Rumination: The End of the Walking Year

The Following is For Reference Only.

Toasting the end of Season 11
with My First Beverage
in Absolutely Ages!

The acid test for getting myself a finale for 2022's walking year was always going to be factored by how well my body responded to a week of actual labour, and in the wake of a week of work, I think we can conclude that that this season is done, and has been ever since I rode the train from Dodworth station three weeks ago, feeling like all the energy had been drained from my body, as a push through five days of being almost completely desk-bound at the Medical Records Library at St James Hospital has left me feeling absolutely spent, as I knew it was going to be tough, but felt like it ought to be within my compass as a Nine Day Weekend of annual leave was scheduled directly after it. Returning to regular business proved harder than anticipated, even though there was no massive impetus to get into very early starts as per usual, as train strikes (or rather the aftermath the cancellations thereof) meant there were only bus rides to be taken on the mornings of my first two days, rocking me up a little later than normal, and being relieved of physical duties meant that a eight hour stretch at my desk was all I had to get on with, at a nicely moderated pace that nonetheless had me ready for a heavy refuel and an early night once my working day was done, sleeping like the dead as all my energy reserves had expended themselves. Come Wednesday, my body has already given up on me and I'm over-sleeping to the tune of over an hour, and having to force myself into work, clearly still in the grip of a bout of post-viral fatigue, which my senior colleagues warn me is something than I'm likely to be dealing with for a while, plausibly until Christmas, as a post-Covid recovery doesn't have those day by day incremental improvements that come in the wake of most viral infections, and a six-week restoration to normal wouldn't be at all unlikely, so it's mildly encouraging that a bit of a physical bounce returns on Thursday, perhaps because we're over the hump of my five day week and abbreviated return to work spell.

Rumination: Still Wrestling the Covid Beast

The Following is For Reference Only.

Well, Ain't That a Relief?

It ought to come as no surprise to anyone that my Covid infection put me out of circulation for another seven days, what with me not being able to return to work until I've managed to return two negative tests, and with my seven day period of self certification ending, requiring me to contact my GP to obtain a sick-note, or a fit-note as they're calling them these days, which turned out to be a much less testing an experience than I had anticipated, getting a telephone consultation only five hours after I'd contacted my surgery on Monday, getting signed off for another week without much by way of questioning, aside from finding that getting said documents e-mailed to me is a surprising difficulty at their end. They even offered me a potentailly longer spell off, which is nice of them, but I felt it more appropriate to negotiate my return to work role with my employers rather than spending too much time out before I felt 'right' again, as despite returning my first negative result on Tuesday, I still felt like absolute garbage with most of the now familiar Covid symptoms having now settled on me, like the Covid Cough, which we've all gotten to know with its dry, rattling resonance that doesn't really shift anything, the deep muscular aches that remind you that Covid is really a neurological ailment rather than a respiratory one, and the utterly baffling loss of your sense of smell which frustrates when consuming food is one of the few joys you have left. The only symptom that I seem to have avoided is the high temperatures, which is fortunate  as sleeping off my illness gets more appealing, as the night time turn-ins get earlier and no day has me roused earlier than 8am, or rising before 9.30am, settling me into an under-active routine that feels a lot like being unemployed, only getting busy because I need to eat, as Covid plainly isn't a disease that you can starve like a fever, and my paranoid preparations of the last few years means there's plenty to pull out of my cupboards, while I prop myself up in the kitchen to bulk-prepare meals to freeze in order to see me through the dark Autumn, and otherwise keep myself entertained by sorting through the thousands of digital photographs that I accumulated for myself across 2012-15, allowing me to mentally travel while still being housebound.

Runimation: Remember Covid?

 The Following is For Reference Only.

Well, ain't that a Kick in the Stones?

If you've been regarding the world in 2022 with a casual eye, you could easily believe that the Covid-19 pandemic has long since ended, judging how far it has dropped from the public, political and media consciousness over the last year, some might consider it having concluded when HM Government declared the end of all social restrictions in July 2021, while others might have considered it all done after the Omicron wave passed over across the end of 2021 and the start of 2022, and if you paid attention to governmental actions you'd figure it over as attention fell to the war in Ukraine, the cost of living crisis and people choosing to create new problems where they didn't exist previously. The horrible reality is that it's still here, and ongoing with much vigour, maybe not with the deadliness of the initial waves in 2020, but with enough force to still pose a significant health risk to the clinically vulnerable and the un-vaccinated, and to cause problems for healthcare networks worldwide, especially considering that the OG variant is now barely present in the population, while the much more contagious Omicron variant has now gone global, to present everyone with a new transmissible disease, that wasn't around only three years prior, to be afflicted by with the passage of the seasons. Reflecting on the fact the the NHS in the UK still has a backlog of 7 million elective operations to perform, while still needing to work around many internal infection prevention measures, it's very easy to believe that we literally got the bad ending to the pandemic endgame, where the disease wasn't contained by restriction in 2020 after being imposed too late and lifted too early, while prolonged global mobility has ensured that every subsequent variant has had its opportunity to infect the worldwide population, resulting in the situation where the disease is now endemic, and able to afflict and kill thousands every year into the foreseeable future, like an unwanted companion to influenza and tuberculosis, which those in power globally completely failed to prevent.

Rumination: Collapsing the Bubble

The Following is For Reference Only.

