squadron took charge of a flight of Hurricanes that were quickly replaced by Mark 1 Spitfires. At the outbreak of the Second World War on September 3, 1939 the squadron was mobilised and sent to RAF Wittering for final training. At the same time, Martin Hearn obtained a contract from the Ministry of Aircraft Production to repair large numbers of Avro Ansons, and later for De Havilland Mosquito fighter-bombers. As No. 7 Aircraft Assembly Unit, the work also included the assembly of various types of American aircraft that used to arrive at the Mersey docks. Aircraft included the Mustang, Lightning and Thunderbolt fighters as well as Boston Havoc and Canadian built Handley Page Hampden bombers and Harvard trainers.

The first helicopters used by the Allies were also assembled and tested at Hooton towards the end of the war. During the war years, Hooton assembled and repaired thousands of aircraft. The RAF operated a flight of Coastal Command Avro Ansons, Tiger Moths and Hornet Moths on anti submarine patrols during 1939 and 1940. No. 11 Radio School and No. 3 General Reconnaissance School flew from the airfield.

In 1941 the grass airfield was transformed to include a 6,000 foot concrete runway – one of the longest in Europe at that time. As aircraft became redundant they were sent from all over the country to No. 100 Sub Storage Site at Hooton to be scrapped. In 1947 Martin Hearn’s company was re-named Aero-Engineering and Marine (Merseyside) and Martin Hearn was no longer connected to it. The engineering company survived until 1955, latterly servicing Canadair Sabre jet fighters for the RCAF.

In 1946 No. 610 Squadron Royal Auxiliary Air Force returned to Hooton Park after valiant war service flying Spitfires in the European theatre. No. 663 (AOP) Squadron was reformed at Hooton Park in 1949 using Auster spotting aircraft. In 1951 No. 610 Squadron received Meteor twin jet fighters and No. 611 Squadron (West Lancashire) relocated from Woodvale to use the longer Hooton runway required for this type of aircraft. The three squadrons operated as R.Aux.AF units from the airfield until all Auxiliary flying squadrons were disbanded in March 1957. At this point the station was closed and all flying ceased at RAF Hooton Park.

The closure of the aerodrome was not the end of the story for Hooton Park as the runways continued to be used by Shell Research for testing cars at high speed. In 1960 the site was purchased by Vauxhall Motors for the construction of a vehicle production plant at Ellesmere Port – the first car to roll off the production line being the Vauxhall Viva.

In the summer of 1986 Hooton opened its gates for two days to host the ’Wheels 86 Transport Extravaganza’. This event was so successful that four other ‘Wheels Shows (’88,’92, ’94 and ’96) were held. Over 80,000 people attended these events and many thousands of pounds were donated to charities from the proceeds. For the first time since 1957 the runways were used. Harrier Jump jets thrilled the crowd and for a few precious hours, cutting edge aviation technology paid homage to this pioneering aviation site. Now people chase down the M53 motorway and have no indication of what went on over the fence for over 40 years.

It was now a case of getting on that Motorway for one junction before going down by Ellesmere Port docks, one part of the Manchester Ship Canal that is still in day to day use, with ships coming and going from the various plants that spin off from the massive Shell Stanlow Refinery. Bypassing the Boat Museum I took Oil Sites Road, having researched the route on the map and a bit of 30 year old experience, I wrongly thought I could make my way through to Ince and Elton unfortunately part way down it I found my way blocked by a Shell Security gate, so I had to retrace my steps and go around, even the Ordnance Survey maps show it as a route through but it turns out to be a private road. Back on to the M53 I took it to the next junction and came off and went along the A5117 up to a junction with the M56 for the run up to the next junction which would take me off along the A557 past the major chemical plants at Weston Point and then into Runcorn.

The Silver Jubilee Bridge crosses the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal at Runcorn Gap between Runcorn and Widnes in Cheshire, England. It is a compression arch suspended-deck bridge (or through arch bridge) which was opened in 1961 and widened in 1975–77. It carries the A533 road and a cantilevered footway. The bridge is a grade II listed building, when ever I look at the bridge it reminds me of ‘Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps’ as it is featured in the initial title shots.

It was then up to Warrington and come back down the road on the other side of the Fiddlers Ferry Power Station. But the following was taken from next to the bridge.

