Sunday Rambling

We woke up this morning to glorious sunshine. It was still rather cold outside but we thought we'd go for a walk around Eccup Reservoir. The area is popular with walkers and with birdwatchers in particular. Eccup is one of the best places to see red kites, a once-endangered species that has been reintroduced in North Yorkshire to great success. We drove about 25 minutes out of Harrogate and parked our car at the New Inn, a cozy pub near the villages of Eccup and Weardly (I kid you not). From there we began hiking on public footpaths till we came to a path that encircles the reservoir. It was rather muddy going in spots and shortly after we began walking the weather changed from bright sunshine to gray skies, chilly winds and icy rain. Brrrrrr. One of the public footpaths took us across a field full of cows. They were all off in a distant corner but as we entered the field one of the cows began to mooooo quite stridently. I joked with Brad that they were planning to stampede us. To our surprise, the cows did begin to approach us, slowly at first, but at an increasingly rapid rate. We couldn't believe our eyes and oh how wished I had a camera at hand. We think the cows must have thought we were farm workers come to feed them or lead them back to their barn. Soon we crossed over a cow-proof fence. They all wanted to follow us, I just know it, but contented themselves with crossing over another field towards their barn. We continued walking and walking. The weather would clear up and the sun would come out. Then the skies would cloud over and the wind would pick up again. Typical English weather, I guess. We walked and walked some more. I think the whole walk was about 5 or 6 miles long. We ended up back at the New Inn, with sore muscles and grumbling tummies. We tucked into some delicious Yorkshire puddings then headed back home. We never saw one red kite during our ramble, but Brad spotted one as we were driving home.