In the morning we positively skipped along, from Barton, past South Ferriby, and onto what the walk directions described rather over-enthusiastically as the high plateau of the Wolds. Images of something out of a Western were soon replaced by the reality of several large fields of stubble, slightly higher than the surrounding countryside.
This being Lincolnshire, we had to take our pleasures in the unspectacular. There was plenty of interest: a vast flock of Canada geese lifting off from a field and landing on the shoreline of the Humber; the conveyor linking the chalk quarry at Middlegate with the cement works which it serves; the rapidly changing colour of the Humber as this morning's cloud & mist cleared away.
After lunch our pace slowed, and even my ability to be entertained by the landscape began to flag when we spent an hour walking through a series of vast fields of beets. Concealed under this intensive agriculture were the remains of an airfield, Elsham, used by the Royal Flying Corps during WW1 and Bomber Command in WW2, but there was nothing visible.
Again there were small sights to enjoy: hundreds of seagulls descending on the worms turned up by a ploughing tractor; a small orchard with crab apple trees laden with fruit; and finally the Whistle and Flute in Barnetby, the only surviving pub in the town & a very welcome sight after 6 hours of walking.
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