Quickly in and out of Widnes and through Halebank and then Hale before stopping over to check my maps which showed me I had to keep on towards Speke Hall Avenue, which would take me out to the new entrance to Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

Built in part of the grounds of Speke Hall, Liverpool (Speke) Airport (33) as the airport was originally known started scheduled flights in 1930 with a service by Imperial Airways via Barton Aerodrome near Eccles, Manchester, and Birmingham to Croydon Airport near London. However, it was not "officially" opened until the summer of 1933. By the late 1930s, air traffic from Liverpool was beginning to take off with increasing demand for Irish Sea crossings, and a distinctive passenger terminal, control tower and two large aircraft hangars were built.

During World War II, the airport was taken over by the Royal Air Force and known as RAF Speke. Rootes built many bombers in a "shadow factory" here, including Bristol Blenheims and 1,070 Handley Page Halifaxes. Lockheed Aircraft Corporation assembled many types including Hudsons and Mustangs that had been shipped from the United States to Liverpool Docks. The airport was also home to the Merchant Ship Fighter Unit.

On 8 October, 1940, Speke was witness to what is thought to be the fastest air to air combat "kill" in the Battle of Britain and possibly of all time. Flight Lieutenant Denys Gillam took off in his Hawker Hurricane from Speke to be confronted by a Junkers 88 passing across him. As his undercarriage was still retracting he shot the Junkers down, and, along with Alois Vašátko and Josef Stehlík, all of 312 Squadron, was credited with the kill. The moment has been caught in a painting by Robert Taylor called "Fastest Victory".

The city took over control of the airport on 1 January, 1961 and prepared development plans. In 1966, a new 7,500 ft (2,286 m) runway was opened by Prince Philip on a new site to the southeast of the existing airfield. It enabled the airport to be open for business around the clock and is in use to this day. Control of the airport transferred to Merseyside County Council from Liverpool Corporation in the mid 1970s and then, ten years later, to the five Merseyside councils following the abolition of Merseyside County Council. A new modern passenger terminal, adjacent to the runway on the southern airfield site, opened in 1986, and this was followed by the closure of the original 1930s building.

The original terminal building dating from the late 1930s, famously seen on the television footage with its terraces packed with Beatles fans, was left derelict for over a decade after being replaced in 1986. However it has recently been renovated and adapted to become the Crowne Plaza Liverpool John Lennon Airport Hotel, preserving its Grade II listed Art Deco style. The main focus being the DH Rapide on the forecourt.

The former apron of the terminal is also listed and retained in its original condition, although it is no longer connected to the airport or subject to airside access control. It is the home of several aircraft, including BAe Jetstream 41 prototype G-JMAC and Bristol Britannia G-ANCF, preserved by the Jetstream Club.

In 1990 ownership of the airport was privatised, with British Aerospace taking a 76% shareholding in the new company. Subsequently the airport has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Peel Holdings Ltd. In 2000, work on a £42.5 million modern passenger terminal began; tripling its size and passenger capacity, and this development was completed in 2002.

2002 saw the airport being renamed in honour of John Lennon, a founding member of The Beatles, twenty-two years after Lennon's death. A 7 ft (2.1 m) tall bronze statue of the local icon stands overlooking the check-in hall. On the roof is painted the airport's motto, a line from Lennon's song "Imagine": "Above us, only sky". In 2005 the Yellow Submarine, a large-scale work of art, was installed on a traffic island at the entrance to the airport.

Back on the A561 it was down towards the City Centre and after a quick stop in Otterspool by the site of the old Liverpool Garden City site of the 80’s this part of Liverpool was the site of a major regeneration unfortunately when I passed through this time, it obviously didn’t work and is now a still a demolition site behind fences it is really a shame to see what had great hope reduced to a wasteland. When I lived in Chester I heard and read about the plans and now they have come and gone.

I was now close to the Echo Arena and able to take a couple of photo’s but as a life long Evertonian, this is where the new Stadium should have been, never mind the protracted discussions about Kirkby.

What it gave me was the opportunity to take the following photo of the Lagan Viking less than 2 hours after disembarkation.

Then it was a photo of the Cammell Laird shipyard from over the water.

