...nothing but footprints

On a bright and frosty morning in early February we decided to revisit the Yorkshire Wolds.  There had been a fall of snow earlier in the week which had mostly melted away from the lower ground but was still laying quite thickly up on the North York Moors.  Anticipating a lighter covering on the Wolds, we wrapped up warmly and drove out to the village of Thixendale. The roads approaching the village were unsalted and very icy in places, particularly in the valley bottoms where the shadows of the hillsides had kept the sunlight at bay.  I had plotted a route out of the village following the Yorkshire Wolds Way to begin with before turning to follow the route of the Centenary Way in a large arc, eventually to rejoin the Yorkshire Wolds Way again for the return to Thixendale.  I believed our route was to be approximately 12 miles in length, which allowed us plenty of time to get back to the car before darkness fell, at around 6 p.m. We had only taken a few short steps...

All the festivities and over-indulgences of the Christmas and New Year period had left us with the feeling that we were overdue a good long walk.  Prior to Christmas I had continued to lose weight, totalling over a stone and a half since August.  Inevitably though a few of those lost pounds had crept (or perhaps I should say leapt) back on, leaving me with a somewhat sluggish, torpid feeling which I didn't like at all.  It was high time we got back to sensible eating and long walks! We decided to start the year with a level walk and, after scouring my map collection I came up with what looked like the perfect route - a nice steady circuit of ten miles at the foot of the Yorkshire Wolds, alongside the Pocklington Canal. It was an overcast day with an icy cold wind gusting straight out of the north as we drove out to the little market town of Pocklington in East Yorkshire.  Our walk began from a small car park at Canal Head, by the side of the A1079 York to Hull ro...

As much as I'd like to be able to, I can't go walking in the Lake District every week.  It's just a little too far to travel there and back in a day.  And the Yorkshire Dales, whilst closer to home, also entails just a little too much travel time to make regular walking there feasible, particularly as the hours of daylight decrease.  Although we seem to favour the North York Moors for most of our weekend walks, the Yorkshire Wolds occasionally provide us with a contrasting alternative.  In mid September, on a calm, mild and overcast day, we decided to revisit a section of the Yorkshire Wolds Way, with a circular walk beginning from the village of Settrington, near Malton.  It had been raining heavily when we had walked this section of the Wolds Way, back in May, and the low cloud had robbed us of any kind of a view from the higher ground.  So, although the light was far from crystal clear, I nevertheless hoped to at least catch a glimpse of what we had mis...