Kent Viaduct

This is the Kent viaduct as seen from Arnside. If you want to walk across the Bay then you can start from Arnside and you finish at Kents Bank. I did this walk a couple of years ago with Cedric Robinson, the Queen's Guide. As I remember it, the walk took two or three hours as we were shown the safe route across the Bay and in particular the river channels. When we arrived at the railway station we found out that trains were not stopping at Kents Bank and we had to walk a little further to Grange-over-Sands.

It took a couple of minutes to get back to Arnside by train and so we crossed the Kent viaduct. It is 522 yards long and has 50 piers and it saves you a couple of hours walking, although looking at this photo, have some of the children technically almost completed the cross-bay walk? Probably not, and I bet you can't get back that way anyway after completing the walk. I am glad that I did it but I would not do it again. The scenery barely changes in those two or three hours, and the main view of wildlife is on the coasts.

If you want to get a view of the whole viaduct then you have to look along it or use a wide-angled lens. You can't see them on this photo but I have other photos where you can see chains hanging from the piers. I have been told that this is to help people who have been caught by the bore. I actually met someone who had been taken by the bore. She showed me newspaper cuttings of the ordeal. My thoughts are that the real problem would be if you are carried towards the sea rather than upstream into the river but what do I know. I also think that if you have been carried by the bore then you wouldn't be able to stop yourself by grabbing a chain.

The other common fact associated with Arnside bore (or probably any other bore) is that it moves faster than a horse can gallop. Maybe I should have waited for that bore - see yesterday's blog.

Happy snapping