York: A walk on the wild side

The Lake outside our cottage, Lakeside Lodges, York
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This isn’t really the kind of holiday that I want to spend doing things, so today I take it easy back at the site. I spend some time watching the local wildlife, mainly birds but there are some squirrels to keep an eye on. The lake actually takes up the majority of the site, but somehow they manage to squeeze a few houses and lodges in as well. It’s a fantastic use of the space available and somehow manages to fool you into thinking you are in the middle of the countryside.

I quickly find out how effective this illusion is when I set of in search of a nearby nature reserve. A quick walk round the corner and I find myself in a typical suburban street, not too rich not too poor, just very ordinary. However I know that there are lakes behind the houses on both sides of the street and yet you simply wouldn’t have a clue they were there. In fact the homeowners may even be unaware because of the high hedges and fences at the back of their gardens. What a waste!

One thing’s for certain I’ve never hear a skylark singing in a city before.

Lakeside Lodges, York
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It seems to take me ages to walk along this street; it’s straight and exceptionally boring. Just as I’m beginning to wish I hadn’t bothered, I reach a T junction and turn left, looking for any possible entrance to Hob Moor Nature Reserve. In fact I very nearly missed it. There was a particularly unattractive 1970s swimming pool and what looked like an information board on the far side of the car park. It didn’t really scream welcome to me. However it did provide me with a gateway to another world, stuck in amongst the ever expanding suburbs of York.

The locals call it a moor but it’s described as a common with typical access rights to commoners. It’s a vast grassy meadow complete with cows, a fact I discover by narrowly missing a fresh cow pat. In the distance I can make out the towers of York Minster and the huge Ferris wheel that is currently installed beside the National Rail Museum (I saw this a few weeks ago on my way back from the Farne Islands). The site does give me a wonderful sense of wide open space and it must be a real life saver for anyone living nearby, possibly providing their only truly open and wild space. But I’m afraid for me, living in the countryside, it all felt a bit hemmed in and not quite real. This shouldn’t detract from its value; I’m just incredibly lucky and spoilt. It will remind me to appreciate what I have and not take it for granted.

I walk around the whole site, finally tracking down the cows and spotting the tiny fluttering dot in the sky that is currently singing its little heart out. One thing’s for certain I’ve never hear a skylark singing in a city before. Eventually I head back out into the street, into the city and back down the same suburban sprawl as before. However this time it seems to take half the time to cover the same distance – presumably because now I know where I’m going. As much as I liked the Hob Moor, I’m afraid it lacked water and right now in this burning heat, I want to sit beside a lake in the shade of a huge weeping willow.