Sunday 6th November 2022 – Wakefield – West Yorkshire
Verna has been leading Weekend Wanderer’s on this traditional Wakefield walk in November for eight years now. It started at 9.15am from Anglers Country Park as usual, but a new route soon became obvious. By 10.30am we took a short coffee break. We followed footpaths in the vicinity of Walton, where we passed through Walton Colliery nature park. This is a Council managed site, formerly Sharlston pit, regenerated with woodland and lakes and has good paths throughout.
From 12.15pm we had a 90 minute lunch stop at the Royal Oak, Crofton, a favourite real ale pub of Weekend Wanderer’s for several years now. The pace of the walk had been quite fast and we were back on the coach before 3pm. It was a very enjoyable day out with friends and no strenuous hills, with plenty to look at along the way including ducks, geese and swans on the lakes. The short journey home meant we were back in Doncaster before it got dark.
- Start and finish point – A circular walk from Anglers Country Park.
- Walk leader – Verna Holmes.
- Number of walkers – 27.
- Distance – 8 miles / 13 kilometres.
- Terrain – Paths and trails through rural countryside, woodland and beside wetlands, with very moderate undulation. Very few muddy patches.
- Highest point – 75 metres / 250 feet
- Weather – Sunshine all morning which gave way to rain showers after our lunch stop. 8 degrees C was mild for this time of year.
Club news – Jean Torrington asked for a volunteer quiz master for the December festive walk and carvery. Ian, accidentally?, put his hand up so will be organising the quiz. Dress code for the next walk is optional but I think a few are planning festive hats at the party. The 2023 walks programme was nearing completion.
Credits – Verna Holmes was thanked for leading the walk and David Torrington for helping with the recce and backmarking today. Dave Tyson, David T and Vivienne Dales kindly provided additional photographs for this blog. Thanks also go to Vivienne for kindly stepping in at short notice to do the September and October blogs.
Author’s memo – This was my first club walk for three months due to knee ache. I will have to miss some walks in the early months of next year until, hopefully, I regain hillwalking fitness.
