Journal:
I slept fine
in the "doll's house", but Keith had trouble and
ended up sleeping out on the hard wood verandah,
although not very well. Our host, Winston,
reminded us at 7:30am that he was cooking our
breakfast and we wandered across to the main house
where he had done us proud. Although a local,
Winston had spent a lot of time in Australia, mainly
around Toowoomba, and we enjoyed chatting to him
while we ate. It was a big day in Horton-in-Ribblesdale,
which accounted for our difficulty in getting
accommodation, and Winston was also busy selling car
parking in his nearby paddock.
Apparently, not only was
it the local gala day, but there was a charity event
involving climbing three nearby peaks which had
hundreds if not more hikers, and the Oxfam 100km
Trailtrekker was passing nearby, as we discovered
later.
Keith and I started
walking around 8:30am on another dry and hazy day
and, following an old stone-walled farm track,
gradually climbed higher and higher. All
around, in the distance, we could see the three-peak
hikers travelling along paths and silhouetted
against the sky-line on ridges. There were
also a few other hikers, travelling along the
Pennine Way like us, including a mixed group of six
teenagers who we later found pondering how to get a
frisbee ring out of a dark cold pond they had
managed to throw it into.
Again, the scenery was
superb as we got higher and higher with views across
to moorland fells in the near and far distance.
Our path continued along mostly walled farm tracks
which were sometimes rocky and rough. They
took their toll on Keith's back up pair of shoes,
which were gradually falling apart and, before long
he was using my backup shoes (luckily the right
size) to preserve what was left of his for his train
journey home tomorrow.
Just before noon, we
passed a tent set up by the track which turned out
to be a Checkpoint near halfway for the Oxfam
Trailtrekker and learned that the first teams, which
had set out from Skipton at 7am this morning, were
due shortly. We were tempted to wait around
for a while and watch them come through, but carried
on. We learned later that the teams still
hadn't come through half an hour later.
We ate a couple of rolls
we had bought yesterday at the cafe for lunch in a
beautiful spot high over a valley and enjoyed the
sun. During the morning, I had finally managed
to call and book what appeared to be the last two
beds in the Hawes Youth Hostel, so we were a lot
more relaxed about our pace. After a long
descent, during which we took a non-fatal wrong turn
(i.e., ended up in the right place, anyway), we
arrived at the Youth Hostel soon after 3pm and left
out packs in the foyer (it didn't open until 5pm)
and walked into the centre of Hawes. The town
was buzzing with tourists, many of them hikers,
enjoying a beautiful summers' day in the Yorkshire
Dales. We had an ice-cream and a wander around
and I bought a map I needed for the next section,
and made out way back to the hostel to check in at
5. During the day we had seen Gay and Karen,
hiking separately, a few times and we all had dinner
in the hostel together before going into town for a
drink at one of the pubs. We have all enjoyed
each other's company over the last few days, but
will go our separate ways tomorrow. Keith is
returning to London by bus and train for work on
Monday. Karen is having a day off and Gay is
continuing on the Pennine Way, but not as far as me.
The weather forecast
tomorrow is not good and there is a big mountain to
cross. I have booked a B&B room more than 40km
away, so will have to get away early and maintain a
good pace. I've enjoyed walking with Keith and
we have had a good time. It's been like a
holiday from a holiday.
I passed the halfway mark
today.