It wasn’t even 8.30am and a lot of people were out on this lovely morning either running or walking their dogs along the front by Albert Dock and the new Echo Arena. I rode off down through the docks towards Crosby and came across the alternative freight route to Belfast. There are no frills on this boat, trailers of all shapes and sizes were being loaded on. One thing that amazed me during this trip was the speed and accuracy that the tugmaster drivers can move 40ft trailers around. The ones I witnessed in Belfast harbour were incredible, with the flick of a lever the drivers seat and control would completely spin around by 180 degrees so the driver that was facing forward pulling a trailer within seconds would be pushing it backwards into place whilst facing in the same direction, when you see 3 or 4 of these operating at the same time it is almost like a well rehearsed ballet.

There didn’t appear to be much accommodation on this vessel, so as I said it would be the no frills service for freight only.

I had to do a U turn a little further along the dock road as one of the old bridges was closed for all traffic; it looked as if it needed some major work doing to it. However I was soon back on the road passing Seaforth Container port and through Waterloo, Brighton-le-Sands before taking The Serpentine to the edge of West Lancs Golf Club. I had made this journey down a dead end route for one major reason.

The Car Park is the main viewing point for ‘Another Place’ by Anthony Gormley. It is an awe inspiring sight on a warm and sunny morning.

Another Place consists of 100 cast-iron, life-size figures spread out along three kilometers of the foreshore, stretching almost one kilometre out to sea. Contractors spent three weeks lifting the figures into place and driving them into the beach on the metre-high foundation piles. The Another Place figures - each one weighing 650 kilos - are made from casts of the artist's own body and are shown at different stages of rising out of the sand, all of them looking out to sea, staring at the horizon in silent expectation. In November 2006 the statues were expected to move to New York but after a successful appeal they will now permanently remain.

It is a strangely moving sight. He did something similar in the City of London in 2007, called Event Horizon where he sited 31 statues around the rooftops all facing towards one of that was placed into the pavement on Waterloo Bridge, outside Haywards Gallery. It was how I first realised that this work was under way, I just looked out in the direction this statue was facing and started spotting others on the tops of buildings all around the skyline.

Then I got a bit lost, I had mapped out a route and with the aid of the Sat Nav was able to find the roads, unfortunately I found that two of them are not much more than overgrown dirt tracks, given the state of my rear tyre and the load I had on, I decided to wimp out and go around Hightown and into Formby to refuel, before coming back on to the A565 to pass the 3rd airfield of the day and my 34th overall. RAF Woodvale. Although constructed as an all-weather night fighter airfield for the defense of Liverpool, it did not open until 7 December 1941. This was just after the Liverpool Blitz, which had peaked in May. Squadrons were brought up from the south of England to 'rest' for short periods, whilst defending Merseyside. 308 (Krakowski) Squadron was the first to arrive, on 12 December 1941, from RAF Northolt. Squadrons were rotated regularly. Several were Polish, including 315 (Dęblinski) Sqn and 317 (Wilenski) Sqn. Spitfire IIs and Vbs were operated by these units. Support units working with all three Services also served there, calibrating anti-aircraft guns and towing targets for the Royal Navy. In April 1945, Woodvale briefly became a Tender for the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm airfield at Burscough, HMS Ringtail, to become HMS Ringtail II. an airfield I didn’t get near unfortunately as it was actually too far from the coast route I took.

After a period of uncertainty, Woodvale reopened on 22 July 1946, when the Spitfire F14's of No. 611 (West Lancashire) Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force, moved here from Liverpool Airport at Speke. The squadron re-equipped with Spitfire F22's in June 1948. Gloster Meteor F4 and T7 jets were flown between 1950 until 9 July 1951. The Squadron moved to RAF Hooton Park, where it remained until its disbandment on 10 March 1957.

No.5 Civilian Anti-Aircraft Co-Operation Unit moved to Woodvale on 1 January 1958, and operated target-towing Meteors until 30 September 1971 when the unit was disbanded.