Pandemic Thoughts - April 2022 

More than 25 months on from the World Health Organization declaring a global pandemic, we cannot really allow ourselves to think that it’s over, as there’s been no further declaration made as such, but the reality of the situation is that the spread of Covid-19 and the risks that it poses have fallen far down the list of issues and anxieties in the modern world, to be replaced by a burgeoning global economic crisis and an open conflict in Europe that shows no signs of abating, while the behaviours of so many are such as like the health crisis is now far from their minds. I’ll finally put myself into that bracket, after reserving judgement for so long, taking the opportunities presented to me during April 2022 to collapse my imposed bubble of isolation from general socialising that we maintained throughout the months, covering the first and second waves of Coronavirus infections of 2020, and through the spread of the Delta and Omicron variants in 2021, having somehow come out of the other end without having become unwell, and ready to face the hopefully diminished risks in person, now that covid can be largely regarded as an infection that would be unpleasant to get, rather than a matter of life and death. So, naturally, it’s with my Good Friends in Calderdale that I make my breakout, after they were so good to me after the last two years, twice making an excursion over the Pennines for evenings out in Manchester, not exactly hitting the town hard, but going into a crowded venue for the first time since Christmas 2019, on both occasions braving the throng in ‘Society’ on Barbirolli Square to get in the beer 'n' burgers, as the mix of Vocation Ales and Slap & Pickle’s creations are worthy of the trip in their own right (despite having closer and more convenient outlets in Hebden Bridge and Leeds). 

Pontefract to Barnsley 23/04/22

16.9 miles, via Southgate, Friarwood Gardens, Marl Pit Hill, Purston Jaglin, 

 Little Went Bridge, Offley Bridge, Hemsworth Lane Ends, Newstead, Havercroft, 

  Lund Hill, Monckton Main Colliery, Royston, Muscle Hill, Staincross, Mapplewell, 

   Swallow Hill, Barugh Bridge, Low Barugh, Redbrook, Wilsthorpe, and Greenfoot. 

The warm and bright weather that flanked both sides of the long Easter weekend doesn't seemed have endured as our next excursion rolls around, which is a shame as we are supposedly at that point in the season where Spring flips over to being mostly warm, and we start to schedule the longer trekking days accordingly, and having spent the opening quarter of the year keeping things relatively local, we need to start aiming further afield as there are plenty of new destinations to be had beyond West Yorkshire, and that will all start today, as we ride to Pontefract again, to start from Monkhill station once again. We depart at 9.30am under glum skies and a stiff breeze and set a course down the station access road, for a change, leading us to North Baileygate to pass around Pontefract castle to its west, to bring us by the partially ruined All Saints church before we set the southwesterly course for the day by joining the A645 Southgate, which takes us below the flats blocks and the spread of the old town on the hilltop, and above Baghill station, the old Pontefract General infirmary and the new Hospital, and the extensive Friarwood gardens, on the site of the Black Friars monastic establishment, the second such in the town. Tangle with the A639 at the west end of town, and keep on with the A645 as Wakefield Road pushes away, past a proper urban ruin below Priory Wood and uphill among mostly terraces on the rise to the west of the town, where we meet estates around the hilltop, once home to Pontefract barracks and its battlemented keep, now a business centre next to the modest home of the 8th Rifles, beyond which we descend down Marl Pit Hill, with the countryside being met past the Kings Croft Hotel and the crematorium, as we pass among the equestrian fields around Ravensknowle farm and its Farmer Copley’s produce store. The rural break isn’t a long one though, as the urban reach of greater Featherstone soon strings itself along the Pontefract Road-side, with the suburban ribbon accompanying us down to the derelict school site, an ideal spot for a redevelopment, surpassed by the new Featherstone academy behind it, before we land among the terraces that you’d expect in this former mining town, which has consumed the once separate village of Purston Jaglin at its eastern end , which is still one of the best names in the county, and we pass the White House inn before we quit the A645 at the corner by The Traveller’s Rest. 

Outwood to Fitzwilliam 18/04/22

10 miles, via Lofthouse Gate, The Nagger Lines, Stanley Ferry, Birkwood Common, 

 Newland Park, Goosehill, Warmfield, Warmfield Common,  New Sharlston, 

  Coalpit Field, Sharlston Common, Windmill Hill, Foulby, Nostell Priory, 

   Garmil Head, and Hemsworth Lane Ends.

