Another shortish day today and a shorter one still tomorrow, then a long haul into York for our rest day. We retrace our steps for a little way out of South Cave then climb back up onto the wolds’ scarp. We reach a small woodland at the top and there is finally a welcome sign and an open woodland as we rejoin the Yorkshire WoldsWay for the rest of the day.
It has rained quite heavily here overnight and there is now mizzle coming down: what is known as a ‘soft’ day in the north. The vegetation here is significantly lusher than further south. The damper conditions sometimes make the going a bit greasy but generally the ground here is spongier and so better to walk on. There are none of the crazy paving cracks in the earth that have characterised South Lincolnshire and Norfolk since May.
We go down a hill and up the other side and the prohibitive signs have restarted. There are fewer though, and the barbed wire atop the fences is now only single-layered. The paths are also very well maintained by the landowners.
There is no traffic noise today and the landscape gradually becomes more remote. We pass through another beautiful deciduous woodland wending a path up and down to an extraordinary kissing gate. The gate has two full size gated sections, presumably to provide a kissing gate for horses and bicycles, though I can’t see many horses liking it much. As we approach, a hen pheasant appears to be confused and stuck in the gate system, but she quickly locates the exit as we arrive. We pass through and onto another path climbing a forested slope.
As we ascend, we hear a cluttering and clanking behind us and a cyclist soon comes up behind us. It sounded as if he had a bit of a struggle with the gate, but he soon goes back past us to face it again. At the summit, we look towards York, but can’t see the Minster, probably because of the weather and the fact it is so far away. We pass through the valley amongst a flock of sheep, many of whom are lying in the path exhibiting rather unovine behaviour, as they do not run away and expect us to walk around them.
Suddenly, there is a series of unusual bird cries from the trees on the hill next to us. A large bird of prey appears and flies a short way along the valley before attaining another perch and calling again. A quick check of the call and the territory on the internet later confirms that this is a rare summer visitor and a first sighting, even for Rich. Amazingly, it is a honey buzzard. Honey buzzards don’t eat honey and are not buzzards. They eat bee, or more commonly wasp, larvae and are more closely related to kites than buzzards. It is an incredible sight.
We go up another of the interlocking spurs and stop for lunch and a nap as the rain has now stopped. As we descend gently towards our destination, we finally catch sight of York Minster. It looks a very long way away.
Our route plan feels very different from other long distance walks we have done. Usually, there are only a maximum of twelve days to do an almost 200 mile walk within my annual leave allowance. That’s a bit like doing one of our fortnights on call. You can eat junk food, lose sleep and twist your back operating, knowing that there will be plenty of time to recover afterwards. This journey is more akin to our elective weeks, with some busy and other quiet days and regular weekend rests. It needs to be like this so we can keep it up for eleven weeks.
We arrive before 4pm in Market Weighton and buy our longed for ice-creams in Morrisons before checking into The Londesborough Arms for the night.
Total distance so far: 192 miles