A further day's walk in the countryside!!

 

An update on the March walk (or should that be just March, March!!).

Almost two months later Aidan & Bridget revisited the walk I had done with them on 2nd March and Aidan has kindly sent this write up with pictures.

 

First of all, the path we failed to find last time. The excuse must be that the herbicide was only applied since we were there, but it might be that we were expecting the path to follow a field boundary. Well, round here the field boundaries, like our navigation, have gone down the Swannee...

 

 

So far so good. But the next field across which we'd failed to find a path had seen a rapid growth in the oil seed rape: ankle-high in early March, now Bridget-high. (It's definitely a right of way on the map. Luckily it should have been harvested by August - we hope!). On the far side we were definitely a distinct shade of yellow!

 

 

Still, we made it to the Ostrich farm. Then, like the Magi, we returned by a different route, round the rape crop rather than through it, back to the car at South Hiendley. Time for a brief rest by the pond before moving on to the Brown Cow at High Ackworth for lunch.

 

 

After a good lunch and a pint of bitter (hurrah, it's not Lent this time) we set out to walk on from where we stopped on the previous exploration. A simple walk, which even seemed familiar from the number of times we've driven adjacent roads, to St Stephen's at East Hardwick. Bridget was disappointed to find that the horses she had seen in the distance, and for whom she'd picked grass, were not accessible from the public path.

 

 

It's an area where the local stone - quite soft, evidenced by the way the weather has worn it - is widely used. It's nice to see this path without its "disease precautions - closed" sign from last year's Foot & Mouth  outbreak.

 

 

On the way back we were determined to get Jules a train picture. We'd crossed the Doncaster - Pontefract line (we think) on the outbound leg, but seen no trains on the shiny tracks deep in the cutting below us. On the way back, too far to run, we heard a north-bound train. So we waited at the bridge for a south-bound train. And what did we see - you guessed it...

 

 

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

 

So we set off back to the car. Hadn't gone far when the south-bound train went through, out of sight, behind us. Sorry Jules.

 

From East Hardwick there's a longish road stretch, which we planned from the car. Then a new route to avoid a busy road. Pleasant walk through Darrington village, and a nice path up the North Yorkshire boundary though a small wooded area. The second half of the path, however, runs between hedges alongside the golf course. Spring having sprung, the hawthorn hedges are sprouting vigorously, and we can only hope that someone trims them before August or it'll be prickly jungle warfare. Bring on Mr Reeve, the one-man demolition squad...