The three day walking burn across the long Easter weekend is a rarer beast than might have been expected, as this turns out to be only the second time that I've actually completed one, the first time since 2019, and it's a good feeling to have as we keep the legs going in an intense burst so that we might keep the mileage up while other April Saturdays are lost due to the need for necessary socialising, and thus we head into the last trip from greater Wakefield to the local railway stations that I've never finished a trip out to, dawdling our way down to Outwood on a train that feels like its getting held at every signal. Alight at 9.40am, with not too many original footfalls to be made across the first hour or so as we seek the railway paths again, starting out via Lingwell Gate Lane and Potovens Lane as they lead among the suburbia of Outwood and Lofthouse Gate to the obvious hump in the latter where it passed over the Methley Joint Line, before seeking the path behind the back gardens to pick it up in the cutting that leads up to Leeds Road, as well as the section beyond the A61 that has now got its cycleway in situ, both of which weren't traced when we came this way in 2014, extending the accessible route as it presses on east towards Castleford. We'll take a right turn at Anaheim Drive to head south-east as we join the Nagger Lines, the old narrow-gauge railway that serviced Lofthouse Colliery, which now forms another local path behind the suburban gardens of Outwood and Stanley, which seems well used by local exercisers as it pushes us down to Rooks Nest Road and the packet of enduring green fields beyond as we come down to Lime Pit Lane, where the rails are still embedded in the tarmac, and acafe has developed in Spa Fold farm, with a hard path leading us on along the edge of the green before we cross the A642 Aberford Road. It's quite a descent to get to the low section, entering the fields around the meandering river Calder, which hides from view as we pass by Smalley Bight farm, as we look back to the terraces on the road into Wakefield and the treetops of the Stanley Marsh nature reserve beyond them, pondering how many times we've already paced these paths on our travels as we come down towards Stanley Ferry, at least carrying a better understanding of the industrial landscape of the area than we did during my novice days on the trail, acknowledging the Victoria colliery site to our right before we emerge onto Ferry Lane.

Ossett to Streethouse 16/04/22

13 miles, via South Ossett, Horbury, Horbury Junction, Lupset Hall Park, Thornes, 

 Wakefield (Kirkgate), Primrose Hill, East Moor, Southern Washlands, Blue Bridge,

  Ashfields, Half Moon Pond, Kirkthorpe, Plump Hill, Warmfield Common, 

   Butcher's Gap Lane, Mill Hill, and Snydale Cemetery. 

After a single night's rest, we're good to go again as Easter Saturday morning rolls around, though the weather isn't looking as propitious as it did yesterday, with early morning mist hanging heavy as we head out, having had to take planning slide rule to project this expedition as a train being absent thanks to the ongoing TPE-RMT beef and strike means that I’m presented with a window that’s either too short or too long if I use Northern’s services via Dewsbury, and that’s why we are today busing it via Wakefield to get to our start line in Ossett. Alight at 9.30am, to the west of the city this time as we aim eastwards, departing the bus station and finding a way down behind Ossett Town Hall and through the vacant market place, before we project ourselves away, down Station Road, passing the old town library and striking out as we are lead over the old station site, and on tracking southeasterly as we pass the Southdale playing fields and land in South Ossett without having ever noticed the join, landing among its statement terraces and getting no sight at all of its parish church as we come down over Manor Road. A field gap does lie beyond, as the road shifts its way around Sowood Farm and Rock House, giving us a mist shrouded look into the space to north of Horbury before we come around into the town itself, passing the Old Halfway House and the Victoria inns as the morning haze starts to rapidly burn off, and once we’re past the old Co-op store it looks like the sunshine will bathe the day against expectations, resuming the warm spell for the long weekend as we come down past the Memorial gardens, the old Town Hall and the public library. Beyond the derelict chapel and Sunday school, we meet the end of High Street, and check the Sowood – Westfield Roads off the untraced by any other route list, to find that it’s as pleasing a stretch as it ever was, offering vintage frontages and views up to St Peter & St Leonard’s church as we pass by again, and still prospering along our fourth(!) traversal before we shift down Cluntergate, with its awesome name and trio of drinking establishments that keep us company as we drop down to the A642 bypass road, which is crossed before Daw Lane and Green Lane can lead us into the residential band around St Mary's church.

Sandal to Glasshoughton 15/04/22

11.1 miles, via Oakenshaw Junction, Barnsley Canal, Heath Common, Heath, 

 Kirkthorpe, Newland Hall, Calverley Green, Altofts, Lower Altofts, 

  Wakefield Europort, Whitwood, Ackton Pasture, and Cutsyke. 

Having taken a weekend out to visit My Good Friends in Calderdale, and to get in my first night out on the town since the Covid Pandemic started, in Manchester, we can return to the trail feeling socially recharged, which is just as well as the long Easter Weekend is next on the slate, right at the cusp of the year starting to be warmer, and we’ve gotten a trio of routes to cram into the four days, from starting points around greater Wakefield aimed at railway stations that have yet to act as finish lines on my travels, and that’s what we have in mind as we ride out in the Good Friday sunshine. Alight at Sandal & Agbrigg station at 9.40am, and our route starts southeast, through the car park on the western side of it, to find the cycleway that follows the former railway spur that linked the GNR-GCR main line to the North Midland main line off to the south, rising over what feel like a mile against an already sharp natural gradient, to drop us down below one of the many Oakenshaw junctions at the northern edge of Walton village, which we turn away from to follow Oakenshaw Lane north, to soon see an Azuma making shot work of the ascent on its London-bound passage south. Passing north we can look to Wakefield on the horizon, and find a pony loose in the road before we choose to make a brief detour to trace the Barnsley Canal’s section that we didn’t examine in 2015, the channel that meanders north towards Agbrigg, still in water and reedy, forming its own sort of nature reserve with a developing right of way along the tow path, followed as far as the channel remains up to the allotments before overgrowth stops progress and we are compelled to go back the way we came, listening to the sound of the diesel trains making slow progress south on the railway. Back on the lane we spy the viaduct on the canal, and befriend the horses in the fields of Oakenshaw farm as we pass around it, to pass over more railway lines, the Crofton line and the spur to the North Midland line, which seems to be theme in this district as branches and links abound, before we are angled around to meet Heath Common and the A638 Doncaster Road, both of which are passed over, the former on an isolated stretch of former road among the rough grass and gorse bushes, and below the horses grazing the pasture to the south, with the remains of Heath Old Hall on the immediate horizon. 

