Dales Way, 83 miles.

Saturday 27^th February - Tuesday 2^nd March 1999

By Jill Green, accompanied by Spencer Lane

One of the BWF's Permanent Trails and one of Britain's main National Paths.

I made my way to meet Spencer at work at the City University, where he works. I got off the train at Farringdon and I spent a long time finding the place as I usually get off at City Thameslink. In fact it looks like I walked some of one of London's Permanent Trails, so I'll be back to do that one day!

At one we set off for the 250+ mile car journey to Windermere. There was a super Sunset over Northern Yorkshire so the omens seemed good as we arrived in Windermere at about 9.30 p.m.

Saturday Windermere to Cowgill, 17 miles

Spencer wanted to visit the New Balance Factory shop about an hour's drive away. I could have gone with him, but declined to do so. He left at 8 and returned at 11 with 5 pairs of trainers. After some tea kindly provided by our host, we were on our way by 11.30 to start the 17-mile walk to Lambrigg. Spencer was using an Ordnance Survey map, and I was using a Guidebook needed for the BWF questions - only problem was it was written from Ilkely to Windermere with questions to match! I found it very hard to read the book and sketched route backwards. I had marked Spencer's map with the BWF questions from Dave Green, but we missed the first one as my mark was in the wrong place. Anyway, it was a beautiful day for walking, the wind behind us and super views - first of the Lakeland Fells and then of the Howgill Fells. My camera failing was the only disappointment. We arrived at our destination for the first night at about 5.30, though it would have been earlier if we had not overshot and gone onto the next farm area with a huge stile and muddy field in between - we had to negotiate these three times! Holme Park Hall was very grand with vast rooms and even a Jacuzzi; though I just had a shower.

Sunday Cowgill to Lea Yat+, 22 miles

We left in dull weather, but after just one hour the rain set in, and it lasted until just before we finished walking that day. It lashed with rain and the wind got up, but at about half way we reached Sedbergh with an excellent tea shop for lunch and an escape from the rain. We stayed looking out in case the rain let-up, but it just got worse. I made a phone call and found I had 5 messages on my answerphone at home, reality seems a long way away on walks like this. At the call box I met a man who had stayed at Lea Yat at the same place as we were heading to. The real adventure started here as we were soon met by a river in spate, with the adjacent fields flooded. When we had to cross a stile with the cross-piece floating on top of the flood it was time to abandon walking on the riverside path and go along the parallel small road. Even here we were up to our boot-tops at times - and another question was missed! On reaching our B&B they kindly drove us 3 miles further along the Way so that we could walk that this evening, now that it had dried up, to reduce the 30 mile walk the next day to 27.

Monday Lea Yat+ to Grassington, 27 miles

We started out in rain, heads down across the open moors. And to our joy the weather broke. I got good views of the Ribblehead Viaduct and Pen-y-Ghent. We had a long walk. The bogs were indeed boggy, the views were really splendid. We popped into an Inn at Hubberholme and after eating our packed lunch a mile further on still had time to pop into a closing tea shop in Kettlewell. We'd enjoyed our walk along the Wharfe and walked into Grassington just as the last of the light faded away.

Tuesday Grassington to Ilkley, 17 miles

We listened to the weather forecast with dismay. All we could hope for was that it was wrong - -it wasn't. We set off at 8.20 in the hard rain, but our feet started nice and warm after an excellent boot drying at Craiglands, but it was short-lived for me with a leaking boot. Though the spate had subsided, the mud was as deep as ever so a suggested new clue about a sub-aqua diver seemed apt. Near Bolton Abbey we had more clue problems, but at that time we were not certain we were at the correct point. Spencer even came back a few days later and still could not find the answer! At this point Spencer's route finding almost went awry with new roads almost sending us in the wrong direction. This was soon corrected, but after carrying a walking/ski pole for 3 days he decided to start using it to slide his way along the new permissive path by the B6160. Even that was not simple as the first thing to happen was for the pole to fall to pieces - though he soon mended that. To pass the time in the driving rain we tried to think of something nice to say about the day, silence ensued. We were determined to find the next, and last, clue but it was based on some steps. In our direction there seemed to be a dozen, none with the appropriate clue. Perhaps it had been washed away.

We finished with 15 minutes to spare for our 14.10 bus to Skipton for a quick dash to the station for 2 trains back to Windermere.

Despite 2 days rain, we had en enjoyable 4 days walking with 2 excellent days. All the Guest House accommodation was excellent and we'd both thoroughly recommend the Dales Way.
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