Across the Wolds

Ages since I’ve had a good bike ride — so off on the train to Seamer, head­ing back to Malton, tak­ing the bene­fit of a light NE breeze, Star­ted off quite cloudy and cool near the coast — to CAyton vil­lage then across Folk­ton Carr — flat,drained land to the pretty little vil­lage of Folk­ton on the rising land at the foot of the scarp. Up onto the scarp at Flix­ton — very steep, had to get off and push as I had the Bromp­ton which doesn’t have a low enough gear for such feats.  But soon the wide open skies and the chalk-studded fields of the high Wolds.  A hare loped across a field (another was, alas, roadkill a few miles fur­ther on).  Views down into dry val­leys wind­ing away from near their head.  Loads of white black­thorn blos­som stud­ding the hedgerows. Pee­wits, seagulls.  A tiny church at For­don — a cross roads deep in the junc­tion of dry val­leys. The church dated from the 1100s– ser­vices once a month. A noisy rook­ery adjacent.

Rather a dull, wide val­ley then, going east-west, but the cloud star­ted to break up and after cross­ing the busy B1249 the lane I was on got win­dier and more inter­est­ing.  Par­tic­u­larly inter­est­ing was “The Star” at Weaver­thorpe where a pint of Theakeston’s best bit­ter went very nicely with an excel­lent plate of belly pork on len­tils with apple and cho­rizo, plus mashed pota­toes, creamed leeks, car­rots and cabbage.

From West Lut­ton a long gentle climb to the top of the ridge where the tree belt to the south of the road con­ceals an ancient defens­ive earth­work, and the hedge to the north fails to con­ceal a very extens­ive pig­gery.  Bey­ond the pigs, though, the lower end of Ryedale laid out, and the Moors in the dis­tance.  Past Settring­ton Beacon with its near 360 degree vis­ib­il­ity and then the spec­tac­u­lar des­cent to Settring­ton — amaz­ing to think that I sur­vived com­ing up that way the last time I was in this area (May 2006).

And so to Malton and the train.  I was much refreshed, not only by the Theak­stons but by the delight­ful cool yet sunny weather, the exer­cise, and the won­der­ful feel­ing of Spring — buds, leaves, birds, lambs, primroses.