Pontefract to Wakefield 02/04/22

11.1 miles, via Pontefract Castle, Pontefract Park, Park Hill, North Featherstone, 

 Snydale Villas & Streethouse, Sharlston Common, Brand Hill, Bracken Hill, 

  Heath Common, Belle Vue, Fall Ings, and Wakefield Bridge. 

There's only one day of Walking to be had whilst Down Country, as there's also three days of labour to be done around My Mum's house, and a sudden downturn in the quality of the weather to be contended with before we instead return to this season's regular stomping grounds in search of one of the few remaining trajectories in West Yorkshire that hasn't been traced, which involves installing Pontefract as our probable launch point for trails in many directions for the year, alighting at 9.30am again at Monkhill station, with all of the sunshine of two weeks ago, but none of the heat to go with it. To head westwards, we first fall and rise with Mill Dam Lane, past the Railway inn and the Hope & Anchor to arrive below the bailey of Pontefract castle, tracing it around Beech Hill and Castle Chain to land beneath the keep, and its quatrefoil donjon, before rising to the town up Micklegate and Horsefair, noting just how many tower blocks have been built up the hillside without spoiling the ancient aspect of the town centre beyond the Town Hall, along  Market Place to the Butter Cross and St Giles church, and down Beastfair to the war memorial. Split off Cornmarket by the old Courthouse, and descend off the hill via Sessions House Yard and Colonels Walk, between Haribo factory and Leisure centre to find the way down to the railway, which is passed under via the foot tunnel by the playing fields of Pontefract Collieries FC and the urban enclave that has developed around them, rising past Tanshelf station and over the A639  by the gates to Pontefract Park, joining Park Lane as it propels us along the suburban ribbon at the town's west end, past New College and up Park Hill, arriving below the prominent water tower. Having risen with the B6134 to a modest height, a westward view emerges, to the county's distant southwestern horizon, with Woolley Edge and Emley Moor re-sequenced ahead of it, giving us something to look at across the fields of blooming rapeseed as we work our way along the perimeter of Pontefract Golf Course, offering no views north through the hawthorn hedges until its full length has been passed, revealing the look over Glass Houghton and Castleford, and the look towards Leeds, peeking its highest towers above nearby hills, and showing the Aire-Wharfe watershed ridge bounding the city to its west and east.

Fosse Way: Narborough to Syston 28/03/22

13.7 miles, via Enderby, Fosse Park, Braunstone Town, Rowley Fields, 

 West End / Westcotes, West Bridge, Roman & Medieval Leicester, 

  The Golden Mile / Belgrave, Rushey Mead, & Thurmaston.

Pandemic conditions (as well as necessary housework and heatwave) means that it's been a while since we last dropped feet in Leicestershire, so while we are Down Country for a week, to attend a memorial service for a family friend and to aid Mum with some garden tasks and junk clearance, it's definitely time to get back in the Old Country saddle, and revive some plans that I've had on my slate since September 2019, to expand on the county experience that had been built via the courses of the Leicestershire Round and the Long Walk to Leicester, if we can recall that far. The scheme is to trace all the major roads to the minor towns around the county, and we'll be starting with those of Roman vintage, with the Fosse Way as our first, tracing its portion across the city from southwest to northeast, and not its full lengths to Exeter or Lincoln, and we'll not be needing to abuse Parental Taxi privileges to get the start line, as we can bus and train our way out, not starting too late as we're walking the first available day after the shift into British Summer Time, so it's not even a late start as we alight at Narborough station at 10.30am, under the bright sunshine that's lingered on for more than ten days now. This is easily the best vintage village station in the county, with all of its elements still in place and to be regarded before we press up Station Road to the main street by the Narborough Arms, to immediately get us onto our trajectory at the Coventry - Leicester Road corner, not on the actual Fosse but on the old A46, which has migrated away from the city through the 1970s to 1990s, taking the route northeasterly as it takes us past All Saints church and through a Leicestershire village landscape that I haven't seen up close in so long, as we're drawn out beyond St Pius X RC church and the end of the B4114 bypass road, where we pass under the M1. The city appears to lie beyond, but we're still in the county as we enter another suburban enclave, which is probably counted as part of nearby Enderby, just off to the west beyond the motorway, with the width of the road indicating it past significance as it pulls us up to the B582 Blaby - Enderby Road island by the Miller & Carter steakhouse, with St John's road taking us onwards, past the last fields to be seen on this side of the city, as well as Palmers Garden centre, the Park and Ride facility and the HQ of Leicestershire constabulary, ahead of us approaching the A653 Soar Valley Way, the outer Ring Road.

Pontefract to Leeds 19/03/22

15.3 miles, via Lady Balk, New Town, Toll Hill, Red Hill, Castleford, Whitwood Mere, 

 Methley Bridge, Windmill Moor, Methley Junction, Methley, Wood Row, Methley Park, 

  Oulton, John O' Gaunts, Haigh Common, Stourton, Thwaite Gate, Hunslet, 

   Pottery Field, Camp Field, South Bank, and Monk Bridge. 

