Wednesday 13 June 2007

Day 7, 31 May 2007, Gargrave to Horton in Ribblesdale

Our first seriously long day, at over 20 miles on our route. The late start was unhelpful. An easy walk from Gargrave towards Airton then Malham, only inconvenienced by an apparently wrongly-angled Way marker at Haw Crag losing us 40 minutes.

In Airton, interesting to see the old mill converted to “executive apartments”…miles from anywhere.

Into Malham and what a surprise. The whole village and surrounding area were celebrating “Evolution in Malham”, with very large fun models of dinosaurs, scary monsters, Dr Who characters and all sorts of other things…the village children had to collect as many animals as possible, plus sightings of small Tardis models hidden all over the village. The impression was that the whole village was playing and the atmosphere was wonderful.

Out of Malham, up the side of Malham Cove – a stiff climb up steps – then on to Malham Tarn, a large body of water in part artificial. A Way marker would have been useful at the top of the steps. After the Tarn, a pleasant walk as far as the eastern edge of Fountain’s Fell (668 metres), once farmed by the monks of Fountains Abbey.

Climbing the Fell was a stiff two hour climb, especially at the end of the day. We had decided, because of the late start, that if we didn’t reach to top of the Fell by 6.00 pm then Pen-y-ghent would not be safe to climb as we couldn’t guarantee to complete the route in daylight. Unfortunately, it was now 6.30 and becoming overcast.
Common sense prevailed and we descended over the Bracken Bottom Path into Horton.

Overnight into the Crown, where we met Richard (Mr Ferrari) and Adele, who are also covering the whole Way. All had too much to drink, partly because this is the end of the southern section of the Pennine Way. A milestone.

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