Day 7 Horton to Hawes

Day 7 Horton to Hawes 14 miles

After the day I had yesterday I am to worn out to write much today. Although the views from the fells were excellant there is not a lot to describe in detail, I will let a few photos do the talking.

Ling Gill

Ribblehead viaduct

Tomorrow I'm looking at an early start, destination is to the highest pub in the country
Tan Hill Inn

Day 6 Malham to Horton in Ribblesdale (wednesday)

Day 6 Malham to Horton 15 miles

A day I will never forget, I will get to that later, but the day started by leaving a very nice Beck Hall, our previous nights accommodation. Being accompanied by my wife Liz doing a short stroll to see Malham Cove a huge wall of limestone that many, many years ago used to be a waterfall, a waterfall to rival Niagara in size. Its less than a mile from the village so it was soon for us to say goodbye for the day.

A misty Malham Cove

Liz waited while I climbed the stone path up to the top, hoping to see me and maybe take a photo, it wasn't to be. Mist was enough to obscure any sight of each other, I did wave my arms about like a loony in the hope she might have seen me, she didn't. I walked along the top over a path of limestone blocks, created by water erosion over the years, then alongside Ing Scar

Limestone pavement

Ing Scar in mist

to reach Malham Tarn.

Malham Tarn

Once you leave the tarn you then have a long gradual uphill climb to get onto Fountains Fell, and its on top of here I saw my first glimpse of something I was really waiting to see, across the dale stands Pen y Ghent, the first real mountain on the PW. It looked stunning, absolutely amazing, looking at the side you have to climb from must get everybodies adrenaline flowing, mine certainly was.

First view of Pen y Ghent

It actualy took me much longer to reach than it should have though.........................
Descending Fountains Fell I felt rain starting, there was dark clouds forming, waterproofs was put on pronto, it got heavier as I reached the roadway you take south to pick up a track for Pen y Ghent. The rain was getting heavier at this stage, enough for me to take shelter with 2 other guys by a tree lined wall. We were all surmising how long it would be before it stopped, 5-10 minutes. No, sheltering wasn't helping neither, I took the bull by the horns, carried on to see if I could get any better shelter further on. The rain got heavier, the road was saturated, I reached the track where I had to turn right, then came across a building, and cover. I went and stood under an arched area that was dry. The rain kept getting heavier, then heavier, I saw a figure I recognised, Thomas the Texan, I think he was doing the breaststroke, he came straight over. Thunder and lightning then started, more rain came, it hadn't restarted, it just got heavier. A clap of thunder, it was the voice of the PW god of hills, mountains and moorland, "Mick, you can now officially call yourself a Pennine Way walker", then it rained some more. We were then joined by three walkers, one who was under the trees earlier and two others. None of us could recall seeing rain as heavy, one guy was an Aussie, we had Thomas from Texas, Peter did say he remembered a storm in Essex back in ........1958 similar to what we were witnessing. As I recall, I can remember rain like it, a few years ago in bloody Cambodia. With the thunder and lightning carrying on we all wondered if we should let common sense prevail and abandon the climb up Pen y Ghent. Anyhow, after what must have been approaching half an hour, the rain started to abate and more importantly the thunder was moving far off. We all went together, we got to the start of the two part steep ascent,

All set for the top

got rid of waterproofs and got to the top in short a time as you realise. Was it worth it, you bet
 your dam life it was, I would have regretted it if I didn't do it, mist had cleared, veiws were marvellous.

Satisfaction on reaching the top

After all our endeavours and taking photos we made our ways down a rough uncomfortable track into Horton.
After what I have been through on this day I am more and more confident that I will finish this walk if it kills me, probably by drowning!!!

Day 5 tuesday 7th

Day 5 Cowling to Malham 18 miles
Not too bad a day, sun was out from the onset as I left Woodland b&b where I have never felt so comfortable in any accommodation ever. That's thanks to Sandy and Susan Black, you couldn't wish to meet a nicer couple.
Most of the days ascent takes place in the first 4 to 5 miles, so to get the business part of the walk done I didn't stop for a rest until I reached the top of Pinhaw Beacon. Before that it was a uphill slog out of Cowling then downhill and through Lothersdale, a quiet little village that was still asleep.

View back down into Cowling

Lothersdale

 

 

 

On top of Pinhaw Beacon

Then it was all uphill to Pinhaw Beacon where I met Daan and Inge taking a rest. They had been there a while and were ready to carry on so went on their way. I stayed around for a short while resting and admiring the 360 degree views. It was then a gradual walk down to Thornton in Craven then a right turn to take me north heading for the end at Malham. Not a great inspiring walk, pleasant but nothing to get your pulse racing, it included a short canal towpath walk coming across a well known double arch bridge at East Marton. This occured when the new road was built, rather than demolish the original, the new bridge was built on top.

I'd caught up with Daan and Inge by now and very soon after we decided to have lunch, and stopped at a nice pub doing food alongside the canal at Williamson Bridge.

I then carried on by myself, they were quite content to sit for longer, I get a bit restless after a while, so I went on my way, soon reaching the town of Cargrave,

Sign in Cargrave for PW walkers, looks like I'm getting somewhere

passed through then just before reaching open countryside again, I had rain for the first time since I'd started the PW back in Edale. I was reluctant to put waterproofs on, the heat and humidity being high. Within 10 minutes I was restless, rain was making it feel cooler so out came my top coat, hood up, head down and I passed field after field until I reached Airton.

Riverside path after Airton

The rain then stopped, so I put my coat away and had a much longer riverside walk than I imagined to Malham, getting there at around 5-45 a long 9 hour walk in hot, humid and rainy weather. Was I tired? yes I was but still in high spirits and ready for a very eventful day to come