As we meet the last weekend of the Early Season of 2022, and the last official weekend of Winter, it actually looks like we can start dressing for Spring, as the inconsistent weather, tinged by chills that were sometimes offset by sunshine, looks like it’s gone for a while, to be replaced by clear skies that look quite incongruous against the bare trees and barren fields, a lot like what we saw a decade ago, and thus the thick jacket goes away until October and the peaked hat comes out again, as our opening quest to the Five Towns need to be concluded by returning ourselves to the Big City. The campaign will begin Pontefract at 9.30am, and from Monkhill station this time as it’s never featured as a start point before, possibly one of the saddest town stations anywhere, but well-placed for a view to the remnants of the castle and the colliery from its footbridge (but no sight at all of the Ferrybridge power station cooling towers as they were demolished a mere five days after I passed them by last weekend!), from where we’ll descend to Monkhill Road, where we can take a path north, under the eastern station throat and away, taking us through the town’s northern suburban bands of Lady Balk and New Town, now desirable as they are longer overshadowed by the coal mining industry, though the remaining spoil heap of Prince of Wales colliery still looms above their eastern edges. The downhill press takes us under the M62, and into the green space that still keeps Pontefract and Castleford separate, with no cooling towers to see on the eastern horizon, and Xscape off to the west as Spittal Harwick Lane leads us sharply up into greater Castleford, with suburbia soon crowding the road as we come up Toll Hill, where we tangle with the B6136 Holywell Lane, and meet the junction by the former tavern where we split off, tracing the edge of the Fryston and Airedale estates as Redhill lane keeps us on our northwesterly trajectory. We're on Castleford’s highest hill up here, working our way past the recreation ground and the Redhill Sports & Social Club before taking the turn that leads us past the underground reservoirs, and the water tower and microwave masts that render this hillside distinct from far afield, and once up, its soon down again, steeply through a rock-cut channel on secluded section of road that the modern world discourages use of before we come out by Queen’s Park, and follow Ferrybridge Road downhill through the town’s Edwardian townhouse district, down to the Castleford Academy campus and the town’s civic centre. 

Woodlesford to Knottingley 12/03/22

14.5 miles, via Fleet Mill, Lemonroyd Bridge, RSPB St Aidan's, Shan House Bridge, 

 Methley Cut, Caroline Bridge, Lowther Colliery, Wood End, The Linesway, Allerton Bywater,

  Newton Ings, Newton, Fairburn Ings, Fairburn, Brotherton, Byram, and Ferrybridge. 

My New Lumix is Ready to Go, &
Old Lumix becomes a Paperweight!

After the expiry of my old Panasonic Lumix, and the temporary revival of my old Fuji Finepix, we are compelled to introduce my third camera of my walking career, another DMC-TZ70 which I managed to acquire at very short notice via John Lewis's, at a pretty modest price seeing that its model has been superseded a couple of times since I got my original one, while I'm not looking to upgrade as that would be an unnecessarily expensive and complicated business when I need my tool to be as ready to go as I am, and thus the black model replaces the silver one, restoring to my arsenal all the familiar benefits and drawbacks that I've grown accustomed to over the last four years, with the important reminder to try to keep it dry whenever possible. Thus armed we set out again, questing for the remotest of the Five Towns, travelling to Woodlesford to find it further away in time than it is in distance at the southeast corner of greater Leeds, alighting at 10am, and aiming a path down the course of the lower Aire valley, joining the pavement of the A642 and following it down to the canal were we join the path alongside the wide channel of the Aire & Calder Navigation, and follow its long length down to Fleet Bridge wharf, where the oil depot is gradually getting demolished and rise to the embankment of the river Aire, which we'll be tracing along the length of the section that we re-chanelled after the catastrophic flooding of 1988. All the river below the former opencast pit of RSPB St Aidan's is wholly man made, to be crossed above the weir at Lemonroyd Bridge, and leading us directly into the bird sanctuary, where the originally planned path has to be traced to its west, just to check that the path through the northwest lakes is indeed still flooded, with the floodwater still not going away after a month, before we resume our eastern track, taking us past a reedy lagoon, formed by the old river course, and the old Lemonroyd Lock chamber, and the old canal channel beyond, isolated by the passages of both having been completely re-dug, a short distance to the south.

Garforth to Featherstone 05/03/22

11.3 miles, via Lidgett, Kippax Lane End, Kippax Hollins, Kippax, Mount Pleasant, 

 Kippax Mill, Ledston, (Ledston Ings, Castleford Cut), Allerton Bywater, Allerton Ings,      Castleford, Hightown, Cutsyke, Ackton Pasture, North Featherstone, and Featherstone Green.