Since 1971, RAF Woodvale has remained a training station and is currently home to:

• Liverpool University Air Squadron- LUAS moved in from RAF Hooton Park 2 July 1951.
• Manchester and Salford University Air Squadron (then named Manchester University Air Squadron), MASUAS moved in from Manchester's Barton Aerodrome in March 1953.
• 10 Air Experience Flight - 10 AEF was formed at RAF Woodvale 25 August 1958.
• [631 Volunteer Gliding Squadron] - 631 VGS moved in from RAF Sealand in March 2006.
• Merseyside Police Air Support Group - MPASG.

Shortly after the airfield I turned off down the Coastal Road which takes you down between the dunes and around the back of The Royal Birkdale Golf Club, home of many great Open Championships, to give it the correct title. Then onto Marine drive passed the big Pontins Holiday Camp. I did a quick run along the front beyond the Marine Lake before stopping off for a photo looking back at the pier, before heading back into town to get a cup of tea.

I finally got myself a take away tea from an amusement arcade next to the pier entrance, which actually starts well inland on the land side of the Marine Lake. I had tried a café/restaurant only to find it wasn’t open yet, then, I looked at my watch and saw that it wasn’t even 10.30 yet. There were a number of bikers already there and obviously meeting up ahead of a ‘ride out’ with friends.

After a quick break I was off again and back on to the Marine Drive which looped around and into Crossens then in to Banks before getting onto the A59 for the run up to Higher Penwortham then into Preston on Liverpool Road. Then taking to A583 towards Blackpool before turning off down the A584 through Freckleton and Warton and airfield 4 of the day and (35) overall. In 1940 new runways were built at Warton so that it could act as a "satellite" airfield for the RAF Coastal Command station at Squires Gate airfield in Blackpool.

The airfield was first operated as an air depot of the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II, as thousands of aircraft were processed on their way to active service in Britain, North Africa, the Mediterranean and mainland Europe. It then became an RAF Station.

In 1947, English Electric took over the site moving their design office there from Strand Road Preston in 1948.

With the merger of English Electric Aviation with other aircraft divisions of the major manufacturers it became a British Aircraft Corporation site and then privatised as British Aerospace until its final transformation into BAE Systems. As such the airfield has been the testing ground for several front line aircraft including the Canberra, the Lightning, the Panavia Tornado and BAE Hawk (formerly the Hawker Siddeley Hawk) and most latterly the Eurofighter Typhoon. I remember visiting the site in the 1980’s when I was selling CAD and graphics systems.

Carrying on down the A584 I entered Lytham through east Beach. Central Beach and then West Beach, following a line of Minis all of which were on the way to Blackpool. If you remember a few posts ago during May this crowd had their ‘Run to the Sun’ in Newquay, now they were all off to Blackpool. I filtered my way through before pulling into the car park at the end of Church Road to be met with the following sight; thankfully I was able to feed my bike through the vehicles to be able to tae the following photo.

The guy in the hard hat is the local councillor John Coombes and the gentleman with the grey hair to his right Flt Lt Peter Brearley DFC, Spitfire pilot. The whole appeal was about the brainchild of Fylde Borough Council Leader John Coombes. The fund hopes to raise £39,000 for the production of the Lytham St Annes Spitfire W3644. The scale replica model will be exact in every detail with the original aircraft carrying the 19 Squadron RAF markings and the name of Lytham St Annes. The Mark Vb Spitfire W3644 which was shot down over Start Point in 1942.

What they want to recreate is as follows, based on a roundabout on the outskirts of Lytham St Annes.

This would be done in conjunction with Gateguardsuk.com, I would really like to travel up to the opening when it comes about. I had mentioned the base for Gateguards UK in a previous posting.

It was a real pleasure over for a short time, take a couple of photos and buy a collection of postcards but I was desperate for one thing, to find a Gents and thankfully I found that a little further on at Fairhaven Lake. What I thought would be a very quick stop turned out a bit longer as on my return to the bike, I was met by a couple admiring it. It turns out he had ridden down to L’Agulhas which is the Southern most part of South Africa, next stop being the South Pole.

