A walk in the countryside: Leg 6 - Methely to Swithen's Farm

Up until this point, we were roughly on track for one walk a month. I had jokingly said at the start that we'd give ourselves a year to do all 12 legs, and having done three by mid-February, I thought we'd be done by the summer holidays. Today, however, saw us get to the halfway point with less than half the year to go. We should fit it all in, but with a run of weekends away and holidays coming up, there may be more autumn and winter walks than we had anticipated.

Today was easily the hottest day of the year so far, and given that both of us melt horribly in the heat, we decided to make an early (8am on a Sunday!) start to get the most of the cool temperatures. I'm pleased that we did, as when we stopped at the end, I think I would have collapsed if someone had told me to go and walk another 5 miles. Fortunately, we'd both brought plenty of liquid and after a thick layer of factor 50 sunscreen all round, we set off in the beautiful sunshine.

The main image in my head from today is big fields of plants and flowers. After leaving Methley, which is suprisingly pretty in places, we picked up a track between massive fields of (something...need to research here!) which was interspersed with sharp red poppies. Matt is red-green colour blind and so needed some prompting to take pictures as they didn't appear to "pop" to him as they did to me. Hopefully the pictures will come out looking great! We walked slowly here, enjoying the views.

The route then twists and turns along some roads and some pretty cottages before bringing you out on the edge of Moss Carr Wood. Again, on the left were massive fields with lovely open views and on the right were the woods, a tangled mass of trees, brambles and flowers. Sadly, you can't get in there as we were ready for a drink.

We at this point got into a long discussion about sex education in schools, completely forgetting that we had no idea where we were and the next instruction to follow. It was only when we came across a farm, with a view down to the path of a bridge over the M62 that we figured we'd missed something as the instructions usually tell you about buildings you pass. We really realised this when we walked past the llama enclosure and the animals came out to see what we were doing. I love llamas, from their gawky legs to their comedy toupees and Jake sat and giggled at them during a photoshoot.

We sat for drinks and snacks (Jake inhaled a banana and then proceeded to smear the excess all over my shirt...maybe I need spares for me as well as Jake!) in the shade of a tree outside the farm house and with the sun gently warming the air, life was pretty perfect. We backtracked and eventually worked out that a "path junction" actually meant a right turn between rocks along the side of a field, a time when the instructions could do with being a little clearer! Eventually, we worked out where we needed to be (a bit of compass work and "this looks like a narrow field to me, how about you?" guess work!) and crossed a field and down a path with nettles on one side and thorn bushes on the other. After trying to manouevre slowly and carefully and failing miserably, I figured my best shot was to go quickly, avoid the nettles and give Jake his pacifier when he started to cry. He only came out with a small scratch on his face so we feel it was worth it.

The rest of the walk was along metalled roads, past Royds School (the first place that I've recognised from my days working across South Leeds!) and on to Swithern's Farm, which has the longest approach road known to man. However, when we got there, we found a farm shop with a play park and a horse show, and given that we were less than half a mile from the intended end point, and the sun starting to really beat down, we decided to call it a day there so we could have ice cream and coffee and buy some fantastic sausages for a barbecue (pork and black pudding in some, caramelised onion and cracked black peppers in other). This also means we can eat pie there before starting the second half of the walk