Today would start off cloudy and a little chilly but it would soon warm up to be another lovely summers day. Today wouldn't have any real steep climbs and was felt just like a gentle introduction to the Yorkshire Wolds Way and to get your legs and body used to having a backpack on again. Today would see me start from the muddy banks of the Humber estuary at Hessle along the shore for a few miles before heading away from it and through a couple of little villages and then a mixture of farmland, woodland and a little tarmac too, plus a wrong turning.
It had been quite a late decision to walk the Yorkshire Wolds Way but as it's quite local, I set off from home on the train to Hessle and walked the short distance to the start. Well, I say the start but there's a bit of confusion regarding this as some people say the start is where the stone sculpture sits underneath the Humber Bridge but other people say that the start is a short distance further east along the path where it meets the road and here there is a Yorkshire Wolds Way signpost saying how far it is to Filey so I guess it's better to start here then.
It's not exactly the most scenic of places to start a multi day walk as you look over the mudflats of the river but soon you come to the stone sculpture under the bridge and then along the shoreline, at times on the stony beach and then some path. After a cafe that's food smelt really nice, a long but level gravel track with the river on one side of me and the railway line on the other side took me almost to Ferriby and a choice of paths.
Here you have a low or high tide option. If the tide is low you can continue along the beach but this is usually just mud and I haven't read anyone's blogs saying that they enjoyed the low tide route. The high tide option takes you through Ferriby, past a church and a few shops before heading out towards a roundabout and bridge over the very busy A63 road, the main road into Hull, the noise of this road has been in your ears from the start at Hessle.
Once you cross over the road, the day and the paths change for the better and I started to feel that I was now on a trail as I started walking through some woodland, the noise of the road getting less and less much to me relief. I had walked the North Downs Way a month earlier and was never far from traffic noise, the Yorkshire Wolds Way would prove to be a very quiet trail.
The woodland path took me past a quarry and more woodland paths and soon I was coming into Welton. It has a pretty little church slightly off the route which is well worth a visit and a few photos before moving on, it also has a few benches so I stopped for a rest and met a couple of women and their dogs who were also walking the trail. After a bit more woodland path, I walked through a gentle uphill grassy valley for a while, the sounds of birds having replaces the cars and lorries noise before some more woodland and farmland.
I reached a road soon after, and a slight problem. My GPS route told me to go left but the signs said to go right, so I did. After a short distance a signpost then directed me along a path and I almost missed it as the sign was almost hidden. The path eventually turned into a track beside fields and came to a road. I walked along this for a while before it turned a corner and here there was also a track going straight on but no signposts to tell me where to go. I looked at my GPS and saw I could walk either one as they both headed almost the same direction. I took the road which I had to step off many times for cars and then through some woodland, by now realising that the track I hadn't taken was the correct one I should have taken but I knew I'd meet that track eventually so no harm done.
I wasn't on this road long before I turned off it and through some woodland and soon was back onto the Yorkshire Wolds Way, by now a narrow track heading downhill towards Brantingham and I soon turned off it. A sign here told me that the end of the walk was just over two miles away, the day had gone really quickly and I was about an hour from finishing the first day.
Until now, today had been pretty gentle with no real steep climbs but that would change soon as I started a section of woodland walking, I used the occasional views towards the Humber as an excuse to take in the views but also to catch my breath as the day had got much hotter and there was very little wind in the trees. I descended to a road and passed the lovely All Saints Church before some more climbing through the trees.
I knew I was eventually getting near the top of the path through the trees as the breeze got a bit stronger, much to my relief and then I was happy to be walking in the open once again, this time at the side of a field. I was only on this a short time before the path cut through a farm and I was on tarmac heading downhill, South Cave could be seen just below to the left of me.
I headed down the road and it wasn't long before it met the main road and I started walking into the village, passing the sign that told me where I will rejoin the Yorkshire Wolds Way in the morning. My walk nearly over, it was a gentle walk along the road into the village centre, into the shop for some goodies and then headed to my accommodation.
I had enjoyed the first day on the trail, nothing too difficult and the dry weather was a bonus and it's supposed to be good all week. Sometimes a first day on a trail can feel like a warm up and this is how I planned it with another short day tomorrow before a couple of long days after that but hopefully I am ready. I'm already looking forward to my walk into Market Weighton tomorrow.
