22/09/13 - What's a Hospice?

Distance - 4.5 Miles
Geocaches - 5
Walk from AA 1001 Walks

Last Night
Our final night in Grange-over-Sands and we venture out to see if our Landlord is unjustly pessimistic about his home town.  First off, we use the power of the Internet to work out where to eat. TripAdvisor is a wonderful thing, unless you own the Indian restaurant.  It gets 1 star and frequent comments on the waiters being asleep on the tables.  Chinese it is then.

But first the pub.  The Commodore is a huge rambling place and not as bad as we were led to believe.  It has the cask marque seal of approval, pool table and the footie on.  Couple of pints here before we use Google Maps to walk up and down main street trying to find the Chinese.  Problem solved by asking a man.  Old school navigation is sometimes the best.

Now I am not sure what effect they were going for in the restaurant but the concrete coloured decor gave the place a Stalinist feel.  Sonia also got increasingly freaked out by the robotic cats that were either waving or beckoning.  The food was excellent.

That just left the Keg and Kitchen.  Our landlord was most disparaging about the place, suggesting it should be forceably  closed down.  As Sonia was the only lady in here we thought that maybe it was a Cumbrian gay bar.  It certainly catered for all ages - from teens to pensioners.  We left to get back for the Albion's first victory on MOTD.  Just as a bit of bouncer controlled aggro started.

Today's Walk

After a hearty breakfast - I went full English - Sonia went Rice and Peas, with a Poached Egg on Top, there was much debate on whether to do a walk or not.  The distractors argued that the sooner we left, the sooner we could get everything sorted after a weekend away.  The prowalkers argued that is a beautiful day and we would probably not be here again.  No reflection on the all male bars or behind the iron curtain Chineses, we just need a town with more than two bars.

The blue skies and no need for a jacket condition sealed the deal.  An added bonus is that we can start from the B&B Door.

This means that the early walking is through the houses and all mercilessly uphill.  Sonia suggest there must be a bus service, but it is a Sunday, so unlikely.  Eventually, we hit the countryside at Spring Bank.

All that effort has rewarded us with stunning views of Morecambe Bay.

Bay Views

Cache number 1 is found just as the muggles start to appear.  There appears to be some sort of Octogenarian fun run on, as we have never seen such elderly joggers.  They are putting us to shame.

We are fast reaching the top of Hampsfell.  The terrain, with its limestone pavement is reminiscent of Malham Cove.

Heroic - survivor of the great  Keg and Kitchen dust up

The first views of the the Hospice come into play.  We were told about this at breakfast - built in 1846 by the Vicar of Cartmel to provide shelter for the pilgrims making their way across the bay.

Shelter

On arrival, one of the joggers spends a good 15 minutes telling us the history and encouraging us to go inside to read the poems and to climb on the top and play with the unusual view finder.  As if we were going to come all this way and not.

Use the Numbers on the View Finder to point the Fells.

Superb location

The view finder can also be used to find an offset cache.  A superb idea, as you use the sights to line up the direction you need to count 50 paces towards.  There is an earth cache, where I have to ask for Sonia's opinion on what information is needed.

Then it's all downhill, first on fields (another cache) and then through Eggerslack Woods, for a bit of variety.  Plod our way down and are delivered at the opposite end of town, where a cafe is offering refreshments.  Good job we had Kedgeree for breakfast, the bacon sarnies are £4.50 each.

A quick walk through town, picking up a final micro in the Town Orchard.  A choice about whether to walk back along the road or the promenade was only going to come up with one winner.

A stroll along the Prom

And the answer to the blog title question?  About a gallon.