It was really great to talk to him and his wife, however it did as always add time to my day, during my ride I now have to allow time for this, each and every day someone wants to come and chat for a while, which don’t get me wrong is wonderful as long as I get the message about the Charity over. Back on the A584 I headed off to experience the lights of Blackpool in broad daylight, however on my way I passed Airfield (36) Blackpool Airport or the former RAF Squires Gate. The airport site's first aviation use was in October 1909, when the UK's first official public Flying Meeting was held on a specially laid out site at Squires Gate, followed by another in 1910. By 1911 the site had become a racecourse and it was used as a military hospital during World War I and until 1924. Flights from the site resumed in the early 1930s. Small UK airlines used the airfield during the mid 1930s. Railway Air Services commenced schedules to Blackpool from 15 April 1935, linking the airport with the Isle of Man, Manchester and Liverpool. Connections could be made at the two cities to London and the south and west of England. In June 1937, airline operations were transferred to Stanley Park Aerodrome.

Work on enlarging and improving the airfield and facilities began in late 1937, but the aerodrome was requisitioned by the Air Ministry in 1938. During World War II, Vickers operated an aircraft production facility at Squires Gate, producing 2,584 Wellington Medium bombers, several hundred of which were assembled and flown from Stanley Park Aerodrome (I didn’t get anywhere near this as it is a few miles inland and now the home of Blackpool Zoo.) Three bituminous runways were laid to support operations by Vickers and the based units of the Royal Air Force.

Scheduled flights were resumed by Isle of Man Air Services in summer 1946. Lancashire Aircraft Corporation and other private airlines established their bases at the airport from 1946 onwards. By 1949, the airfield was controlled by the Ministry of Civil Aviation and renamed Blackpool Airport. In the mid 1950s, Hawker Hunter jet fighters were produced in the WW2 factory at the north-east edge of the airfield.

Until January 2006 an Avro Vulcan bomber (Registration: XL391) was on static display outside the entrance to the airport, it was originally put up for sale in October 2004 on eBay and purchased by pub landlord Chris Ollerenshaw for £15,102.03 who had intentions to transport it to his pub and display it in his beer garden. However after finding out that the condition of the aircraft was so poor that moving it would be extremely challenging and that it would cost over £20,000 in addition to the reported £1000 a week storage charge, Mr. Ollernshaw pulled out of the deal and demanded his money back and later relinquished ownership of the plane back to the airport. It’s a shame when something like this happens and being someone who donated to get the last flying Vulcan back in the air, I am glad there is a least one of them left. Believe me if you get chance to see a Vulcan at an air show, GO it is a must, it is the most awe inspiring sight you will ever see, I remember an open day when I was still in the RAF when I saw one of these climb to 5,000 ft almost vertical from take off, just stood on it’s tail before rolling out to level.

In recent years the airport has been steadily expanding, accommodating helicopter operations for British Gas, and attracting scheduled flights from budget airlines, Jet2.com and Ryanair and also scheduled services by smaller operators to the Isle of Man. Since World War II, the airport has also been a thriving centre for private, club and general aviation.

Back to the ride I stayed on the A584 or had planned to until I was directed off around the back streets due to the promenade being closed so they could hold a Classic Vehicles Rally, although I was interested I didn’t stop and pushed on to just before the Tower, in amongst all the noise and the lights of the amusement arcades I stopped for the following photo.

Even here I was stopped by a couple of interested passers by. Fellow bikers who had owned an Africa Twin in the past and was keen to find out what I had done to mine.

I didn’t stop for long for the obvious reasons the traffic was manic and I was about to get shouted at by one of the carriage drivers, as I was actually stopped in a bay for the Horse Carriages, that charge a fortune to take you through this vehicle fumed ‘pleasure ride’ I could only feel sorry for the horses.

It looked really grey but it actually wasn’t that bad, the good weather seemed to be following me up the coast, further up and through North Shore and then turned off at Bispham onto the A587 and then off along on to the Sea Wall which took me all the way around and into Fleetwood where I got diverted once again due to festivals near the docks, I didn’t stop long as it was getting close to Lunch for me anyway, that and my back side was aching, I wanted to get something to eat and drink and get off the bike for a while, thought I had done enough to get an hours snooze in some nice layby and after keeping as close as possible to the Fylde Estuary as possible I finally pulled into a service station with an attached Spar store just outside Thornton before crossing over and then through Staynall and eventually into Knott End-on-Sea overlooking the ferry crossing back to Fleetwood.

