It’s a shortish day today as that was how the accommodation worked out. We have a good Premier Inn breakfast, then head back towards the Humber Bridge for a final time. We descend the steep steps to the estuary foreshore. It rained last night and the leaf litter is slippery on the concrete.
The path begins on the riverside itself, a mixture of sand, pebbles and larger rocks typical of British shorelines and awkward underfoot. As Rich says, you plan the route on the map but as you walk, it’s the two foot circle around you at any one time that matters. The footpath passes between the estuary and the railway line and we see black-headed gulls and a couple of geese on the mudflats. To our relief, the path soon heads up onto a metalled foot way lined by purple buddleias. Buddleias are not native to the UK, but are now ubiquitous as they colonise readily, leading to their nickname of ‘the bomb site plant’ in the 1940s and 50s. It’s particularly common beside railway lines, so no surprise it’s here.
As we approach the end of the path, we spot a pair of curlews and an alarm call as we open a gate is swiftly followed by a group of lapwings flying past. We turn into North Ferriby riverside walk which a notice tells us was created from a landfill site by the local community. It’s certainly lovely now, as is the town of North Ferriby itself where we stock up, again in the Co-op. I never realised before this trip how much the Co-op provides for local communities, with shops that are easily accessible for those who don’t have access to a car.
We then join the Yorkshire Wolds Way. The Yorkshire wolds are a continuation of their Lincolnshire counterparts and, as such, the way again comprises low, steep-slopes hills. Unlike the Lincolnshire wolds and the Viking Way however, the Yorkshire Wolds Way is peppered with a plethora of ‘Danger’, ‘You must’, ‘Private’ and ‘Keep out’ signs. This culminates in a path by a wood trammelled by fences topped with two rows of barbed wire. After the travails of finding lunch yesterday, it’s not exactly welcome to Yorkshire.
We decide to follow a slightly longer route round to escape the traffic noise of the A63 that permeates this otherwise rural area. We soon leave the Yorkshire Wolds Way and find much less proscriptive footpaths. We shelter by some hedgerows from a couple of short, sharp showers and then set off in bright sunshine.
As we go down a quiet road, I catch sight of a bench by the roadside under a hazel tree: a perfect lunch stop. It’s dedicated to the memory of Doug and Nancy Sewell. We don’t know who they are or who commissioned the bench, but we’re very grateful to them, particularly as the ground is damp from the rain.
We enter a wood made up mostly of ash and sycamore with a smattering of beech and hawthorn and are pleased to find there are no restrictions and plenty of paths. This does mean, of course, that we are free to take a perilously steep, slimy path down to the road rather than the waymarked alternative.
We soon rejoin the Yorkshire Wolds Way and the imperative ‘do not’ placards recommence. As we approach a remote, isolated church, there are even ‘no drones’ signs!
We climb another abrupt slope and, at the summit, we can see Whitton Island and where the Trent becomes the Humber through the trees.
We go down again and this time Rich chuckles as we see a ‘no cycles’ sign at the start of a very narrow, steep chalk path. We go up the other side and it’s difficult enough without drones or a bicycle. We can now see the Drax power station clearly from the top, looking somewhat incongruous over the fields and woodland until I discover that it runs primarily on Biomass fuel.
There is one last descent (where I continue my sitting failures by disturbing a red ants’ nest), then we pass what must be one of the most northerly vineyards to enter the small town of South Cave. We go to a Londis in search of ice-cream but the only individual ice-creams they stock are for dogs, so we settle for cold, soft drinks instead. We sit on the Parish Council steps to drink Irn Bru and Diet Coke then amble up to The Fox and Coney Inn, our lovely overnight stop.
Total distance so far: 180 miles