Leg 9 - Needless Inn, Morley - Cockersdale - 1st September

This leg is the shortest of all 12, coming in at just 4 miles, so it seemed right that we tackled it on a grey day at the start of the academic year before the pupils came back as a way to get back on track and clear the cobwebs for the new term. The walk runs through my new stomping grounds of Gildersome, and indeed past the front of the school where I completed my teacher training year. Given that I still work in the village, there was always going to be the risk that some of my students would see me, but given that we had aimed for another early start, most people were still abed when we came through.

The walk is a bit of a mixed bag. It starts off well, through well made tracks into Birkby Bow Wood, which would be a fantastic place to come back to in bluebell season according to people to live nearby. However, the woods are still enchanting with clear paths and plenty of dog walkers around even at that time of morning. The scenery entertained Jake, who insisted on throwing his head back (almost tipping me over at times) and giggling maniacally to himself. My walking partner made the observation that when he did this, you couldn't see him if you were walking towards us which made it look like I was making the sounds.

A combination of poor directions, unclear paths and uncertainty in the woods from Matt's phone app meant that it took us a couple of tries to get out of the woods, eventually scrambling up a near vertical slope (harder than it looks with a 30 pound baby on your back!) and out into farmland following tracks between the fields. It was only after a bit of detective work and an good deal of battery use on the phone that we met the right track again leading into the populated part of the walk. We stopped for coffee, biscuits and tomatoes, and some wonderful pictures of Jake in action.

The next part of the walk is bereft of highlights. There's a good mile or so of road walking to get you out of upper Morley, across the M62/M621 junction and through Gildersome village. It was interesting to walk the route on foot as I'd only ever been there in a car, but even so it felt like a necessary evil to get back to the path.

After finally leaving the houses behind, we came to possibly the narrowest path we've been on. It may have been horrendously overgrown, but the combination of fence and nettles meant that we had to pick a careful path along the edge of fields and down a big slope to a river. It was at this point that we got overtaken by the first set of runners doing the Leeds Country Way relay race and we started to wonder how long it would take a team of runners to run the 63 mile course. Even at a quick speed of 8 mph, you'd be looking at 8 hours between them, and that's not counting for getting lost, stumbling over uneven ground and climbing over styles. A bit research shows that this year's winners completed it in just over 7 hours, with the final team coming in at over 13 hours. A long day's running, especially if you're the last person waiting for the baton.

We were overtaken by a few other runners as we completed the walk across a few fields, coming out onto the A58 and the Valley Inn where a few marshals were cheering on the runners and admiring Jake in his backpack. We're now 3/4 of the way round, which seems to have come round very quickly and with only 3 more walks to go, Golden Acre Park seems incredibly close.

Total distance = 4 miles
Total time = 2 hours
Cumulative distance = 45 miles
Cumulative time = 22 hours, 30 minutes