The Yorkshire Wolds can be wet in August, but I read recently that 'in September there are often many days of unbroken fine weather', so you may have a drier time than us.

We pulled into Huggate, pulled on our waterproofs, passed the turn off to Warter and strode down Pocklington Lane.

A mountain biker shouted 'there's other mugs as well'. A child pedalled a pink plastic tractor and we only had to step on to the verge for one local farm lorry.

The wide verges were tangled with the trumpets of field convolvulus, a smaller version of the plant that plays so loud in the hedges at this time of the year.

The road work done, we took our first Wolds Way dry valley, dry as in no river. The saucer-shaped depressions of redundant dewponds were empty; the slugs were having a field day in Pasture Dale.

A jink around Jessop's Plantation, a touch of Nettledale and we joined the Chalkland Way and eased into Frendal Dale, a classic clean-cut shape, hardly a tree, a kestrel in the sky, bumble bees on the nodding thistles and a poppy or two on the white-flecked molehills.

This scenery makes for lovely walking, the emptiness exceptional. The busy prehistory is known rather than seen in the shadow remnants of dikes and earthworks.

Next came Tun Dale which is full of trees. A kestrel wheeled over the larches and put the wind up the wood pigeons.

Further north, we turned sharp right and, unusually for the East Riding, had a choppy time where there were shooters' posts but no waymarks, a gate was off its hinges, empty plastic 'Prime Flock' bags adorned the wood, a far from prime sheep lay dead on the grass and the bridleway was blocked with barbed wire.

This is all easily avoided by a convenient permissive track through Forestry Commission woods and I have learnt that this is the designated route of the Chalkland Way.

We emerged at a junction marked with moulded lumps of bell-shaped concrete; they bear the inscription 'Vallis Watermanhole'.

Water is normally much prized on the porous Wolds, but the farmers must be hating the rain. One had to feel for them as their fields of ripe wheat stood sodden, begging to be harvested, with one head of grain in a hundred blackening with mould.

A pair of stoats zipped over the track. A lone combine harvester was beached on a distant field. We saw the spire of Huggate's church and cantered through Horse Dale, heard the frantic hum of grain dryers and made it back to the village houses of chalk and brick.

Directions:

When in doubt look at the map. Check your position at each point. Keep straight on unless otherwise directed.

From Wolds Inn, right, straight over crossroads to Pocklington Lane. Take pavement behind house to avoid road corner, then wide verges.

As road bends left and 100 yards after a right fork, fieldgate/stile on right and left to valley edge path (signed).

Fieldgate on left at corner of wood to path, gate and right at next corner, path passes wood then angles down through scrub.

Right and up hill on grassy path immediately before gate (three-way fingerpost, sign Chalkland Way), over hill, down by fence, cross road to gate by fieldgate (signed) to valley bottom path (gates). Ignore valley on left then valley on right. Fieldgate to track through wood.

Track on right through woods (waymark).

Right to road, left to tarmac drive (Wold House Farm, signed), 100 yards before farm turn right to field-edge grassy track (waymarks).

Fieldgate to pasture and one o'clock down grassy gully to gate in valley bottom, ten o'clock on path uphill, left at top of valley, 100 yards.

Fieldgate on right (waymark) to track. Left to farm tarmac drive (signpost), 100 yards, fork right to path to bypass house, rejoin drive, right at junction with road to return to Huggate.

Fact File:

Distance: Seven and a half miles.

Time: Four hours.

General location: The Yorkshire Wolds.

Start: Huggate, the Wolds Inn.

Right of way: The route is along public rights of way and a permissive path.

Date walked: Friday August 20, 2004.

Road route: From York, A166, turn off before Fridaythorpe.

Car parking: Roadside, including wide verges on first mile of walk.

Lavatories: None.

Refreshments: The Wolds Inn.

Tourist and public transport information: Beverley TIC 01482 867430.

Map: Based on OS Explorer 294 Market Weighton and Yorkshire Wolds Central.

Terrain: Dry valleys and tops.

Points of interest: A new book called the Yorkshire Wolds Way by Roger Ratcliffe published by the Aurum Press £12.99. Mr Lundy, the countryside access manager for the East Riding of Yorkshire, is retiring soon, many thanks to him for the easy Wolds walking we have enjoyed over the years.

Difficulty: Moderate.

Please observe the Country Code and park sensibly. While every effort is made to provide accurate information, walkers set out at their own risk.

Click here to view a map of the walk

Updated: 15:07 Friday, August 27, 2004