Whilst most people were reacquainting their stress levels with rush hour traffic gridlock and abandoned workloads from before Christmas, I was reacquainting my tootsies with The Countryside.
After a 30 minute drive I was parked up opposite the Dacre Arms and wandering through the quiet country lanes of Brandesburton for an easy 4 mile walk, topping out at a whopping 14 metres (OS spot height) at the curiously named Triddles, just off the Frodingham Road.
I took a left turn here along the bridleway behind Plantation Cottages and had a good nosey in everyone’s back gardens (like you do) as I passed by:
The views soon opened out into the parkland of Brandesburton Hall and some weak sunshine made an appearance to mark the occasion:
Although the bridleway goes on for ever, the conditions underfoot are great and perfect for a winter Melliemooch – a stony/gravel/compacted farm type track with very little mud and only the occasional frozen puddle to skirt round. I’d even go so far as to say this “off road” part of the walk was wheelchair and pushchair compatible.
Even when you get round the corner past all the buildings and out into the “real” countryside, the track was still a pleasure to walk on (as opposed to squelch through like a lot of walks can be like at this time of year!) and it’s here you get an idea of the vast flatness of the area I live in. There’s no wonder I struggle as soon as there’s a hill in front of me
:
Nevertheless, it beats being sat behind a desk in an office all day
Towards the end of the bridleway the first of the flooded sand/gravel pits makes appearance. Sadly, there’s no legal
access to it so I had to take this pic of the 2 swans from across the drainage ditch:
Upon reaching the road at the end, I ignored the turn towards Burshill. It makes me laugh that we have place names with the word “hill” in it round here
:
Beyond Burshill and Baswick is a nature reserve called Tophill Low and I’m plotting and planning a walk which will incorporate that, perhaps in the springtime when the wildlife starts coming back
Continuing down the road, I ignored this sign:
All routes except mine. I did wonder if it meant we were supposed to levitate at that point
Seeing as my levitation technique is a bit rusty, I took a small lane off to the right instead to walk besides the many fishing ponds which have been created from the spoils of a past sand and gravel industry. I was looking for a way in to find a nice spot for my (late) lunch.
Soon enough I found a padlocked, gated entrance … with a grassy trod round the side of it
and through I scooted. After a bit of an explore, I found a gate that wasn’t locked and headed down to one of the fishing pads at the side of the lake.
It was here I was joined by a very bold little fellow. A Robin:
He wanted to share my lunch with me and hopped and fluttered around my feet bold as brass. I can only guess that he’s used to being fed fishing bait because he certainly wasn’t scared of humans… or maybe I’m not human
:
What a treat
He also fed out of my hand but I didn’t get a pic of that.
Anyway, I decided this wasn’t a bad spot for a Brew With A View moment:
Reluctantly I said goodbye to my new feathered friend and left him with some sandwich crumbs and a crushed up brazil nut
Returning back to the lane I continued on past other fishing ponds and a hatchery. The nearer I got to the hatchery, the more “keep out”-ish the signs became. Anyone spot the grammatical error on this sign? :
Not long after this 2 of the fisheries’ 4x4s drove past me – twice, slowing down and taking a good look at me. Now, I’d like to think that this was simply because they were wondering what a fine looking woman like me was doing wandering down a remote country lane late in the afternoon
but it’s more likely they spotted me on the CCTV cameras taking photographs of their signage and gates and wanted to keep tabs on me
Watch out for me on Crimewatch folks
Getting back to civilised civilisation I made use of a nice bench which overlooked the swanky looking golf course and decided my earlier, more illicit seat was much nicer. I don’t “get” golf personally but I can imagine on a nice, sunny day it’d be a nice walk (just a shame you’ve got to thwack a ball around the place to do it
):
And so I returned to my car. Happy to have got out and about in the fresh air. And clocking up another 4 miles for my ViewRanger 250 mile challenge.
My route and some stats (check out my maximum speed
I think it may be fibbing
)
Thanks for reading
Mel