Alone Beneath The Sky: Yorkshire Wolds Way #5 - Wintringham to Ganton 06/09/16

10.6 miles, via Deep Dale Plantation, Knapton Plantation, West Heslerton Brow,

East Heslerton Brow, Sherburn (sort of) & Potter Brompton.

National Trail means Selfies!
#5 near Wintringham.

After the longest day on the Wolds Way, the first intermediate rest day of this break doesn't have to be too busy, taking a modest jaunt out to Bempton Cliffs RSPB site, and to Flamborough Head to give us our fill of chalk cliffs, birdlife and lighthouses, not a bad way to spend a day that forgets how to be sunny shortly after lunchtime. Back to the trail on Tuesday, we think, the more modest distance on the Way not requiring the earliest of starts, and the odd tradition of Long Trail walking comes around once again, as regardless of how you divide your days, one day always seems to come out unusually short, but that's not a bad thing when it might come on the most straightforward of the whole bunch. So the Parental Taxi drops me off at 9.50am on the western corner of Wintringham, and having barely seen any of the village last time, we might be seeing even less of it today, as the path skirts the fields to the north, focusing attention on the tree clad hillside to come, and less on the houses, hidden away behind a thick curtain of hawthorn hedges. I do wonder if the Way's presence offended the village when it was laid out, and hope that it wasn't the other way around, but a visit to St Peter's church is necessary before we move on, not least because its slender spire has been a sentinel since coming off the hills, and a view up close will show that it has an impressive collection of gargoyles and carvings when viewed up close. Back to the path, and the 55 mile marker is met at the field corner before the ascent is started up to Deep Dale plantation, and once the wood is met initial going is on a broad track with only the gentlest of rises, which gets you all relaxed before the dread sets in when the fingerpost that indicates straight up is met. The ascent out is 50m up at what seems like 40 degrees, as harsh an angle as we've ever met on any trip, one which needs low gear and lady steps to get up, thankful that it's dry underfoot and not showing up any slick stones, a proper lung-burster for the early going on a day I'd thought might be easy.

So a rest is needed once the top is met, where a fine view over Ryedale and the upper Derwent valley is found to the west, and there's an art instillation up here too, a contemplative construction called Enclosure Rites that makes an attempt to interpret the purpose of the many Bronze Age oddities found in the landscape, rather well, I'd venture. There's a real ancient Earthwork up here too, followed over to the lane which provides access to Knapton Plantation, where the Way makes its decisive turn to the east as the chalklands move to head towards the coast, and at elevation we've got a lot of woodland on the brow below us and golden fields up on the top around the radio mast, and the shaded path is most welcome as the day starts to feel rather super-heated. Pace on, getting a view down the valley in the gaps between Abbey Plantation and L Plantation, before hitting the rising track on the field boundaries of West Heslerton Brow, where the view down to East Heslerton is pretty good, aided by its imposing and large church, and hit a summit of about 180m up before the need to eat is felt, dropping down to shade myself below convenient trees before pressing on. Despite the fields below Manor Wold farm carrying a National Trail, they seem pretty rough even as pasture or lying fallow, so the ankles tweak a bit on the angled and uneven surface before gaining a better track on East Heslerton Brow, riding the contour and enjoying the view of Ryedale and the Derwent Valley beyond the recently harvested fields, with Sherburn showing up as the next village of substance far below. Pass a combine harvester, seemingly abandoned on a high field corner (and the second such one seen this week), and drop down a bit to follow a rougher boundary that follows another plantation on the brow, which contains a couple of graves in their own private idyll, and from here we can send the lunchtime update to My Parents, feeling slightly concerned that my 'easy' day on the trail is proving rather too tiring. I'll blame the heat for that, which thankfully diminishes when the cloud cover comes over, but hopes of having made good progress are stymied when the 60 mile marker is passed by Crowsdale Wood, which tells us that only 6 miles have gone down so far today.

Ascend sharply to meet Whitegate Road, our first country lane walk of the day, and that only lasts one field before we slip onto a parallel field path that descends down past the sketchiest part of the road as far as the small chalk quarry before dropping us again at the mercy of the traffic. Altogether not too busy on this lane, but after so long seeing Sherburn draw closer and take shape as it is approached, the Way takes a cruel turn from the lane drifting to the north, switching to the east and not even letting us get as close as the first house on the lane, as the path takes a lower level route for the rest of the day. A close look at the soils indicate a redness not seen in the rest of the Wolds, which would suggest we are off the chalk hills and onto the clays which fill the gap that reaches up to the North York Moors, and the oncoming road to Weaverthorpe throws challenges to us as tractors hauling straw bails pass and the sound of combine harvesting drowns out the sound of traffic. On to a quieter lane for an unwelcome lowland ascent, up to a field path that skirts the trees on the lower part of Potter Brompton Brow, and another time check of 45 minutes to go is sent out before another unwelcome climb takes us up to the edge of Brow Plantation. This woodland walk doesn't last long, as if the Way ran out of high paths to exploit in this corner, as all views from below suggest this is another hillside that should have been ascended, but it's downhill we head, along the boundary of a miniature golf course, passing more forgotten agricultural machinery before meeting the track that will go all the way to the east. Pass the first walkers seen on the Way, the same couple that I burned off in Vessey Pasture Dale on Sunday, through fields thick with pigs before the path arrives in the outer edge of Potter Brompton, a modest hamlet but a good one for illustrating the local chalk building style, found in quantity in Ryedale, but rarely in the Wolds. Set focus forwards to the spire beyond the trees as the end is close, less than a mile of track to go, and frightening pheasants seems to be an occupational hazard along here, and they can even be found at the roadside, as we emerge on the lane below Ganton Hall. Not too far to go to the turn on to Main Street, where the Way goes on, but we have a Parental Taxi to meet on the Main Road, so we pass St Nicholas's church and get a look at the best face of the village on the way down to the A64, where my taxi awaits by the Ganton Greyhound, all done for the day at 2.15pm, and for the first time in a while, the Wolds Way doesn't seem all that remote, because I could catch the #843 Coastliner bus home from here, if I so wished.

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 2441.3 miles
2016 Total: 426.9 miles
Up Country Total: 2225.8 miles
Solo Total: 2210.4 miles