As our second decade of walking commences, we have a bit of a retro feel to things as my Fuji Finepix camera comes out of its four years of retirement to be my companion once more, amazingly still operational after so long in my drawer, though it did need new AA battery cells for it, having disposed of most of its original rechargeables as dead beyond use an age ago, so don’t be wholly surprised if this trip ends up looking more one from the 2012-17 window, with images presented in a slightly narrower visual yield and with overly emphatic contrast balance. We’re still in search of the Five Towns, as we alight at Garforth at 9.30am, on a bright yet blusterous day, rising to the side of Aberford Road, to follow the side of the A642 past the club, pubs and RC church to set our route southbound with the main shopping drag of the town, pacing the length of Main Street and keeping on past the library with the B6137 Lidgett Lane as it passes through the suburban sprawl beyond, with the police station and Garforth Academy among it, also noting the miners memorial outside it before we come down to Selby Road. Land by the toll house and try to vary up the choices of pavement as we track the A63 westwards, already at the urban limit of the town as we come around over the Linesway and up to Kippax Lane End, where we can finally start making tracks on a new footway as the B6137 strikes off south, with Leeds Road heading uphill and into the fields of Kippax Hollings which briefly offers us a horizon to the southwest before we are drawn into Kippax itself, stretching out along the road to the northwest but still keeping itself distinctive from Garforth, to the north. Suburban is the feel for the entire lane as it starts its long drop down towards its passage over Hollins Beck, passing the Sainsbury’s Local and the Moorgate inn, while proffering a view of the hilltop with the parish church atop it, which well have to rise towards through an older landscape, with terraces crowding the steepening roadside to give our thighs a burn as we head up, to meet the remains of Chipesch motte in the shadow of St Mary’s church, with the main street lying beyond the Library and the White Swan inn.  

Morley to Castleford 03/03/22

13.5 miles, via City, Low Town End, Tingley Common, Upper Green, Westerton, 

 Ardsley Common, Thorpe on the Hill, Lofthouse, Ouzelwell Green, Royds Green Lower,

  Newmarket Colliery, Methley Lanes, Scholey Hill, Watergate, Pinder Green, 

   Methley Junction, Castleford & Wakefield Greenway, Hightown, and Half Acres. 

When I booked my remaining days of annual leave from my allocation, dropping them between my regular early February and late March weeks to form a couple of long weekends, I hadn't realized that I'd given myself the opportunity to celebrate my 10 years walking anniversary on the day of 3rd March, a whole decade on from first finding my feet with FOSCL in the Yorkshire Dales, though the momentousness of the occasion won't be marked by anything too dynamic, as we are still in our early season phase, aiming at the Five Towns and starting from home after working a two day week. We'll start from Morley station at 9.40am, the same time as we set out from Gargrave in 2012, opening my second decade of trekking by striking south, up the steps flight and into the landscape of terraces that we've seen so much of in the last few years that there's little hereabouts that hasn't been paced at least once, though the path from Peel Street to Wide Lane along South Parade and down the steep steps certainly isn't one we've traced in the last nine years of local wandering, unlike all of those which lie beyond. The dirt path leads us across Magpie Lane and to the fields where Morley AFC play, with Glen Road taking us hphill through the estate to meet the old Morley Top line and the knot of enduring mills beyond on Topcliffe Lane, where we'll cross the A650 to add a bit of eccentricity to our choice of route as it leads us down the ginnel to the A6029 Rein Road, taking us through the suburbia of Tingley Common and over the M62 and past Woodkirk Academy, heading down to the Dewsbury Road passage, and noting that the difficulty for the day will probably come from my camera, which is getting less and less willing to play nice. Over the A653, we pass into the conglomeration of settlements which seems to encompass all of Tingley, Ardsley and all points in between, rising uphill with Syke Lane to Upper Green where we take a sharp left to get on course to the east, taking our side of Westerton Road as it passes through the heart of it, taking up past the Tingley Methodist chapel, Westerton Primary Academy and the British Oak inn, getting more delays as my Lumix struggles to operate, with the motor struggling to operate its lens, which has to be pulled into focus manually.

Allerton Bywater to Pontefract 27/02/22

 5.6 miles, via Allerton Ings, Castleford (Bridge), Glass Houghton, Pontefract Park, 

  and Tanshelf station. 

When you nab yourself a long weekend, your mind immediately thinks that your day off work has to be the one to use for any outdoor exploits, but when the situation presents a Monday that looks like hot garbage, it makes much more sense to move this to the Sunday, especially when there's only a relatively brief catch-up to be had and the weather is looking massively superior, and although the transport options are much more limited, it's going to be a 90 minute trip to the starting line regardless of the day, via the TPE to Leeds and the long ramble of the #168 bus. We thus alight at the Blands Avenue bus stop at 11.50am, at the end of the Wood End estate and across from the riverside ponds so that we might replicate the walk along Leeds Road through Allerton Bywater, past the primary school, the terraced triangle and the parish church of St Mary the Less, this time under a wash of bright sunshine, before Station Road leads us past the colliery memorial, unseen last time, and on past the splurge of suburbia on the brownfields to the north and on past the Railway Terraces and Letchmire Pasturees to the A656. We strike south here, with the Roman Road taking us across the apron of level fields that form Allerton Ings, with dampness still apparent all around, in the marshlands and arable fields, with the former gravel pits and workings to the east having filled with the floodwaters of the preceding weeks, ahead of the road kink that takes us over the Aire & Calder Navigation's Castleford Cut, past the enclave of terraces and industry on Lock Lane and over the mighty Aire, flowing with the force of two rivers as it heads eastwards beneath Castleford Bridge. Avoiding the town centre to the west, we'll continue south with Bridge Street as it leads us under the wide railway bridge and sticking with the A656 Pontefract Road as it rises up past St Joseph's RC church and school, past the ends of the mining vintage terraces that array to the south of the town and uphill beyond the The Magnet inn, between the playing fields of Castleford Academy and the urban wild park around Smawthorne Marsh as we crest our way over the ridge that the town has grown over during the last century, well away from the flooding risks posed by the river to the north. 

