LEJOG day 37: Hawes to Keld
Today had all the makings of a feel-truly-sorry-for-yourself day: Sarah has gone back to her real life, so I was walking on my own again, over lots of moorland which we all know isn't my favourite, and the forecast was for 24 straight hours of pouring rain and wind, a delightful combination at the best of times but particularly when you're on the top of a high thing on your own.
Yesterday's day off Hawes was a day of two halves: Sarah and I extracted all possible entertainment from the Wensleydale factory in the morning, including an excellent round of tastings in the shop, and I spent the afternoon reading and napping. I bought myself some cheese, naturally, which is - to quote the information boards - real Yorkshire Wensleydale, not stuff marketed as Wensleydale, which can be made "as far away as Lancashire - or even Shropshire" (emphasis mine). I intend to eat this quality product by biting straight into the wedge, ideally on a day when it isn't raining so hard all the flavour gets washed out.
My walk today actually didn't feel as grim as I was anticipating- but then I was anticipating it feeling very grim indeed. I quite like rain, especially heavy rain, when I know I don't have to be out in it long - which was not the case as I set off today with at least 6-and-a-half hours of walking ahead of me. I turned down the landlady's many offers of a lift to Swaledale, which I began to regret approximately 150 seconds down the road, but then the path turned out to be well-marked and mostly flagged so I switched to feeling all impressed by my own resilience and such. The trouble is that can only last so long.
I had my lunch sitting in the only bit of shelter to be found, a cross on the summit of Great Shunner Fell, which OS informs me is a 360-degree vantage point of sufficient importance to be marked, but thanks to the weather I took a single glorious photograph of mist to share with you all. Just as I was losing the feeling in my fingers and gaining an unpleasant awareness of how very wet my feet, arms and shoulders felt, a couple of walkers emerged out of the rain coming the other way, which at least confirmed I wasn't the only person mad enough to be out and lifted my spirits significantly- as well as soothing me with the knowledge that my body might be found within the day if something went terribly wrong.
I virtually ran down the lovely flagged path off the Fell, passing several rather unhappy-looking wet people climbing up, one of whom informed me tomorrow's walk involves "a right bog" (what's new?!) and another let me know that the path for the rest of the day was going to be terrible. I ignored them both and focused instead on the blatant lie I'd been told about it all being downhill for the rest of the day (I knew it wasn't but it made me happy to believe).
It was actually all ok from there. The rain even lightened up somewhat and I got to see the hills on the other side of the valleys. I was still soaked when I arrived, though, but the lady at the B&B was so overly excited to meet "our first proper long-distance walker!" that I almost didn't care. I've never before met anyone so delighted to be handed so much dripping wet hiking gear.
With any luck, the inside of my boots might even be dry by tomorrow.
Distance walked: 14.32 miles
Time taken: 5h48
Percentage completed: 50.7%
Miles per £1 of boot: 4.59
Days since I was last rained on: 0
Lunch: one lamb and mint sandwich, one turkey, stuffing and apple roll, both wet; snacks were a banana and a packet of crisps because without Sarah to monitor me I've gone straight back to my old ways
Last night's B&B: Dales View, Gayle, nr Hawes: lovely, extremely chatty hostess and a very excitable dog
What a great view. I'm so glad I walked nearly 600 miles for this
From the cheese factory: the man who rescued the creamery from closing (the first time) also contributed this to the world. He later sold the creamery to the Milk Board, and it subsequently had to be rescued from closing a second time...
Yesterday's day off Hawes was a day of two halves: Sarah and I extracted all possible entertainment from the Wensleydale factory in the morning, including an excellent round of tastings in the shop, and I spent the afternoon reading and napping. I bought myself some cheese, naturally, which is - to quote the information boards - real Yorkshire Wensleydale, not stuff marketed as Wensleydale, which can be made "as far away as Lancashire - or even Shropshire" (emphasis mine). I intend to eat this quality product by biting straight into the wedge, ideally on a day when it isn't raining so hard all the flavour gets washed out.
My walk today actually didn't feel as grim as I was anticipating- but then I was anticipating it feeling very grim indeed. I quite like rain, especially heavy rain, when I know I don't have to be out in it long - which was not the case as I set off today with at least 6-and-a-half hours of walking ahead of me. I turned down the landlady's many offers of a lift to Swaledale, which I began to regret approximately 150 seconds down the road, but then the path turned out to be well-marked and mostly flagged so I switched to feeling all impressed by my own resilience and such. The trouble is that can only last so long.
I had my lunch sitting in the only bit of shelter to be found, a cross on the summit of Great Shunner Fell, which OS informs me is a 360-degree vantage point of sufficient importance to be marked, but thanks to the weather I took a single glorious photograph of mist to share with you all. Just as I was losing the feeling in my fingers and gaining an unpleasant awareness of how very wet my feet, arms and shoulders felt, a couple of walkers emerged out of the rain coming the other way, which at least confirmed I wasn't the only person mad enough to be out and lifted my spirits significantly- as well as soothing me with the knowledge that my body might be found within the day if something went terribly wrong.
I virtually ran down the lovely flagged path off the Fell, passing several rather unhappy-looking wet people climbing up, one of whom informed me tomorrow's walk involves "a right bog" (what's new?!) and another let me know that the path for the rest of the day was going to be terrible. I ignored them both and focused instead on the blatant lie I'd been told about it all being downhill for the rest of the day (I knew it wasn't but it made me happy to believe).
It was actually all ok from there. The rain even lightened up somewhat and I got to see the hills on the other side of the valleys. I was still soaked when I arrived, though, but the lady at the B&B was so overly excited to meet "our first proper long-distance walker!" that I almost didn't care. I've never before met anyone so delighted to be handed so much dripping wet hiking gear.
With any luck, the inside of my boots might even be dry by tomorrow.
Distance walked: 14.32 miles
Time taken: 5h48
Percentage completed: 50.7%
Miles per £1 of boot: 4.59
Days since I was last rained on: 0
Lunch: one lamb and mint sandwich, one turkey, stuffing and apple roll, both wet; snacks were a banana and a packet of crisps because without Sarah to monitor me I've gone straight back to my old ways
Last night's B&B: Dales View, Gayle, nr Hawes: lovely, extremely chatty hostess and a very excitable dog
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