New Years day walk

New Year Walk

What better day to start my new ‘get fit’ campaign than New Year’s Day? So having been collected by Lorelli and picking up Ann on the way we headed off towards Market Weighton.
Being an experienced walker Lorelli quickly sorted out where to start the walk so we could be in Market Weighton for lunch, smart girl – get the priorities right.
A bright but cold & windy day we soon got warmed up as we begun our trek. Within 10 minutes of our walk we hit what would be our companion for a good deal of the walk, namely MUD! Any gardener will tell you that round here we have heavy clay soil which when wet brings heavy sticky mud. All good fun, your boots weigh twice as much. Make sure they’re securely fastened or you might leave them behind in the mud. Leaving the fields behind us we arrived at Goodmanham and continued up the road until we took the turn off the Hudson Way. This is the old Market Weighton to York railway line which is now a bridle path/pathway. We set off in the direction of Market Weighton. We passed one or two other walkers and family groups out for a New Years Day (r)amble and arrived in Market Weighton just on lunch time.
Forward planning is a marvellous thing and fortunately Lorelli had suggested that we might pack up ‘just in case’. Two pubs we tried were not serving food that day so we sat on seats outside to eat our rations and clean our boots, as much as we could, before going in the pub for liquid refreshment. Unfortunately the pub was not serving hot drinks either - would it be too much to boil a kettle, so we had cold drinks, in which the barman put ice cubes! Still it was a nice warm pub to restore us for the next part.
We then set off up the road and picked up the path across fields, yes more mud, towards Londesborough. By now the clouds were gathering and we had one or two short bursts of rain. Eventually we left fields for a quick detour into Londesborough itself. The village started off as the Londesborough Hall estate workers cottages and the present hall is hidden away behind the trees but we passed the lake from the earlier hall. Having a quick look at the church notice board Lorelli saw that one of her college friends would be at the church later in the year which was a nice surprise. We then retraced our steps back on the last lap of our walk. More muddy fields to cross before we finally arrived back at Towthorpe lay-by as the light was fading. We did 7½ miles in about 4 hours so not bad going. The walk was all on the flat so our legs weren’t protesting too much and speaking to my walking companions later in the week none appeared to have suffered any aching limbs. We are already planning more walks possibly along Hessle Foreshore so watch out for more announcements and if you feel like limbering up come along and join us.