Fridaythorpe to Wintringham - 17 miles

It was a grey start to another long day, the beginning of which we managed to put off with another visit to the adjacent cafe for breakfast.

For three miles we crossed fields and dales of green and brown grass until tiny Thixendale and the forlorn hope of coffee in a pub, no longer open. We left the Wolds trail briefly to follow the Centenary route, past the village cricket ground sitting neatly in a dale of lush grass, up to higher ground of fields and woodland and then a long stretch to the isolated and abandoned medieval village of Wharram Percy - a tiny stream, a ruined church and a sense of history that sits at the end of a curving shallow dale. 

We lunched near the skeletal church and pressed on along mud tracks, past expansive fields of brown tilled earth, dotted white with chalk and flint and awaiting spring. Under clearing skies we climbed through pasture and plantations, enjoying afternoon sun and the sweeping views behind. A foot punishing road took us to the tiny village of Winteringham, no facilites but some beautiful cottages of white chalk.

Afterwards we climbed, gently at first to reach woodland and then up a steep and heart pounding hill, the signpost at the bottom comically pointing upwards at forty-five degrees giving a warning of what was to come. Tired and sweating, we broke out of the woods at the hilltop onto flat grass and alongside a modern sculpture. We enjoyed a moment of tranquility amid long afternoon shadows with the sky reflecting in the large dew pond which formed part of the art installation. Ahead, views across the Vale of York to the western horizon while behind ancient earthworks told of others who would also have enjoyed this setting but who would have been here for more practical reasons.

It was a short walk to the nearby farm where we planned to camp. However, the promise of a cold night and the kindness of the owner saw us both eating and staying in the warmth of the campsite's cozy washing room although as it turned out we slept with the door open: the heat that had seemed so welcome when we arrived after a day of walking became oppressive when we had to spend all night in it.