Primarily a fast-and-light 100-mile solo training walk of the Yorkshire Wolds Way (YWW), as this national trail is now known, with a continuation along the Headland Walk (HW) to Bridlington. Actually I would call it fast and reasonably light since I had to carry a fair amount of water, being a low level route mainly through small rolling hills and dales of farmland followed by the walk along the coast.
The YWW is essentially a country ramble and not really our kind of walk, and we would not be inclined to invest several days in exploring the fine detail to be found along the way, but it makes a good training route. It consists mainly of farm tracks, field-edge paths and woodland paths with some pleasant and peaceful dales, and my overall lingering impression at the end was one of intensive agriculture:- broad horizons seen over vast crop fields. Beyond this I don’t have much to say about the route and I took only a few photos, I’ll leave the detailed descriptions to others more enamoured of this kind of walking.
The real surprise was how pleasantly quiet this national trail was: on the trail itself I saw less than a dozen walkers in the whole 79 miles.
6 Comments
Quick going Geoff. Training for what?
Not for anything in particular, just… distance and fitness training really!. Our joint backpacks have generally become shorter and more leisurely, it’s good to keep an oar in at the other end.
Hello Geoff. An interesting report and, as you say, very different from your usual routes. It’s not an area I’ve ever walked (though not too far away from me) - by the lack of walkers you met, obviously the same for others. Have driven through and thought it looks interesting. Were you using the Laser Comp? You mention the cliffside pitch, were other places tricky to find?
Yes, it will always be the LaserComp now unless the weather looks wild - that 0.5kg weight difference is most welcome.
Pitches are always tricky in crop-intensive farmland. The main problem is finding a flat spot out of sight where nobody is likely to pass by and there is a lot of luck involved. Sod’s Law applies as usual: you always pass a great spot in the middle of the day!.
over the last few yars I have really sarted to like he Wolds. Some of the Dales around Thixendale and Millington are superb. Inverted walking really you start on the flat tops descend, enjoy, and then climb out.
I agree with you about the lack of walkers. We walked it over a couple of weekends a few years ago and hardly saw anyone.
Get the weather right and definately “a thousand miles of sky”
I think my view is coloured by the many days of ‘country walking’ we did years ago in the Peak District, which we did to death before getting into backpacking the wild places. The dales in the mid section of the YWW are good and incredibly peaceful, I agree, and the weather ensured that I saw the spacious views at their best.
It also makes a very good trail for novice backpackers: short and easy enough to complete in a few days but long enough to give a good flavour of trekking.