A Middle of the Week Wander
The North Yorks. Moors is the nearest National Park to me
and I can get to the bottom reaches of it in about 1hr 15mins from my house.
I met up with a walking pal …. aaand headed for the
Horseshoe Inn. For a
pot of tea I hasten to add! What is it about a “cup” of tea? For
goodness sakes, we’re in Yorkshire, it should be a mug of tea, and a strong one
at that!
The start of the walk followed a signed footpath at the back of the hotel along the hedge line. Much of this part of the walk was through leafy woodland with a sheer drop to our right:
The start of the walk followed a signed footpath at the back of the hotel along the hedge line. Much of this part of the walk was through leafy woodland with a sheer drop to our right:
And so it continued, up and down along the hillside, through
woodland, which occasionally opened out to give us some lovely views across the
valley:
Decision time as we reached the valley bottom and the
signpost near Dundale Griff:
We crossed the little bridge and carried on towards Horcum
Slack after taking a minute to enjoy the little stream that is Dundale Griff:
By now, it was a fairly level stroll and we found a nice
tree branch to sit on for a bite to eat.
Here’s the puzzling bit, Horcum Hole doesn’t reveal itself
particularly, visually, until you’ve reached the other end and look back.
Even then, you don’t get a sense of the size of it. This pic was taken as we reached the tree line and a climb of a steepness that almost deserves a
scrambling grading:
We did go a little off piste here when the path disappeared
into a boggy, nettle and thistle infested swamp and we agreed to head towards a
stile to our right at the top which we could see, and it looked like others
before us had made the same decision…. Plus, it would ultimately bring us out
nearer the ice cream van parked at Saltergate Car Park on the top!
And then the steep ascent begins. Obviously, being
the fit, racing snakes that we both are, we both practically sprinted up there
with no stops. Nope, none whatsoever!
View from the path at the top near the ice cream van. The pictures don't do the view justice:
We're now following the Tabular Hills trail I’m quietly chuffed to
bits that the moorland heather is in full bloom. I can imagine walking
along here at any other time is a bit…. bleak. Andy mentioned the last
time he walked along here it was about 2ft deep in snow:
Rather than taking a pic in the direction Andy had (unknown
to me) decided to take a comfort break (grid ref available on request) I thought
it best to take a snap of how far we’d walked since the ice cream van
instead. It was wonderfully peaceful and quiet up here – all you could
hear were bees bumbling around:
Decision time at Dundale Pond. Now, I was hoping for a
cuppa at Levisham Station so off we wandered in that direction on a fairly
nondescript ascent:
Until we got to the top and saw what we had to
descend. Again, the pictures don’t do it justice. Take my word for
it, it was steep:
Off we wandered along the short stretch of road to Levisham
Station:
And the little tea shack was shut. For
anyone doing this walk, if you want a cuppa and a bun at Levisham Station, do
it on a weekend or bank holiday cos it’s not open during the week.
Info boards:
We stopped a while and had a snack before carrying along more
leafy trails back to Levisham.
Another meadow, yet another climb and then a fairly
precipitous walk around the edge of Keldgate Slack:
Then across a couple of stubble fields, which actually
looked lovely and quintessentially English in the evening sunshine (can't
believe I didn't get a pic), up a
lane….. and .... after a quick shedding of rucksacks and change of footwear,
back to the pub.
Thanks for reading 😊