It was actually a lot brighter than this photo makes you think. There were a number of bikes in this car park enjoying an ice cream from the local café I set myself down on the earth bank and ate the meat and potato pie I had bought a few miles before. And just as I was laying back to rest my body and hopefully catch a few ZZZd’s IT arrived.

A couple appeared on a mobile juke box, shorts, shades and no idea, unfortunately it park right next to my bike, thanks to it’s reverse gear. God knows where they came from but she appeared in the car park accompanying the soundtrack from one of the 50/60’s rock and roll compilations, yeah right!.

They went off to get an ice cream and rediscover their youth walking hand in hand, nothing wrong in that, but if you are going to turn up emulating bikers, Turn up on a BIKE not a Reliant Robin.

The amount of cooing I heard about this wonderful machine was almost making me sick. They had turned up on a Honda Gaywing (sorry Goldwing) but what made it worse, it was a bloody Trike. Reliant Robin’s were built for people that couldn’t drive a car; Gaywing Trikes were built for those who couldn’t ride a bike.

If I remember rightly from when I was a toddler, Trikes are there for those that can’t ride bikes, before being taught by their dads what two wheels is all about. Admittedly I have seen a few for bikers that have been injured or born with physical limitations that don’t allow them to ride a bike, fair enough but this couple were out and out posers and each an every time someone made a comment whilst I was snoozing, I felt like shouting out like Brian Connelly in his ‘It’s a puppet’ sketch. ‘IT’S a RELIANT ROBIN’. Sorry I have a particular issue with this bike, despite riding Dougal’s maniac machine. Which was a 1200 GoldWing fitted with a Kawasaki front end and knobbly tyres for off road use, that was crazy but whilst competing in the Coast to Coast Challenge a few years ago, I along with at least 10 CARS, were held up by four GoldWings playing there stereos full blast at 30 mph in The Lakes, get a life!!.

After the chattering I got back under way feeling an awful lot better and much refreshed, I ended up on the A588, which tool me via a number of small villages before turning off on the B5290 towards Glasson Dock, I’d heard about this place and there were a lot more bikers there but it was a beautiful location the sun had fully come out and I was held up by a couple of yachts going the lock system out to sea.

After the brief imposed halt whilst the road was closed for these two beautiful yachts to get through I went for a quick loop around Glasson before going back to condor Green to get on the A588 into Lancaster, then initially on the A683 towards Heysham before turning off and going through Heaton, Overton and Middleton before entering Heysham, passing by Heysham Golf Club, it looked a lovely layout but I could help think about the overpowering view of the two Nuclear Power stations and the mass of power lines that ran across it.

I rode down the entrance road to both the Power Stations and the ferry terminal that runs to both Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man.

Construction of Heysham 1 began in 1970, with the first reactor commencing operations in 1983 and the second reactor following in 1984. However, initial production levels were low, and full commercial operation was only declared in 1989. It is likely to remain in operation until 2014. Its generating capacity is 1150 MWe. The reactors were supplied by National Nuclear Corporation and the turbines by GEC.

Heysham 1 shares its reactor design with Hartlepool power station, which introduced the replaceable pod boiler design. The CEGB specified a compact design for the Heysham 1 and Hartlepool power station reactor islands in comparison to the design of the two preceding stations at Hinkley Point B and Hunterston B in order to reduce the capital cost, but this caused expensive construction delays because of restricted access. The lesson was learned and the Heysham 2 reactor island occupies a much larger footprint than Heysham 1 for a similar design output of power.

Construction of Heysham 2 began in 1979, and the station opened in 1988. Its generating capacity is 1250 MWe, and it is estimated to keep running until at least 2023. Heysham 2 shares its reactor design with Torness nuclear power station and is a development of the reactor design used at Hinkley Point B. The reactors were supplied by National Nuclear Corporation and the turbines by NEI.

What amazed me about these two, is how close they are to the centre of the town and Ferry Terminal, all the others I’ve past on this trip have been down a long entrance road miles from the nearest village never mind town.

Time was still good and just after 3.00pm so it was up through Morecambe on the A589 Marine Rd. at the top end of town are two icons, the first being statue of one of it’s famous son’s Eric Morecambe.

The other I didn’t take a photo of but it is the famous Grade 2 listed Art Deco Jewel. The Midland Hotel, In January 2003 the Midland Hotel was purchased by the Manchester based development company Urban Splash with the intention of restoring it as a hotel.

