Trip report: 9 days in the hills of England and Wales

Friday

Another week another trip - or so it seems.

We wanted to get away for some hill walking, so put in an early shift at work and headed off north in the afternoon for the Yorkshire Dales.

The journey took around 7 hours, mostly because about 50 miles of it was done in first gear on a 3-lane highway.

We eventually got off the big roads and into the countryside, and arrived at the farm we were camping in after dark. Thankfully we have stayed there before so know where everything is. Also thankfully the weather was good this time - last time it was in the snow, which is OK for the truck, but less desirable for me when I have to walk 200 metres through snow to get to the showers.

Saturday

In complete contrast to last time, the weather was glorious - these were our camping neighbours:



Last time we climbed Ingleborough in the snow, this time we set of for the next of the three peaks in that area - Pen-y-Ghent. We were not alone it turned out:



In Britain there is a "Three peak challenge" - this involves doing the three highest peaks in the UK in 24 hours. They aren't that high, the highest being Ben Nevis at 4400 ft, but to do three in 24 hours when one is in Wales, the other England and the third in Scotland is a tough challenge. Yorkshire has three smaller peaks in close proximity and people have taken to doing a mini challenge there - hiking those three peaks in 12 hours - they are close enough to hike between them rather than having to spend hours in a car).

Thus we passed group after group of people, often chattering merrily in their various charity fund raising t-shirts, rushing past us in the other direction. I guess they were chatting at this stage because it was the first peak of the three they needed to do in that day - they were probably less talkative by the third peak.

Near the top:



Coming down the other side - notice the dry stone walling, a feature of these parts - with plenty of stone lying around in every field, why carry fencing when your building materials are lying all around you - laying it correctly is still an art form:



Back in the valley we crossed over in the direction of Ingleborough - the peak we had climbed in the snow last time. I wanted to join the walks up, to get a better sense of the geography. I find driving to a car park, doing a walk, then driving to another car park and doing another walk doesn't really give a sense of the geography as it does if you join the various walks up - you can then appreciate that point X is only just over this hill from point Y, despite it being a circuitous car journey. On the way we passed the old railway station:



The previous day we had heard a steam train on this line, but were too far away to see it. Today as we ate our sandwiches a couple of guys walked onto the station carrying cameras and tripods. We stuck around for a little while, but no trains came by. We carried on our walk, and later we did hear a train pass, but it was clear from the sound it was just a diesel electric. Maybe these guys got the time table wrong, or maybe they were so keen on any train that hanging around on a cold station platform for an hour just to photograph a diesel-multiple-unit was justification.

Walked through one of the local farms - now this guy has the right tool for the job: