And not a “Foreigner” in sight (unless north of the border falls into that category😁) and a very happy New Year to you all. “Cold in the Wolds” was one description while Michael chimed in with “Bitterly Cold” you kind of get the picture of what we faced as we gathered at Etton for a ride out to Millington. I suppose it is to be expected, it is January after all. Following what seems like months of rain, finally we had a dry day with light winds, no ice and even a hint of sunshine in the forecast.
Five Knights were all in good spirits as we set off towards Holme-on-the-Wolds catching up on the latest gossip and swapping Xmas stories. Along the ‘back straight’ we encountered our first “flood” with a stream of water running across the road, fortunately not deep and easily passable. A little further along as we approached the Goodmanham junction we almost had a pile up when Mel went into “dance mode” and decided to turn left while everyone else continued ahead. In the process he almost collided with Matt on his left before realising his mistake then when turning back overdid the correction almost running into Pugwash on his right.
From Middleton-on-the-Wolds we continued up to North Dalton ready for everyone’s ‘favourite’ climb up to Huggate. Thereafter we plummeted down into Millington pastures. Our next challenge was to climb the switchback near Millington Wood before the final run down to the Ramblers Rest cafe. Once again Mel’s “sat-nav” sent him the wrong way as he sailed on past the turn into the village despite the shout from Matt. Fortunately he didn’t get far before realising his mistake and turned up at the cafe just as we were about to send out the search party. While having lunch with a lovely cracklin’ log fire in the background we were joined by Colin who’d overcome his earlier “mechanical”
While discussing which way to return home avoiding closed/flooded roads around Goodmanham we initially thought to return along Millington Pastures until Colin came up with an alternative route back to Huggate. For most of us this was a completely new section, leading first up “The Balk” onto Givendale hill before joining with the York road and back into Huggate.
Rather than return the way we came, we continued on to Tibthorpe and Southburn before making our usual way home over Bracken to South Dalton and Etton. A very enjoyable ride despite the cold. Although we were glad to be out we were also looking forward to getting home to a warm bath/shower.