Walton Nature Reserve

 Wednesday 15th May 2024.               Walton  Nature  Reserve 

For today’s adventure John, Brian and Mark would travel from Leeds by the 10:21 train heading for the outskirts of Wakefield, their destination stop would be Sandal / Agbrigg, there to meet them would be two relatively local residents in the form of Glenn and Dave. From the station they would walk along the high street for a few hundred yards before heading in the direction of the Montague Allotments, a rather large area of gardening facilities for the residents of Agbrigg. Eventually they would reach a footpath that would lead them alongside the old disused Barnsley Canal. Following this pathway for about three quarters of a mile or so before crossing a country road and then on to the nature reserve here created on the site of the old Walton Colliery.

It was an overcast morning with predicted rainfall at some point , as we rambled around this area of man made scenery, it would be just a few spots that happened to fall nothing to spoil our adventure. Various forms of wildlife were spotted which included a heron standing by the waterside a group of swans swimming along with the company of a few other species of ducks etc. On to one of the fishing lakes now and a chance to sit for a while and enjoy the reality of this nature reserve, the various songbirds whistling out their tunes only to be disrupted now and again by the close proximity of the main railway lines .

Nevertheless it was great just to be out in the fresh air and enjoying our time here in this particular area. Now gathering our belongings we ventured a little further into a woodland area and started to make our return journey, this time to the village of Walton and enjoy what a local cafe has to offer for our lunchtime meals etc. The Whisk Cafe is only a small establishment but catered for our needs perfectly, they even extended their breakfast service to suit some of our requests. 

Having spending almost an hour here in the cafe discussing what future destinations we would envisage entertaining, it was time to leave Walton by means of the 196 bus , instead of the lengthy walk to the station at Sandal/Agbrigg this was a much easier option giving the Leeds lads the opportunity to take an early train back to the city. Glenn was the first to say farewell has he lives close to the cafe, Dave took the bus ride in order to make it back to the car whilst guiding the lads the now shorter distance to the station.John , Brian and Mark able to catch the 14:07 back to Leeds and then make their respective journey home.

Yet again, another great day out with the Lads

Cheers Everyone.