My second walk with Chris, Maureen, and Jonathan from Leeds. Same as for the first walk I met them at the shops at Woodlands; it's convenient for Chris, he can just drop off the A1 and drive down the dual carriageway. We then drove to Wentworth Garden Centre where we parked. It was raining quite heavily when we arrived and continued to be wet until about midday, just as predicted by the weather forecast. After everyone had used the toilets and I had popped into the farm shop to check to see if they'd got any rabbit pies [they didn't] we set off in the rain.
It was very dark and miserable day, even when it wasn't raining - there's always plenty of colour at the garden centre though.
We started by walking along the village's high street; Wentworth is a very pretty village but nowhere looks its best in this weather.
We then found the footpath which goes through the fields at the back of the village, emerging out onto the main road opposite the entrance to Wentworth Park. After a few minutes we reached the stables block on our right. This is a very impressive building and I suppose if I hadn't built up the massive size of Wentworth Woodhouse earlier I could possibly have had some fun with my friends persuading them that the stables were actually the stately home itself.
A few hundred yards further on we got our first view of Wentworth Woodhouse, the largest private residence in Europe I think...with one room for every day of the year [no-one is sure as to how many rooms there are, 365 or 366.] Unfortunately you can't get up very close, but we posed for photographs with the impressive 606 ft long facade as a backdrop.
We continued downhill further into the park passing by a herd of cattle at close quarters and noticed the deer in the distance.
My plan was to turn right and head towards the village of Scholes. Unfortunately I was distracted by talking and enjoying myself that I missed the path and so we ended up arriving at the edge of Greasbrough, at a modern housing estate. After a boring walk of quite a few minutes we spotted a path that took us back into open country, passing through some lovely rolling countryside.
We finally reached Scholes, a village with some rather expensive-looking houses; I took a photograph of one of the front gardens which had a privet mini-maze.
At the top end of the village we took the footpath across the fields which would bring us out further up the road, much closer to Wentworth. We ended up getting slightly lost and had to climb over some fencing; fortunately it was new and quite sturdy and only Maureen struggled a bit with it.
We arrived back at the garden centre less than ten minutes later than I had planned; not a bad effort.
When I got home there was a letter from my GP's surgery on the mat. I had been for some blood tests nearly a fortnight ago and haven't heard anything and so assumed the results were negative. Well, that's not the case...I need to make an appointment to see the doctor; I was tested for rickets, malaria, hyperthyroidism, and diabetes.
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