Final walk of the year

Thursday, 31st December 2020

Despite reaching my target miles for the year, it was too much of a lovely day to waste away at work so I finished early and enjoyed a lovely, crisp, crunchy, frosty walk in the sunshine.  

I decided on a scenic walk to the shops before it got dark.

Only a couple of pics but what a lovely way to round off this weird old year.

Next year, I'll start a "same view, different day" post to see how the view changes throughout the seasons/weather/year for the local walks I do regularly, lockdown or not.

EDIT:  Changed my mind.  Going for a monthly summary of my local walks instead.

That's me signing out of 2020 - thanks for looking 😊

East Yorkshire: Paull Circuit again (3.5 miles)

 Sunday, 27th December 2020

Truly bored of covid / lockdown / tiers now.  How I'm craving some wild, woolly, remoteness.  The nearest I can get to that locally is this.  It still remains my favourite local walk but I'm in danger of over-doing it and getting bored of it.

Seeing as I've done this walk many, many times this will most likely be the last time I write about it.  I mean, just how many pictures of the same thing do folks need to see?!

So these pics, to round off my challenge, are a bit different.  I went "mud-bagging" instead.

Not off to a good start on the health-and-safety'd-to-death refurbed sea defences:

It's improving with a couple of nice, big puddles as I head "inland":

After plodding down the road, I turn off onto the nature reserve car park.  At least the path out of there and up onto the embankment looks promising:

HuuuUUUUUuuuugh puddle.  Only kidding, it's the small nature reserve pond:

Hmmm, I have to confess a level of disappointment at the amount of mud so far, although this isn't too bad - Squelch Factor 4 I think:

Up onto the embankment and I come across this sign.  It's a new sign and I'm pretty sure nobody will take any notice of it as the "ramp" is waaaaay off in the distance and the car park is to my right.  It's also the least muddy, slippery bit of the whole walk.  Epic Fail Paull Parish Council:

Now, here's some proper mud.  Some perma-mud.  The tidal mudflats of the Humber.  I don't think it counts really:

A disappointing Squelch Factor of 3 for this I think:

Getting back onto the engineered path and the best I could find was a couple of puddles:

Now this. THIS.  This is worthy of a Squelch Factor 7.  It's wide, it's deep and it's slippery.  Cracking bit of mud, this:

Through the woodland now which reveals a churned up engineered path:

Empty container ship on the Humber (which is just one big mudbath at low tide):

As always, this is a lovely little walk with a bit of all sorts in it.  It's getting more and more popular though, even the secret off-piste bits that I do.  Of course, it's nice to see so many people getting out in the fresh air but please, can you all stay at home when I want to walk here.

So there you have it.  I've completed my challenge with days to spare.  That's a first for me!

Thanks for reading 😊

East Yorkshire: Kelsey Gardens (2.6 miles)

 Sunday, 6th December 2020

With the dark nights (who invented that saying? night are, by definition, dark!) now upon us during the week, I took the opportunity for a late afternoon stroll in the sunshine.

After the past couple of days' heavy rain, I expected it to be wet and muddy.  And I wasn't disappointed.

As this can be a "welly-bobs" kind of walk I thought I'd try out gaiters with my walking shoes to see whether or not the idea was a pointless waste of time.

It's not the most exciting of walks but it's a pleasant way to while away an hour or so.

Some pics:

Leafless trees - winter has already arrived

Keyingham Drain looking very full after the recent rain

Nice, wide grassy track

Not so nice, wide grassy track!

View towards Keyingham from "the hill"

Sunset at Kelsey Gardens

Some different "social distancing" notices:

...though I'm pretty sure a low-loader is longer than 2 metres!

Very large puddle!

And so, back to the car

I chose the best part of the day to get out for an hour I think, and, despite it only being a short walk, I really enjoyed it.

The gaiters and shoes thing?  Hmm, okay for this sort of walk where ending up with mud halfway up your legs is the main concern but I really do need to put some thought into getting some boots with an ankle cuff that doesn't aggravate my achilles tendon... or some different gaiters.

Thanks for reading 😊