Cycling day 50: Osmotherley to near Riccall

I’ve been very lucky to have great weather for at least part of my time in each of the national parks that I’ve passed through. This continued to be the case for my departure from the North York Moors National Park.

My journey started off via a traffic-free track then took in some quiet roads. At one point I stopped to take some pictures and spotted a frog on the road.

During my journey I found three portions of the recently renumbered NCR656, which I found a little confusing. They all lead off to the east from the route I was following, so this confused me — I thought that a point of the renumbering was to remove the ambiguity of braids with the same number, but this suggests that NCR656 is itself a braided route. I also discovered a portion of NCR657. I’ll get these entered into the OpenStreetMap data once I manage to catch up with my data entry and get Internet access again.

The cycle route between York and Riccall follows a former railway. It’s one of the earliest such cycle routes in the country. It has a scale model of the solar system along its length, developed by the University of York, which gives an appreciation of the completely different distances between the inner and outer planets.

At my accomodation I was unexpectedly given a 1955 map of the York area, after mentioning my interest in maps. Another surprise was being invited to a BBQ being held that evening.