Day 103 of the End to End in 2019 was a wonderful and most memorable walk across the Black Isle. Last year was a butterfly summer such that warm winds from the south had blown thousands of Painted Lady butterflies to the area. I well remember walking round a corner into a huge cloud of them, more than I could count.
This year, I’ve not yet seen a Painted Lady, but winds have mostly been coming from the west. However, I have seen a lot of other butterflies. Today on our TPT Eastwards trek there were quite a lot. With regularly spaced buddleia along the small Yorkshire lanes there were plenty of Peacock and Red Admiral. But there were even more Large White and a small orange butterfly called Gatekeeper.
The best section of the walk was through Owston wood, a lovely shaded green route. Lunch was at Trumfleet, a village with a very large name stone. But more importantly it had two seats, one in a bus shelter for bad weather. The second, opposite it, in the sun was the one we choose. Trumfleet was a, small village but it had two seats!
It also had a disused railway route unfortunately not used by the TPT. We therefore walked round to Braithwaite by road and finished in the car park by the New Junction Canal.
From the remembered bible, psalm 1. You will be happy is you do not ‘sit in the seat of scoffers’ but stick to God’s ways.
For the comfortable seat,
The lunch to scoff with a friend,
And the way ahead on a sunny day,
Thanks be to God.
JAL 29.07.2020 TPT east, Bentley to Braithwaite.