Micklefield to Normanton 26/02/22

14.5 miles, via New Micklefield, Peckfield Common, Kippax, Great Preston, 

 Fleakingley Bridge, RSPB St Aiden's, Methley (north), Mickletown, Windmill Moor,

  Methley Bridge, Lumley Hill, Whitwood Common, Hopetown, and Haw Hill. 

Only three rounds in, it feels like 2022 has gotten off to a bit of a slow start, but as I've got some spare days of annual leave to burn, we can hope to get back on track by pushing the walking agenda through a couple of long weekends, while incidentally landing on the last Saturday that hasn't had its date available to walk since I first set out in 2012, and it's with those thoughts ringing in my head that we return to the Leeds - Hull line for another jump off, at Micklefield (where I've never actually finished a trek) alighting at an inconveniently late 10.35am, thanks to losing a train connection along the way. Aiming for the Five Towns once again, our path takes us from the Old Great North Road, southwesterly, away from the mining settlement of New Micklefield, along Pit Lane, where the new suburbia continues to develop, past the memorial to the miners of Peckfield Colliery, and its overgrown site beyond, and down the rural lane to the cluster of cottages associated to the nearby Peckfield farm, before we are sent onto the green bridleway though the level fields of Peckfield Common, and around the landfill site which is gradually consuming the former quarry below the village. There's a feeling of altitude to be gained under the morning sun as the farm tracks beyond lead us down to the A63, just west of Warren House farm, where we join the footway to trace its side east for a distance, leading us over the 'Roman' Ridge Road, the A656, and past the Peckfield farm produce store before hanging a left turn onto the bridleway by Limekiln farm, which takes us south, past the Goodcomb Place cottages and in site of the old Ledston Luck pithead on the way over to Kippax, which looks like its suburban spread has continued to the north since we were last here. A footpath squeezes us in, past the new development and the earlier arrival, downhill across Sandgate Drive and between many back gardens before we are spilled out onto Gibson Lane, where we rise up past the allotment gardens and Ash Tree primary school before taking a right turn onto the footpath that leads past the school playing fields on the way over the graveyards that surround St Mary's church at the top of Manor Garth Hill, passing directly through the churchyard before descending Church Lane beyond.

Cross Gates to Allerton Bywater 19/02/22

6.3 miles, via Austhorpe, Colton Common, Swillington Common, Mount Pleasant, 

 Goody Cross, Great Preston, Hollinhurst and Wood End (Allerton Ings, 

  Castleford (Bridge), Glass Houghton, Pontefract Park, and Tanshelf). 

As we alight on Saturday walking for 2022, already two weeks overdue incidentally, we find ourselves in the wake of a couple of North Atlantic storms, Eunice and the already forgotten Dudley, which gave the UK a proper battering over the preceding days, but as the weekend landed, a strange sort of calmness seems to have settled in, making the day seem far more approachable that might have been expected, and that's the mood we'll take with us as we set course for the first of a bunch of visits to the so-called Five Towns of the county's eastern quarter, riding out to Cross Gates for a start after 10am. We rise from the brick-clad bowl of the railway station to Station Road and set off to the southeast as the A6120 Ring Road Halton makes its course out of the bottom right corner of Leeds, penetrating its way between the housing estates of Austhorpe and Whitkirk on a generally uphill track, passing the LDS church before landing on the Selby Road traffic island and starting the push out of the city past the retail park at Colton Common and the tangle of traffic at the interchange at the top of Bullerthorpe Road. Approaching the M1, the Thorpe Park development is passed, still expanding its commercial developments all the way up to Manston and Penda's fields as the spread of the city eastwards continues, coupled to the building of the new eastern relief road, which are left in our wake as we pass around Junction 46 and over the motorway to find countryside beyond, with the A63 taking us past warren House farm and into the last hamlet of the greater city at Swillington Common, with the Providence Place terraces still forming some curious outliers before passage across the Selby Road dual carriageway proposes its own set of problems. Split off the main road to rise southwards with Swillington Lane, where the very last suburban ribbon follows as uphill, all east facing with back gardens to absorb the afternoon sunshine, which we aren't seeing any of as we come up to the Leeds Lane corner where we shift easterly, finding plenty of evidence of the recent rainfalls in the road and fields as we look north to the spread of Garforth, cresting over the early day's summit among the fields and hedgerows on the way over to the A642 Wakefield Road.

Garforth to Sandal 09/02/22

12.1 miles, via East Garforth, Church Garforth, West Garforth, Mount Pleasant, 
 Swillington, Swillington Hall, Swilington Bridge, Woodlesford, Oulton, Royds Green, 

  Moorhouse, Stanley, Stanley Marsh, Stanley Hall, Pinderfields, Eastmoor, 

   Primrose Hill, Wakefield Bridge, Fall Ings, and Agbrigg.

