Did another great walk yesterday, a route from this website http://www.walkingenglishman.com/ which I can thoroughly recommend if you’re looking for inspiration on where to walk.
The weather was superb, I’d made our packed lunch the night before, and despite sleeping in we managed to fit in time for a hearty breakfast and a skim read of the Sunday Times. Sunday bliss! My mood plummeted somewhat when I got to the car and found I had a puncture. Bastard!
Wheel changed, we drove up the A1 then over onto the A168/A19 to Nether Silton which is a quaint little hamlet on the Western edge of the N.Yorks Moors. This is the starting point for this 8 mile route. After a mile of country lane a long steady pull takes you up through a plantation (Silton Forest) before reaching the moor. The view below I really liked, it was HDR in real life – nature had effortlessly achieved the ‘look’ that is so very much en vogue these days.
The views kept surprising us, I think the clear, crisp winter air and low sun really set everything off nicely.
The path carries on climbing up to the top of the moor on Black Hambleton, along ‘Hambleton Street’ (where we ducked down into a ‘bomb-hole’ to have lunch out of the sub-zero wind!) which allows you to look back down onto your starting point and a lot further beyond, especially on a day like this.
The descent off the moor, down to Nab farm, is a bit steep in places and would make a wicked downhill section for mountain biking – an idea which I’m giving serious thought to as this route takes in part of the National Cycle Network. I have an Orange hardtail that spends too much time on tarmac and not enough off-road!
Once past Nab farm it’s back onto the road to hook back into Nether Silton. One last photo to show off those awesome winter colours back on the hillside…
…then plot up in the Gold Cup in Nether Silton for a good pint of Theakston’s Best.
The full route details can be found here http://www.walkingenglishman.com/northyorkshire07.htm
The awesome GPS unit I use to avoid getting lost on my walks (as well as always having a paper map) can be purchased here. It’s not the smallest but that’s because it has a big screen (for a GPS unit).
Adventurer 3500 mapping handheld GPS unit – GB 1:50000
It ships with a full GB Landranger but you can buy chunks of 1:25,000 as and when you need them. As I said in an earlier post, I’m only recommending kit that I like and can vouch for.
Normal fishing blog posts will resume shortly, I hope, with a planned mission to Stocks in a couple of weeks or so! Never been before but I hear good things about this place, including how well it fished early season. Can anyone recommend good patterns /techniques for early season Stocks? Is it gonna be a low down dirt dog-nobbler type affair? Comments welcome!.