The clocks went back today so we had an hour less in which to do the walk. The weather was drizzly to start with, a rain shower at lunch time but then it cleared up in the afternoon although there was still plenty of mud. The best thing for me about today's walk was the autumn colours of the trees, just a pity the sun didn't shine to show them at their best.
Quite a lot of the walk was on lanes and tracks and fairly flat so the going was easy from Gillamoor, through Fadmoor and down to Hold Cauldron Mill.
After this the path climbed steeply to the top edge of a wood where we decided to have our lunch in the rain!
Fortunately the rain wasn't too heavy and we were all ready for something to eat so we didn't mind too much.
After walking along at the top of this wood we crossed a series of fields before dropping down again on a muddy track through the woods. Many thanks to Stuart for a helping hand down the slippy bits as I was a bit scared of falling and hurting my delicate shoulder! Anyway all was well for me although a couple of people did slip a bit.
There was one very steep climb as we ascended the wooded slopes of Riccal Dale up a muddy track through a very dark wood that was very atmospheric!
As we approached the Keld Lane track bearing off to the right a few people decided to shorten the walk and continue down the road to Helmsley. A few soon turned into many and it was a much smaller group that took the Tabular Hills walk down Ash Dale. I am so glad I did this part of the walk as the track was wide and it dropped down gently through the beautiful trees until we turned off and zig-zagged over the fields into Helmsley.
It was just on 5 o'clock as we arrived at the market cross in Helmsley but too dark to take a photo. A few more minutes to find the coach park which made us a little late but nobody seemed to mind and at least we had done the whole of the walk!
This completes the Tabular Hills part of the walk and we will resume next March in Helmsley to start the Cleveland Way.
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