If we're still doing midweek walking, that must mean that my original NIW week planning didn't come together, as I've been forced out of the weekends by the rotten February weather, and my intent to be elsewhere got rearranged by having My Mum come to visit instead, but despite that, the sun seems to want to shine on our parade as we continue building the framework to hang 2022's season upon, this time riding out to Garforth for a 9.35am start alighting at East Garforth, as all the stations on this line to Selby ought to be used this year. Once off the overly long footbridge, our way starts west along Green Lane, noting that suburbanisation has claimed all of the upper end of the old railway line down to Castleford, before Ninelands Lane is passed over by The Podger, and Church Lane is met to lead us through the old settlement of Church Garforth, with St Mary's looming over it, which in turn leads us to the bottom of Main Street, where the shopping drag is transited to land on Barley Hill Road, passing among the colliery terraces of the village before meeting the tennis courts and bowling greens. Turn abruptly into the suburbia of West Garforth with Poplar Avenue, and snake among the undulating plots of semis and bungalows via Kingsway, Westbourne Grove and Ringway in order to be propelled out onto the A642 Wakefield Road, just north of the traffic island in order to take this transport artery all the way to its namesake source, which means matching previously seen footways as we start over the A63 and head uphill to the south, past the Holiday inn and the Royal Mail office and into the fields beyond. It's a fine rise, with the sunshine illuminating the spread of Garforth behind us, the rise of the hills around Kippax to the east, and a sole look towards East Leeds before hit the rise up to the road crest by Mount Pleasant farm by the crest, the only feature of not up here aside from the picnic area and the quarry, where the Leeds Country Way almost got us lost, ahead of a switch of pavements and us running into Swillington village, past the polymer factory, the crescent of colliery vintage houses and the partly blackened St Mary's parish church on the corner.

Leeds to Wakefield 07/02/22

10 miles, via Camp Field, Pottery Field, Hunslet, Hunslet Carr, Belle Isle, 

 Sharp House, Robin Hood, Lofthouse, Lofthouse Hill, Lofthouse Gate, 

  Outwood, Newton Lane End, Newton Hill, St John's, and Kirkgate. 

Brevity is the theoretical theme for the blog as we move into Season #11, keeping the writing abbreviated as we move through and beyond the southeastern quarter of West Yorkshire, starting out by giving the year a framework to be hung upon, starting with s god handful of road treks, starting by travelling from Leeds to Wakefield via a novel route, alighting onto an almost pleasant Winter morning and leaving the railway station at 9.35am, out of the south entrance and making a way our via the brick  arched vault of Dark Neville Street, which has somehow never featured before. From Neville Street, it's over the Aire via Victoria Bridge and on down Victoria Road,along the edge of the Holbeck Urban Village and the historical Camp Field, Making a way around the traffic islands above the M621 and heading over the top of Dewsbury Road, to join Jack Lane, passing over the old railways and the locomotive works of Hunslet at Pottery Field to meet the A61 South Accommodation Road, which is crossed as we meet the suburbs of modern Hunslet. The Oval is followed, between Morrisons and the local playing fields, to meet the sentinel spire of St Mary's church, where Balm Road is joined, taking us over the railway by the freightliner depot and uphill through Hunslet Carr, meeting the Bile Beans sign ahead of passage under the M621 and starting the climb of Belle Isle Road, rising with the wide boulevard through the vintage council estate and passing across the middle of the Circus as we go. The city view retreats behind us as we rise up the long lane to land at the same latitude as the Middleton estate, passing over the end of the local Ring Road as Throstle Nest Road and Sharp Lane take us into the suburban band beyond, forming the outer edge of the city, before briefly passing into the countryside to pass over the M1, before we land on the edge of Robin Hood, where the A61 Leeds Road is met, to continue due south.

Out of The Dark Season, and Onward!

In all my walking years, I cannot recall a Dark Season which has passed as rapidly as this last one did, seemingly come and gone in about half the time that they'd normally take, and that has to be in part due to effectively going to ground completely after the end of 2021's open season, taking a well earned rest that rapidly turned into an extended period of isolation - hibernation as the risks posed by the Omicron wave of the Covid pandemic washed over ahead of Christmas, when all focus fell upon having a normal sort of Festive Season before we embarked on 2022's journey.  I can't place how we managed to get January to shift through so quickly though, as it's always the month of the year that feels like it's over six weeks long, but this one has flushed through in no time too, come and gone rapidly after getting in our necessary weekend of social interaction at its start while toiling through a busy month at the hospital which never gave me the opportunity to feel bored, with the sunshine returning in the evenings with almost indecent haste, all combining to make our passage from Samhain to Imbolc, via the festivities of Yule, almost bizarrely short. Maybe it helps to find distractions to pass the time away, and becoming a moon watcher in 2022 has helped with that, as I've never quite been familiar with its phases and location in the sky through its orbits, and this has been a particularly good month for watching it wax and wane, awhile taking an interest in seeing it in its crescent and gibbous forms, revealing it cratered features and many mares when contrasted in shadow, around the appearance of January's full moon, the Wolf Moon, which I can only hope every howled at on the evening of the 17th. Now having a decent idea of where to look for it in the mornings and evenings, that can be fitted in around a renewed engagement with a bit of astronomy, an interest of mine that has become very minor over the the last decade, and the month has also been spent spying Jupiter in the evenings during the early going, while chasing Venus in the dawning skies later on, both repeating the reality-altering experiences of my youth when I first regarded them with binoculars, namely spotting the former's system of Galilean moons across the vastness of space, and seeing the latter resolve as a crescent showing it as a planet, and not just a bright star in the morning sky.