Nearly two years were spent preparing detailed plans and acquiring the necessary financial resources for the project. In December 2004 Urban Splash announced that, thanks to grants from the Northwest regional Development Agency and English Heritage, £7.2 million of funding had been secured and refurbishment of the Midland could begin. Essential repair work to the fabric of the building was carried out first, and the main programme started in spring 2005. Restoration took over three years to complete and the Midland Hotel finally re-opened for business in June 2008.

Leaving Morecambe on the A5105, you can see how this was once such a thriving resort, it is much smaller and therefore far less tacky than Blackpool that it used to be compared with, I joined the A6 near Bolton-le-Sands and then up to Carnforth before turning off to Millhead and Silverdale. It was starting to get quite narrow and hilly in this area and I had spotted on the Ordnance Survey Map the signs for a couple of Campsites in Silverdale, and was seriously, seriously tempted as my backside was really starting to ache, I had been on the bike for over 10 hrs now and I wanted stop soon.

I then came across the dreaded ‘wife driver’ I really do struggle to understand how people can be so spatially unaware of the size of their car, she was closer to the hedge on my side of the road than she was to hers yet still blamed me for not disappearing over the hedge to get out of her way, even her husband looked sheepish. I pulled over for a rest once I got into Arnside I stopped next to the horse trough and water fountain next to were a number of other bikers had stopped to take in the views over the estuary and the railway line, in the foreground there were two members of the RNLI practising rescues using a jetski and raft towed behind it.

I then had another detailed look at my map and decided I was going to try and make it to Grange-over-Sand and just beyond where it looked as if there were a couple or more Campsite. Through Storth and Sandside before getting back on the A6 at Milnthorpe before coming off again at Levens Hall and on to the A590.

Coming off at Meathop and then into Grange-over-Sands riding through I initially passed the lane that was signposted as the route to my eventual campsite and I pushed on through Allithwaite and into Flookburgh before following the signs for a campsite near a Cark Airfield. When I got there it was one of those Holiday Villages from hell a massive site with clubhouse and entertainment etc. the sort of places that end up being noisy until midnight and beyond, not my sort of place. So I retired back up the road to Flookburgh and passed Airfield (37), Airfields would pass Castles on this leg but would it stay that way when we come to Scotland.
There is not much to say about RAF Cark, it was a small site that was opened in 1941 and closed in 1945 it was used as a navigational and staff pilot training base as well as an anti aircraft cooperation unit, the latter meaning it was a base for aircraft acting as target tugs helping to maintain the training of the Anti Aircraft crews in the area. It is now the base for the North West Parachute Club.

I decided against going on and retraced my steps to Grange over Sands and the sign to the campsite I have passed less than 20 mins ago, I had decide on banking on my luck of finding decent campsites which hadn’t deserted me so far.

With that I pulled into Low Fell Gate Caravan Park. The initial impressions were mixed as apart from a sign there was no indications at all that this place was anymore than a static caravan park however with the steep gravel driveway I didn’t want to try turning around on that I carried on to flatter area I could see at the top of the drive, which turned out to be the area surrounding the toilet block, I parked up and after walking around for 5 mins to try and find a reception area, I then went over to see a couple who ended up being my neighbours for the night, who informed me that they had had the same problem and they told me that they phoned up and actually paid on the following morning. I decided to do the same although I couldn’t get through so I eventually paid up the following morning.

I pitched close to a tree as I had felt a few drops of rain and wanted to create an area to cook by putting the Basha up but that proved to be a challenge in itself as I even toppled the bike over tying the guy ropes between the bike and the tree. Such was the steepness of the slope, in the end the rain didn’t appear and I was able to cook without getting under cover. I had arrive just after 5.30, 11 hrs after starting out. So I was able to get a shower and get myself sorted in reasonable time, which meant I went for a quick walk before finally climbing into my new tent. I had splashed out in the sales and I think it was well worth it.

I had hoped to stay awake long enough to take a picture of Morecambe across the sands, unfortunately as it was the longest weekend of the year in daylight terms I was beaten on that task.

Take care and as Mick says ‘You don’t stop riding when you get old; you stop to have an early night!.