We made it to Piel Island!
Last night I did a bit of googling and discovered that around a low tide, it is possible to walk across to the island over the extensive sands revealed daily between Walney Island and Piel. It is a distance of a mile and a half.
A search of online tide tables told me that today's high tide would be at 9.30am and the low tide would be at 3.30pm. I figured that if we set off from Snab Point on low-lying Walney at 12.30pm we would be okay.
Clint mumbled, "Bloody fools!" as we laced up our boots feeling some trepidation. After all, it's not every day that you walk across tidal sands where several unfortunates were apparently drowned in past decades. Naturally, I did not share that particular tidbit of information with Mrs Pudding before we left.
There was Piel on the horizon like an old man snoring on his back. Mostly the sand was hard and flat but in some places it became softer or undulated and there were seawater puddles and shallow channels to negotiate. Our foot journey felt pretty safe but even so it was good to reach the stony ramp that leads to the old coastguard cottages built in 1875.
Further on there is "The Ship Inn" where the new King of Piel lives but it was closed today. A hundred yards to the south we investigated the ruins of Piel Castle. It was constructed in the middle of the fourteenth century under the instructions of The Abbot of Furness Abbey to protect his prosperous lands on The Furness Peninsula from raiders, pirates and Scottish invaders.
Shirley and I were the only visitors. After our exploration, we sat upon the pebbly beach for a little picnic and drank cold water from our flasks. And there was a handful of sweet brambles I had just picked from the dense briars that grow in the shadows of that evocative castle with its unremembered stories.
I would have stayed longer but Shirley was anxious to plod back across the sands before the ocean rolled back to claim us.
It felt so good to be there on the tiny speck of land that is Piel and I am happy that we made it today because otherwise it would have gnawed at me until returning at some time in the near future.
And ye, men shall remember yon day that the Isle of Piel yielded to Pudding the Conqueror and let it be proclaimed to history that he cameth in peace and had a nice picnic on the beach.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that your ladyship.
DeleteHa! What a wonderful day!
ReplyDeleteZome dayz are diamondz Zean.
DeleteAh, fresh supply needed. A pleasure to be at your service, dear Neil:
DeleteSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS ssssssssssssssssssssss SSSSSSSSSS sssssssss
;-) The peace of the night!
YP, I fear my mind is going. Could you email me (again) at ndakotan.taylor77@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteOkay I will do it soon Bruce.
DeleteBless my soul !
ReplyDeleteCoastguard Cottages could be the setting of a novel by James Hanley or a short tale by Robert Aickman.
Sitting there of a night before an sycamore fire, I would have Harriet Walter read The Weir of Hermiston to me.
By candlelight, over a glass of Madeira.
Delighted you and Shirley made it to Piel Island.
I shall see that jellyfish tonight in my dreams, instead of Harriet Walter, alas.
Haggerty
I don't think it is possible for a man to have intimate relations with a dead jellyfish.
DeleteJellyfish don't have brains, according to marine biologists, so I have always felt a passing kinship with them.
DeleteMy skills extend no further than reading, grinding coffee beans and dodging drunks in my native city who mistake me for Christopher Lee.
Now squids are brainy for they are studied by neurocognitive scientists.
*Proust and the Squid* a book by Maryanne Wolf.
I have not read it but there is an online summary on Good Reads.
BBC's Science Focus magazine (September) reports on Saturn's moon.
Titan, as we have named it, has a nitrogen-rich atmosphere like Earth.
Its lakes are filled not with water but liquid methane and ethane.
So no jellyfish or squid on Titan, I'm afraid.
Let us cherish our coastal waters and teach children to do so too.
Haggerty
Clint would have something to complain about if you drove him across the sand. I was hoping for 'If only we had set off to return to the mainland twenty minutes earlier...'.
ReplyDeleteBoo hoo! I never thought you could be so wicked Andrew!
DeleteTerrific! Where there is a will, there is a way.
ReplyDeleteMostly.
With no ferry fees, we saved ourselves a few dollars too!
DeleteInteresting with lots of conflict in your story. I was hoping you would make it.
ReplyDeleteI live to blog again Sir Redness!
DeleteYou are tenacious once you've set your mind to something, arent' you? Glad it worked out and especially glad that the two of you didn't drown.
ReplyDeleteI might have like to drown myself in the pub Nurse Lily! But as I said, it was closed!
DeleteYou made it! I think I would have done the same. As long as one sticks to the tides timetable, it is perfectly safe. Unlike people and public transport, the coming and going of the Sea is completely reliable.
ReplyDeletePiel seems an enchanted place.
"Enchanted" is a good word for it Meike.
DeleteI would have worried about the tide too. I'm glad you went though, it looks peaceful there.
ReplyDeleteA special place River.
DeleteWhat an adventure . Just like The Famous Five, only two of you.
ReplyDeleteThe Terrible Two... just like you and his lordship!
DeleteThe intrepid Yorkshire Puddling. I am told it is possible to walk across the River Humber at low tide. Perhaps you could try that when you are back.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you want me dead you bounder!
DeleteI'm only 4 feet deep at low tide.
DeleteThat was an unexpected treat - and how pleasant to be the only visitors. You had a good walk too!
ReplyDeleteCan only agree with Shirley that, interesting though Piel Island was, I wouldn't have wanted to hang around for too long either, just in case the tide decided to come in early!
All lives end Carol so why not surrender to the incoming tide?
DeletePostcard like photographs. Glad you made it to the island.
ReplyDeleteIt was a magical walk Dave.
DeleteI remember seeing the King at his 'coronation'. I believe the honour falls on every new publican.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the new king was crowned just this year. His palace is "The Ship Inn".
DeleteWhat a neat adventure, at least you didn't get stranded until the next high tide
ReplyDeleteSensibly we set off back long before the nadir of the low tide.
DeleteThat first picture is exquisite! I would have probably been too much of a worry wort to try something like that.
ReplyDeleteYou WERE brave. I'd have been worried the tide was coming in.
ReplyDeleteThe weather and tides cooperated with you. Looks like a great adventure, Neil!
ReplyDeleteIt reminds me of the Lindisfarne causeway. My family owned the first hotel on that island and used to ferry people over the sands in horse and cart and later in a motorised charabanc
ReplyDelete