Day 32: Delightful Day in the Dales

Fortified by last night’s fish and chips, I was walking straight from Bainbridge Ings caravan site today, through Hawes and onto the ascent up Great Shunner Fell.

The first couple of miles were chilly and through the sheep fields that are so typical of the landscape in the dales.

Despite the weather forecast, as soon as I started the climb, the sun came out, the wind dropped and the temperature moved up a few notches - a beautiful day for walking.

Great Shunner is the third highest mountain in Yorkshire (2349 ft, Andy) and it is a steady walk uphill for 4.5 miles. I passed one guy with three dogs early on and then saw no sign of human life until I reached Keld three hours later.

As I moved higher, the sheep soon disappeared and finally even the skylarks had gone. With barely a breath of wind, if I stood still it was utter silence - probably no-one within three miles of me. A marsh lizard scurried across my path and it occurred to me that it might just be me and him that had survived the apocalypse. (I don’t know if marsh lizards exist but I was on a marsh and it looked like a lizard.)

The path was boggy in places and thousands of paving flags had been laid to improve walking conditions, much to the chagrin of walking purists. Forget that, I’m happy to keep my boots dry, as is my boot-cleaning man.

The flags have largely been obtained from closed-down mills and you can see several have holes where machinery was once bolted in - some even still had visible screws showing the provenance of the flag. I like to think these housed something like an early version of Hargreaves’ Spinning Jenny and were responsible for piles of socks and the occasional jumper.

At the top of Shunner there is a perfectly designed four-sided shelter. In normal circumstances, I guess you take your pick of which side is sheltered from the wind but today I sat sunny-side and applied a little more lotion.

I lunched down the hill in Thwaite and was delighted to meet good friends Jo & John and Sue & Dave. John has been a neighbour for 20 years but we only grew to know each other after my retirement and are now regular cycling, bowls and backgammon buddies. These are the things work used to get in the way of.

Dave has just returned from Portugal where he starred in a walking football tournament, the only time someone associated with Everton will be appearing in Europe anytime soon.

They accompanied me on the seven or so mile walk to the Tan Hill pub and their support was greatly appreciated. The Tan Hill is the highest pub in England (1732 ft, Andy) - my friends are staying overnight in their exclusive accommodation in the pub; Phil and I are camping in the car park for a tenner. No electric, and we can’t get the fridge working on gas. Lovely meal with the gang, though.

I’m off to Middleton tomorrow; it’s supposed to be a tad boggy underfoot. I’ll take a spare pair of socks and hope the boot-cleaning man is up to the task.