WTC Ways Day 1 Hessle to North Newbold

Distance: 18 miles
Ascent: 650m
Weather: very windy, chilly
Critters: Deer, squirrel, pheasant, multiple bunnies, moorhens.
Flowers: Campion, wild garlic, bottle brush grass stuff with seeds round, bluebells, borage, orchid.

Rough winds did shake the darling buds of May today, but thankfully nothing landed on our heads. There were some quite big branches fallen and sizeable chunks of tree could be heard coming down as we walked through woodland. Out in the wind it was pretty cold at times, but when the sun (and we were sheltered) came out a bit in the afternoon it was quite warm.

After leaving the Inn, we met up with the Yorkshire Wolds Way by a gert big roundabout over the A63, the pavement alongside the main road was busy and the spray from the lorries didn't make for a particularly pleasant start. But soon we were away from roads and into woodland and fields, with much wildlife and sticky mud. A deer presented itself very early on, hopefully a good sign.

We took a short detour into Brantingham around lunchtime in the hope that the pub would be open, but despite the sign proclaiming 'open all day' and how many awards the restaurant had won, it was shut for refurbishment. So we had a sit on a bench next to the duck pond and had our sandwiches. There were a few ducks and a moorhen and a couple of coal tits feeding their young; they'd nested in the wall behind our bench and we had a good view of them, but they were too fast for my photography skills. Photos of walls are quite dull.

Leaving Brantingham we walked along a lane passed a pretty church and a restored sheepwash. It seems everyone loves a sheepwash. We turned off the lane and headed up a path by the side of Woo Dale.
The rain held off and it was mostly dry underfoot, which was good, especially in the woods where a giant caterpillar wood cutting vehicle had been driven through and churned the path up. Leaving the woods, we followed a grassy vale with many sheep, then left the YWW to cross some fields into North Newbald and the Gnu Inn (there's a beer festival across the road tonight, but I think 2 pints of Black Sheep will be my lot.)