Train from New Strand up the Sefton coast to Hightown; then off on a rather glorious walk back to Bootle.
The River Alt snakes through mudflat & sand, finally hitting the Irish Sea as we set boots on a magnificent landscape oddity... 
... the Crosby blitz beach; a 2 mile stretch of rubble cleared from the bombed ruins of Liverpool & Bootle (much from raids in May 1941 when, during one week there were 200 raids, 12,000 houses demolished, & 20,000 folk made homeless). Countering yet subject to erosion, the eroded, exposed 'beach' is weirdly fascinating: brick & concrete; steel reinforcing; massive sandstone & granite blocks; delicate carving; even inscribed tablets, memorials, & headstones.
And then, of course, at Blundellsands we meet Gormley... 100 cast-iron, naked Anthonys have been staring out over the Irish Sea for some 12 years now.
A wonderful thing...
Somewhere during that long sandmarch, quick-mud had a very decent try at eating Jude... struggling & up to the knees, I thought she may have been a goner - didn't even take a photo! She somehow escaped, but it was messy!
Finally, we reached Crosby coastal park, then wended our way through the streets of Seaforth & Bootle, up to the oxters in yucky, cakey dried mud. My wee friend was beside herself... indignant, self-conscious, right fkn grumpy...
... but then there was the Jawbone... Hooray!!
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