Day 13 – Barnetby le Wold to before Brantingham

(In Mick’s words tonight)

1 April (0805-1800)

Distance: 22.5 miles (but felt further)
Number of bridges crossed when I came to them: just the one - but it was very big!

With their usual stunning accuracy the Met Office got it completely wrong. There was I, having had my FB breakfast, donning my lightest t-shirt, slapping on copious quantities of suncream, preparing to don my Tilley for the day, looking forward to a scorcher and maybe even baring my legs. What happens? A cool and brisk westerly that soon brought the rain and in no time I was in full wet weather gear until lunch. Where had the blue sunny sky gone? Where was the 21 degrees C? How do they manage it?

Nevertheless, onwards I went following the excellently way-marked Viking Way as it meandered towards the Humber Bridge. I could see the it quite clearly just ahead when for some reason the Viking Way takes a large detour to the west to skirt South Ferriby and approach the bridge from the shoreline. I suppose you do get a better view from this approach but it does add on at least a couple of miles*.

Lunch was had from the viewpoint under the southern side of the bridge and very impressive it is too. Trying to find how to get onto it from there was easier than I thought it was going to be and soon I was doing my first ever crossing of the Humber Bridge.

It to me 31 minutes to cross but it flew past as I got talking to another chap who was out for a day-walk. He said he preferred the northern (Yorkshire) side - it was more interesting and a better class according to him. Seems reasonable to me.

We parted company as I headed west along the riverside on the Wolds Way for a mile or two into North Ferriby (very posh) and then tried to follow it inland through the woods. Unlike the Viking Way, the signage is quite confusing and at one point I did have to resort to the GPS to make sure that I was where I thought I was - I was (luckily). I'll be interested to see how Gayle fares when she does this section**.

It had been a long day and it was approaching 1730 so decided to pick up some water (a nearby riding school was very obliging) and find a pitch.

This done - I've pitched a tad early but I'm reasonably secluded and the green tent does provide a degree of camouflage - I've got to get tea on and am looking forward to a rest. I found it quite hard on the feet today. Tomorrow - a night at my brother's near York and meet up with my (recovered?) wife.

So an early night followed by an early start.

(Note from Gayle:

*I remember looking at detail at that bit of the route when I was plotting it and the reason the Way doesn’t take a more direct route is that there aren’t convenient footpaths that go direct. It’s either a road-bash or the circuitous route. The circuitous route looks far more interesting.

**I’ll be paying double attention at that point now!)