Thixendale - 8th March 2009

The walk started in beautiful sunshine as 9 + 2 dogs were soon warmed up by the climb out of the village. Conditions underfoot were quite firm so good progress was made along the Wolds Way. We stopped for a group photo after 2.43 miles (or at least 10 miles if you happened to be one of the dogs) and asked some following walkers to take a photo of the whole group – only to find it was 3 more Oddsocks who had missed the start! So 12 +2 now headed off towards Warram Percy and a well earned lunch break. After a quick inspection of the church, lunch was had in its lea before we set off on the return leg.

At this point the sun started to disappear behind some thickening clouds and by the time we got out of Deep dale valley the first spots of rain were starting to fall. It did stop for a short time but soon returned as we retraced out path along Raisthorpe Wold. This time it did not stop and soon turned to snow being driven by a strong westerly wind. At this point we were walking south so everyone was white on one side only!

The weather finally eased as we got the bottom of Court Dale and the sun was even starting to break through as we arrived back in Thixendale.

According to the GPS we had walked 7.91 miles in 2hrs & 50 minutes. One advantage of this faster than planned walk, was that the pub in Thixendale was still open. We therefore adjourned to it for a drink and a huddle around the fire before heading back home.

To summarise, this walk started and ended in sunshine with a good variety of wintery conditions in between. Definitely no cobwebs left after this one!