Journal:
Keith and I
had a leisurely start to the day with an 8am
breakfast and then waiting until 9am to leave the
hotel so I could buy some maps and a new waterproof
map case from an outdoors shop nearby. We
started hiking out of Hebden Bridge at 9:20am and
were soon on a beautiful path following Hebden Water
upstream. The stream was clear and babbling,
there wildflowers all round and lovely shady trees.
We also passed a restored mill and several mill
ponds that were as calm as a mill pond. It was
very pleasant and we chatted as we walked along.
After a while the path
began to climb a little more steeply and entered
hilly sheep grazing land and we climbed over the
first of many moors for the day, each with a valley
to descend and climb out of each time. The
weather was superb and when we joined the Pennine
Way after about 10km, we were sharing the path with
quite a lot of other hikers. Because Keith and
I knew we had quite a long walk to reach Earby Youth
Hostel, and because we had had a very big breakfast,
we decided to limit ourselves to snack stops during
the day to save time (and there weren't any pub stop
options anyway).
At one of our rest/snack
breaks we were joined by a couple of enormous pigs,
family pets, I would guess, who were quite keen to
check out our rucksacks. It took all of my
strength to push one away with my boot while sitting
down, and then they left us alone and continued on
their way across the hillside paddock.
The weather meant that we
had great views from the moors in all directions,
and especially down into the green valleys with
their sheep pastures, stone walls, and historic
villages. As they day wore on Keith suffered
in the warmth and, I think, for not bringing enough
fluids. Climbing all the hills was thirsty
work and it was his first day on the trail.
There wasn't quite as much conversation in the
afternoon.
We eventually reached the
hostel around 7pm and quickly showered and walked
down to the village pub. [While I was having a
shower last night at our Hebden Bridge hotel, Keith,
who had just arrived from London by train, went for
a walk around town to find a pub where we could have
dinner. He returned to say he had found a nice
one about half a mile away. I said that there
was no way I was walking half a mile to a pub for
dinner and we ended up eating at the hotel where we
were staying. Tonight, when we checked into
the hostel, the manager told us there was a pub
where we could get dinner about 200 yards down the
road. Keith asked him whether there was one
closer!]
At the pub, we were joined
by two other walkers we had met during the day and
we had a very pleasant evening chatting about
hiking, travelling and running for a couple of
hours. The tanned Aussie and the three
sunburnt Englishmen!
