Welton to Sancton

By the time we went for our (very nice) breakfast at the Green Dragon, it was raining steadily, and it remained wet until about 11.30am. This restricted our photography somewhat, but we were still able to appreciate the delightful dales, with vibrant greenery and lovely birdsong. Trying to find the route on the map was challenging at times, simply because of the number of long distance paths in the area. We crossed the Beverley Twenty and the High Hunsley Circuit several times today.

We left the Green Dragon at about 9.15 and walked back up through the village and into the delightful Welton Dale, a dry valley lined with trees. We saw a few dog walkers and a group of three walkers who we saw again later in the day; they were obviously on a circular walk of some sort. Welton Dale was quite sheltered, but as we emerged onto open ground at the northern end, the rain became rather more problematic. We passed Waulby Manor Farm, complete with pond and church, then the track swept round to the right. At Turtle Hill we turned left onto a track, being passed by a cyclist. We crossed a road onto first a minor road, then a track then a minor road again. The view opened out in front of us - if it hadn't been misty we would have had good views to Brantingham and beyond, and in the mist it was atmospheric.

The path descended steeply to the picturesque Brantingham Church in its own little valley. Richard took some photos, but his camera was getting wet too. We walked along the road through the wold, then turned left into a track which climbed through the trees. At the top I decided to take the risk with my camera, though in getting it out I discovered that water had got into the bottom of my rucsac.

The next little section included several descents and ascents as we went into Ellerker North Dale and then the delightfully named Woo Dale. We circled around Mount Airy Farm, then reached a pleasant tarmacked farm track, which confused us because it felt like a road but there was not a road shown on the map. We had good views down to South Cave, though with the views came traffic noise from the busy A63. Richard spotted a picnic bench, so we stopped for a lunch from the provisions we carry with us.

After lunch we descended towards South Cave, then climbed again, to and then alongside Little Wold Plantation, with very good views back to the Humber Estuary - and the weather was getting better! We descended through Comber Dale; the guidebook waxes lyrical about this Dale, but I thought it was a bit odd, with a barbed wire fence running up the middle of it, keeping us to one side.

We reached the attractive wooded Weedley Dale and turned right, eventually crossing the route of the dismantled Hull and Beverley Railway and taking a path parallel to it. We turned left and climbed up through East Dale, getting brave enough to remove our waterproofs about half way up.

We emerged into open countryside, with the guidebook assuring us that we had just left the last of the southern wolds, which are characterised by wooded slopes, and that the scenery further north would be different. I'm not entirely sure about this (we encountered dales with wooded slopes later in our walk) but it is undoubtedly the case that the next Dale we came to, after about a mile of higher level walking, was Swin Dale, an absolutely superb grassy dry valley.

We walked through Swin Dale for a mile or so, and at the far end turned right onto a road (turning left would have taken us to North Newbold). There was a wind farm on the hillside in front of us, and we were essentially walking around the wind farm for the rest of the day, initially climbing steeply on a track past some rather smelly farm buildings (chickens or pigs?) then right onto a road and left for another climb. The land eventually levelled off and we walked past a number of wind turbines on the left hand side, and a trig point on the right hand side.

We reached a road which we could have taken down to Sancton, or straight ahead to the main road. We stayed straight ahead here, but turned left towards Sancton on a track about a kilometre further on. It was a lovely walk, through a Dale with the wind turbines now on the hill to our left.

The first thing we noticed when we reached Sancton was blue and yellow bunting everywhere; it turns out that the 'Tour de Yorkshire' came through here yesterday. We photographed the Church with its unusual octagonal tower, then we walked along the road to Orchard Lodge where we were staying. Orchard Lodge is part beauty salon, part B&B, though Jeannie told us that the B&B is now the major part of the business. In the light of that, it seemed odd that she wasn't better prepared for us...see explanation tomorrow. In the evening we had a superb meal at 'The Star' opposite; don't be fooled, this is no ordinary pub, but rather a restaurant that features in the Michelin Guide, and it is not cheap - however it is (thankfully, given our muddy walking boots!) also quite informal.

Following day