Meandering on through Mission

Arriving in good time, on the green in Misson, it was great to see the usual gathering of faithful wanderers, all braced against the wind.

Intriguingly Brian our walk leader had brought a guest along, whose milking parlour we would visit on route.

Suitably impressed the ten of us set off north out of the village, then turned right towards Birkhouse Farm, and onto Brickyard Lane, then a short diversion took us to the farm.

We were told the mixed herd visible in the distance, produced organic milk of the highest standard, which when processed was sold to America. They were one of only a handful of farms in the country able to do this. As we continued our walk Brian explained that much of the area had become flooded in recent weeks, and we would witness for ourselves the results.

So it was as we looped round to follow the river Idle back to Misson, acre after acre of flooded fields, some under a metre of water, came into view, and rough estimates suggest it with be March before these fields are dry.

It will certainly be worth another visit then, because for a short five mile two hour local walk it hard to beat. Thank you Brian.

The Ramblers also recently visited West Yorkshire, heading to Garforth, near Leeds.

In total 27 of us gathered at a public car park on Ninelands Lane including a couple from Garforth, who read about our walk in The Dalesman!

As we carried out our usual preparations it was already drizzling. But hay what did we expect? We set off in good spirits. From the car park we headed north along Ninelands Lane, then left along Church Lane and right up Station Fields before joining the busy A642 (Aberford Road) and crossing with care onto Barrowby Lane which after crossing the M1 footbridge becomes the Leeds Country Way, that we followed more or less north, then north west for two and a half miles. It’s fair to say the going was ‘mud, puddles and leaves’ but now by some miracle the drizzle had eased off. Reaching Scholes after a steady climb we were ready for refreshments, and made most welcome at the Buffers Inn (a former railway station) including being able to eat our snap indoors!

After lunch we headed east towards Barwick in Elmet, then via a rather convoluted route through the town/village entered fields south towards Garforth Golf Club. If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a hundred times, no matter how complex the route on a Ramblers led walk you’re guaranteed not to get lost. We managed to navigate the golf course without mishap, then another zigzag, took us under the motorway and into Garforth, via the railway station, and a Tesco superstore. Then it was a easy retracing of steps back to the car park. Thank you Keith and Sandra for a great walk.