Day 4 Hebden Bridge to Cowling

Hebden Bridge to Cowling 17 miles

Short description of todays walk, hot, long and seemingly never ending. Left b&b at 8-45 already in t shirt and sun hat, sun was out in force. Within 5 minutes I met Daan and Inge just about to climb steps from the town. Climbed, climbed then climbed some more just to get to the lovely village of Heptonstall.

Looking back down to Hebden Bridge

There was plenty more ascending to do today, days total was well over 1000 metres or in old money 3,300 feet. After going through Heptonstall

Heptonstall

and a few miles further we turned north to a small village, Colden. We made a short detour of 200 yards to go to a place that is in Pennine Way folklore, Mays Aladdins Cave, a farm shop that sells virtually everything for walkers and more. I suggested we had a cup of  tea, both the others agreed, they also suggested scones and jam, so roughly hour and half after a full breakfast I was filling my face again. We finally dragged

ourselves away, saying goodbyes to May, a lovely woman.
We soon reached open expanses of Heptonstall moor to reach sight of the first reservoir of the day then it was a climb down to a delightful spot called Graining Water. I spent a short time there taking in the tranquility of the valley and the sound of babbling water. Before I moved on 3 ladies I met the other day came along, soon as they saw how nice it was, along with the sunshine and the heat, they sat down on the side of the stream, shoes and socks off and sheer joy and relief was on their faces as they dipped their feet into cool water.

We then moved on to a string of 3, yes you know whats coming don't you, well done, reservoirs these being Walshaw Dean reservoirs.

One of the "5,000,000" reservoirs that appear on The Pennine Way

All three of us sat down for a break, but as there was literally no shade, I gave it 10 minutes then moved off on my own, I was better off keeping on the move. I climbed away from the reservoirs onto the moors leading to "Bronte country" close to Haworth, home of the Bronte sisters.
When I reached the top of the moor I thought I heard sounds created by the wind, but there was not a whiff of a breeze then I realised what it was, I could hear the sound of an unusual but lovely womans singing voice.
"Out on the windy, whily moors we roam", bloody hell Kate Bush is hereabouts, was I imaging it, was the sun getting to me, no, my sun hat is supposed to give sun protector factor of about 375 or something pretty high. Oh well, plod on Mick just savour the moment, imagine your Heathcliffe and let Kate serenade you.
Anyway, I soon came across Top Withens, some say it was the house Wuthering Heights was based on, but the place does match any description to how the book described it. To be honest I couldn't have given it a blind bit of notice, only what stood besides it, a tree casting shade, glorious shade. Backpack was off in a

Top Withens, more importantly a shady tree

flash, followed by my shirt, shade oh the pleasures you get from the simple things in life. Inge and Daan caught me up at this stage, we walked for a short while, but they told me to carry on while they redid their suncream. That was the last I saw of them until they turned up at the nights b&b a good 30 minutes after me.
Dropping down from that moor I passed by Ponden --------- (fill in the blanks yourself, you should now have a good idea what it is, it begins and finishes with R. It was then a short but steep climb leading to Oakworth Moor then Ickornshaw Moor, then what seemed an eternity walking over them. While I was going on and on and on, a phenomenom occured, I looked at my watch, 4-10. 4-10 was the time that a cloud somehow magically appeared and blocked the suns rays, bliss, sheer bliss for about a whopping 3 to 4 minutes. Eventually I came to edge of the moors to fields. I knew then it was the final part of the day, but I just couldn't bear to look at my map. Directions were good, so just used the waymarkers, if I had have looked I would have been disaster struck, it went for ages, and ages,

"Are we there yet", "No"

and then some more ages,

"Are we there yet", "Just told you no"

even another age if I remember rightly.

"Are we there yet", "Shut the hell up, no no no"

I then took the road into Cowling to the nights b&b,

"Are we th... yeah"

all ready for a short hike tomorrow to Malham, just under 18 miles, Mick what the bloody hell have you started.
I must confess, I didn't hear Kate Bush although I was singing it myself, sorry if you thought I was telling the truth, I don't care I've had a long, high ascending and hotday