The Yorkshire Wolds Way, Stage 3. Londesborough to Fridaythorpe.

Although it was to be a fairly cool day today, we were lucky with the weather, enjoying a fair amount of sun and no rain.  We set off from our finish point of stage 2, Londesborough, just after 10.30 a.m. making good time to Nunburnholme with sweeping views over the Vale of York.  We could see York Minster and Drax power station with the hills of the Yorkshire Dales in the distance.  The church at Nunburnholme is attractive and of note for the fact that from 1854 to 1893 the rector was the eminent Victorian Ornithologist Francis Orpen Morris.  There is also a fine Anglo-Saxon cross in the church, but as it was locked we could only glimpse it through the west window.  Now is the time of year when oil-seed rape is at its height and wherever you walk the air is heavy with its cloying scent.  It was pleasant, then, to walk steeply up through Bratt Wood where we could smell, as well as see, carpets of ramsons or wild garlic and bluebells just coming into flower.  The leaves of wild garlic make an excellent soup to which I can testify as, a couple of years ago, we sampled some when cycling the C2C coast to coast ride.  Other flowers that we noted were dogs mercury, primrose, speedwell, cowslip and borage. Chiffchaffs were very vocal in the wood here too.

We enjoyed lunch sitting in the sun high above the market town of Pocklington and shortly after came to a section of The Way that took us along the edge of the deep valley of Millington Dale, one of the most unspoilt dales in the Yorkshire Dales.  Opposite was Millington Wood and the very steep sided Millington Pasture, both very rich in wildlife.  The gorse in Millington Pasture was a picture and it made the air heady with the scent of coconut.  We saw red kites here and they were a presence all along our walk today.  The close views we had of these magnificent raptors was, perhaps, the highlight of the day's walking.  At the head of the dale Brian and I were reminded of the time when cycling The Way of the Roses (another coast to coast ride)  he stopped suddenly in front of me and I, not really paying attention, rode straight into him and over his back wheel, necessitating a stop in Driffield at the bike shop for repairs.

The final stretch of today's stage took us from Huggate steeply down into Horse Dale and then along the classic chalk valley of Holm Dale.  A short track from the dale head led us into the village of Fridaythorpe where we had left the car.

A particularly fine day's walking.