Walk along the River Lune - Part 2

Today I went with my dad on the second part of our walk along the River Lune. This time it was Lancaster to Caton, about 5 miles. The problem with doing a one way walk is how to get back, and so I looked up the bus times back from Caton. They were once an hour on a Sunday, 9.49am and every hour after that. So I arranged to meet my dad at my house in Lancaster, to start walking by 10am. I thought this would give us plenty of time to walk and catch the 11.49am bus.

The weather was nice, hazy sunshine and clouds but very warm. For the first 40 minutes or so I was in familiar territory, all the way up to Skerton Weir, and after that it was all new. Also after Skerton Weir, the river mud and silt disappeared, and the water became clear. We saw a couple of chaffinches, as well as an oystercatcher and a couple of female grouse or pheasant. My dad spotted some Coltsfoot (yellow dandelion-like flowers) which he hasn't seem since his days in Bolton, more than 35 years ago, where they were the first sign of Spring. We also saw Lesser Celandines (fanned out buttercups) and some wood anemones (European), lovely white early Spring flowers. It was nice, spotting the flowers especially as my dad could identify them all (though he claimed it was just luck, and did call the wood anemones acanites which my mum later laughed at him for). Flowers are something I used to know something about, but tend to overlook these days. Didn't think about what trees there were, there were a lot along the path, but were not in leaf yet. It will be easy to identify them next time we walk when the leaves will be out.

We didn't see many boats, but did see a small sail boat in Lancaster with a St George's cross flag, and a couple of speedboat/jet-ski boats. Also saw a longboat being rowed upstream (like the ones in the Oxford/Cambridge boat race).

There was some lovely river scenes past Skerton Weir, and some lovely houses on the other side of the river, including a farm by the river with what looked like a cave carved out of the rock. We missed the Lancaster Aqueduct, but crossed another aqueduct later on. We passed by Halton railway station, disused for several decades at least.

We also passed by Crook O'Lune picnic site, though we didn't stop. By this point we realised that I'd been a bit optimistic about how long it would take. We stopped a couple of times to ask other walkers how long it would take to get to Caton and realised we were going to be cutting it close, though when we saw people pushing babies in prams along the cycle path we knew it must be close. Just after we turned off the path, we saw the strangest and most humble looking Catholic Church I've ever seen, a small squat stone building which was an old storehouse. I think of Catholic churches as grand, purpose built buildings with magnificent stained glass etc etc.

We didn't have time to stop in Caton, but it looks a pretty village. It's been around since Saxon times and was called 'Catun' in the domesday book. Following the introduction of water power, Caton became quite industrial with 8 working mills at one time. According to my 'Walking Down the Lune' book (useful, but going in the opposite direction to us, which is confusing), orphaned children used to be sent from Liverpool to work in the mills in Caton, accounting for upto half the workforce at one time (that's 75 children). They were indentured servants, which reminds me of immigrants to America, and makes me wonder what happened to them after their terms of service were up. Did they go back to Liverpool, travel elsewhere or stay and make a home for themselves in Caton or nearby Lancaster?

Apparently the Romans are known to have passed through Caton too, and a Hadrianic milestone has been found, now in the Lancaster City Museum. Will have to go look sometime.

We got to the bus stop with about 3 or 4 minutes to spare, and my dad immediately struck up conversation with an old lady at the bus stop, asking her questions she didn't know the answers to (How much is the bus fare to Lancaster? A: I don't know I have a pass. Oh I really should get one at some point, my wife keeps telling me to, never got around to it. And: Where is the Methodist church? [he had been many years before]. The lady then revealed she was a visitor and although she came her often, she didn't know for sure!).

The bus driver drove like a maniac and shouted at other people in cars that passed ('What do you think you are playing at mate?'). There was spilt water and coffee on the journey back, and sore teeth from where my water bottle had jammed into my mouth after a particularly sudden application of the breaks. It was a rare experience for both of us, having neither been on a bus for a long time. We passed through Halton on the way back, which was a nice looking suburb of Lancaster, a couple of miles out.

Overall, a lovely walk, much nicer than the first one, partly because it was warmer and sunnier, with more spring growth, but also because the river is prettier and more rural than the first leg of the journey between Glasson Dock and Lancaster. It was lovely walking with my dad, as always, and we agreed that it was much nicer doing a long walk in spaced out stages rather than all on consecutive days, as it allows more for reflection and enjoyment.

The next leg is probably Caton to Hornby, hopefully in the next few weeks.