Leg 4 - Barwick-in-Elmet to Garforth - 17th March

I write this blog on the eve of our next walk more under duress for trying maintain the chronological order of the walk rather than any desire to talk about the walk. The route is easily the least inspiring part of the walk that we've done so far as we were never far from the M1 and part of me feels that we might have been spoiled by the quietness of North East Leeds. The further south we go, we start to run into the slow urban sprawl that grows like fingers out from the river Aire towards Sheffield, encompassing Wakefield, Rothwell and Morley amongst other places. Trying to find a countryside route through these areas must have been tough, and I think that we'll find less of the quiet farmland that has been the mainstay of our walks so far.

So the walk. There are no pictures yet as Matt hasn't found them yet, and to be fair, the weather did nothing to improve the quality of the walk. It was cold and grey, the kind of grey where you feel like you're walking under a flat sheet of metal with no bursts of sunlight or layers of different shades to break the monotony.

We picked up where we left off in Barwick-in-Elmet, still my favourite place on the walk so far, and headed out of town, making a simple mistake of picking up the main road rather than finding the highlighted back road across the field. In one of the those weird quirks of fate, when I realised that we'd made an error, the very next road on our right led back to the road that we should have been on, saving us having to walk back on ourselves.

The route takes you into Scholes briefly before picking Barnbow Lane, a dirt road that takes you through some fields that I think in sunshine will look more attractive. It's at this point that we became aware of a background roar that smacked of my childhood in Milton Keynes where we lived less than a mile from the M1. It took me a while to work it out, but once I knew it was there, it was hard to ignore it.

The path is flat for most of the walk until you reach Shippen House farm, where it heads up between two fields and over the railway tracks. We had made good time due to the flat and dry walking surfaces and decided to stop for a cup of coffee. It was an interesting place to break, as the view to the north was rolling fields and trees, whilst to the south a steady procession of cars and lorries roared by.

We finally decided to bite the bullet and cross over, and I don't think it's possible to know just how loud vehicles are at 70 mph until you stand on a bridge as they race underneath, or just how well sound proofed modern cars are as you don't notice as you drive! The route then turns sharp left and follows the motorway for a while before bearing right and into Garforth. It's always interesting to see new parts of Leeds and there will always be times when you need to go through urban areas, but I'm looking forward to getting back into the countryside tomorrow

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Total distance = 5.5 miles

Total time = 3 hours

Cumulative distance = 19.5 miles

Cumulative time = 9 hours 45 mins