Another walk in the North York Moors, but much more satisfying than last weekend’s. I parked strategically by the public loo in Danby and headed up the Hill to Rosedale Intake then left onto footpath north. I strayed from this to visit Siss Cross and the nearby trig point then had to fight my way north, happily not for long, through deep pathless heather to pick up the track heading east to White Cross. Then down the road to Commondale, taking the chance to get off tarmac where a bit of footpath cuts a corner by Sand Hill. “Bull in field” warns a a sign on a gate about halfway along this, together with a rather menacing graphic of a snorting bovine. Inside the field in question a herd of Highland cattle dozed and reclined lazing some way distant from the path and I didn’t feel very menaced. By the time I got into Commondale, the initially unpromising weather had turned beautiful, the word that best describes the glorious walk back down the dale to Danby on tracks and footpaths always a little north of the railway line. This is a short but, in such conditions, heavenly walk. Sadly my imbecile failure to recharge my camera battery means I have no photographic evidence for that claim. Driving home I took the direct route south following the high narrow roads in blazing sunshine over Westerdale Moor, Farndale Moor and Blakely Ridge, a stunningly beautiful stretch of road. A truly mesmerising radio 4 broadcast of “Kilifi Creek” a new short story by Lionel Shriver, will burn this drive into my memory.
| Jimmy Lenman |
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