Very good night's sleep in my isolated tent, the stream giving a nice and soothing background noise. The tent feels so much bigger with only one person in it, luxurious almost.
Though not as big and luxurious as Simon's sole occupancy of a bunk room for four.
Wake at 6 and make cup of tea. I have observed that an auto-correct feature has made subtle changes to my blog. So I spend a bit of time proof reading and correcting previous entries. Breakfast in bed today, then everything packed away and over to the Green Dragon to check on Simon's progress. All looking good for 9.15 departure to meet Anita in Hawes.
While Simon is eating breakfast I go off to look at Hardraw Force, ¼ of a mile behind the pub. The route to the fall is locked and barred. The pub no longer owns the waterfall and it doesn't open till 10. Shocking
We set off and 9.20 across fields towards Hawes, where we are due to meet Anita at 10. The day looks bright and promising ahead and dark and gloomy behind us. We find Anita and she throws in a new problem. The car is leaking oil and she needs Simon to help sort it out. Looks like he isn't going to be doing any walking today. I head into town to pick up supplies pondering this new development. The answer would be to declare a rest day, but this would throw us off schedule. Contrary to our ethos of having a tent so we can vary our plans at will, we have started booking various people and places into our itinerary.
Soon however, all is resolved. The oil leak was simply the condensate from the air conditioning draining out.
So we set off from Hawes, Anita is going to potter in the valleys and meet us later. Much of today will be spent on the Cam High Road, another old Roman route. As we climb steadily the land becomes more barren, wetter, Reeder. Not at all like the lush valleys we have had recently.
It's another never-ending trudge up. As we reach the top, it only reveals further slopes to climb.
But we eventually reach the top of the ridge and we are in cloud. What was advertised as a spectacular high level march with fine views becomes a trudge through the mist, with no views, and a biting cold wind. I have gone from wearing a T shirt in Hawes to 4 layers in the space of 2 miles. The High Road is used by off-road vehicles, which makes for a very rough and rocky path, not pleasant to walk on. And it will go on for miles. Two trail bikes come up from behind us. The 2nd one stops to talk and it is one of the Belgian guys we had been chatting to last night.
We have lunch in a relative shelter of a large sinkhole.
We then meet a group of 4x4 off-roaders who had stopped for lunch. The guy running the trip is very chatty and pleasant, obviously keen to redeem the poor image of the off-road community.
Things now improve. Still v cold and windy, still unpleasant rocky path, but the cloud has broken and we can see the world. Above: We get a good view of Pen y Ghent, one of tomorrows delights. Also lurking in the back of the picture is the distinctive profile of Pendle Hill.
For a brief moment the rocky road turns into a tarmaced road, with the smoothest surface you could imagine. But not for long. After a No Vehicle sign we are back on stones. Another two trail bikes pass us. Minutes later they come back the other way at some speed. They are then followed by a police 4x4 going at low speed and studying maps. They are obviously working out how to intercept the bikes, and we enjoy the low speed chase.
The next form of transport we encounter is a small group of fell runners. There is obviously a race going on. There is a big gap between the lead group and the next person, but we will continue to be offering encouragement to runners for the rest of the afternoon. We have encountered the Yorkshire 3 Peaks Ultra, which offers 50 and 70 options and advertises itself as not for the faint hearted. The runners we were meeting had just been up Pen y Ghent and were returning to Hawes.
Back to our route. Long descent from Cam End into the Ribble valley.
The monotony of the moorland was briefly broken by Ling Gill, with trees and a very nice bridge over a river.
There was the rather spectacular site of a river disappearing into a cavern via a 60ft drop. There was a rope descending into a nearby cave, there was clearly a group of cavers down there
The aptly named Dismal Hill. There must have been a lot of contenders for this title
Our destination of Horton in Ribblesdale comes into view, and we suddenly meet Andy. He has picked up Simon's rucksack from Tan Hill and joins us for the last mile. We then meet Anita walking out from Horton to meet us.
I pitch my tent in the campsite, Simon is staying in The Crown, where we spend the evening. I borrow their bath, which feels utterly relaxing. Also wash clothes and leave them to dry on their radiator
Distance walked today: 16 miles
Total distance walked: 178 miles
Distance left: 92 miles
Good to see you in Horton! Look forward to stalking your progress
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