The second thing that you'll notice, especially if you're reading this with your trusty leaflet in hand, is that whilst the second part of the guide takes you to Thorner Lane in Scarcroft, we only got as far as Bardsey. This is because we had identified the Bingley Arms (more on which later on) as a good place to stop for lunch, and it proved to be so good that we spent all afternoon there. We'll be rolling the end of part two and all of part three into the next walk.
As we got dropped off at Lofthouse Gates, we commented on how strange an experience it was. All of our walks to date, whether in Leeds, the Lakes or elsewhere have been circular but the sheer size of the Leeds Country Way means that you have to walk it piecemeal. A walk that starts in one place and ends in another is strange enough, but to return to where you finished previously and to continue the route was a new experience for us and one that helped to put the scale of the LCW into more perspective.
We welcomed a new recruit for the walk in shape of Rich, a long time friend visiting from London. His trip had been a last minute arrangement and the offer of a walk and pub lunch even more expedient, so it was no surprise that he was wearing just his normal trainers. On any other day this wouldn't be a problem, but we were walking on the day after all the snow melted and just about every path and field was saturated:
The route takes you between multiple fields before sending you through the middle of Biggin Farm. The English right of the walker to go through private property (where marked, of course!) is rapidly becoming one of my favourite things about the LCW, as it's interesting to see an active farm first hand. Jake certainly enjoys looking at the animals!
At this point, the clouds started to roll in, threatening rain but making for some dramatic pictures out over the fields:
The way cuts across numerous fields which I'm sure in dry weather isn't a problem, but the frequency of the walkers combined with the snow melt meant that we were often walking through a inch of surface water combined with thick mud. It all made for slow going, made harder by the lashing wind rain.
It was at this point, however, with temperatures dropping rapidly, that Jake somehow managed to fall and stay asleep. This has proved to be a problem in the past with our particular make of baby backpack as it carries him quite high. When he falls asleep, his head falls to one side, putting strain on his neck and sending me off balance.
After a while of trying to prop him up in different ways, I found that a hunched position meant that he fell forward onto my shoulder which was much more comfortable all round. We're currently working on a baby neck pillow for the next section.
Eventually we cleared the farmland, and the bad weather, and started our approach to Bardsey village. All went smoothly and we found some glorious rolling countryside
Smoothly that is until a rare moment of foggy instructions from our leaflet sent us through bracken and low hanging trees into some quite steep terrain. The path led down the side of field and then turned right to continue following the field on the bottom edge. However, the instructions told us to enter the bracken, which we did. The bracken sloped downhill towards a stream and the treelined valley had successfully blocked the sun from melting the snow and ice here. We decided to retrace our steps after quarter of an hour of what felt like jungle trekking, thinking that the LCW wouldn't make you go through such a hazardous route.
We were proved right, and the route followed the bottom edge of the field, where we picked up the stile as promised in the leaflet, as well as a rare but well placed sign. The leaflets mention that the route is marked with signs and owls, but our experience so far is that these are few and far between and often in places where it's fairly clear where the route needs to go. Perhaps we'll go round once we've done the whole loop and suggest better locations.
Our final destination was the Bingley Arms pub in Bardsey. As mentioned in my previous post, the LCW leaflets are great for directions but poor on highlighting interesting features or landmarks on the route. Given that our friend Rich was only with us for the day, we had picked out the Bingley Arms as a good place to stop and eat lunch and we had asked our various women folk to drive and meet us there.
On doing some research so we could book a table, we discovered that the Bingley Arms has staked a claim for being the oldest pub in England, having served beer since 947 AD. This surely is worth a mention! The pub itself is a glorious maze of low thick beams and big fireplaces. It also serves some of the best pub food I've tried in a long time, with the game pie coming highly recommended.
By the time we had eaten, we were in no fit state to continue, so we made our way home, ready for a sit down and a snooze, already looking forward to picking up our trail in the coming weeks.
Total distance - 3.5 miles (or so we roughly measured)
Total time - 1.5 hours (too wet and windy for a coffee break!)
Cumulative distance - 8.5 miles
Cumulative walking time - 4 hours
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