With our rendezvous point set and sat navs leading us to
Yorkshire, we set off for Hurries Farm, which is nestled in the heart of the
Yorkshire dales. Full of excitement and anticipation for our second training session
in beautiful Malhamdale and a new Charlie (mission Leigh) to keep us Angels on
our toes, we were raring to get stuck in.
Our Yorkshire adventure un-folded before we had even donned
our boots and walking gear and stepped onto the dales. Phil’s grandma had very kindly let our mad
crew stay in her holiday cottage at Hurries farm, however getting to this
meeting point in the dark, with a dodgy car and a measly bit of phone signal
made finding this destination somewhat more of a challenge, for some (me!) more
than others! My silver fiesta threw a bit of a spanner in the works, with
a misbehaving clutch warranting a midnight visit from the RAC man. The spirits of our team were dented at the
prospect of our walk having to be cancelled. All was not lost though! With a few helpful
tips from Mr RAC and the car behaving itself just enough to be drivable, we got
kitted out (a few hours later than anticipated) and marched out onto the dales.
The day was fresh and bright and the dales did not
disappoint providing us with miles and miles of stunning scenery. In fact, we
were so caught up with greeting all the local horses, sheep, cows and a
squashed faced grumpy looking cat, that we over shot the turning (Which I don’t
actually think ever existed) and happily continued on into a field full of
sheep!
We had decided this time around to take it in turns in map
reading, to keep our skills up and ensure that not just one person had the
responsibility of leading the group. This worked really well and we managed to
negotiate many a tricky stile and navigate fields of sheep which looked like
cows and yes you guessed it, cows that looked like sheep!
The code word for this walk was definitely…. MUD… and
probably sweat… but we won’t go into that!! We trudged through some mud so
thick and deep that there was no way around but to go through it! It reminded
me of that song, “ We’re Going on a Bear Hunt!” But …if you don’t move fast…
you will get stuck! That was the harsh truth and oh, we learnt it!
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| During Mud... |
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| Apres mud... |
The route Phil planned for us took us through an idyllic
village called Kirby Malham where we walked down a wild garlic stairway ( the
smell was incredible) on the way to have a quick break in the village church
and enjoy some of Claudia’s cake.
Up until this point, our only company had
been sheep and cows, but when we reached the next village called Malham, we
faced hoards of eager walkers like us, or “Crag Rats” as they’re affectionately known by the locals .
From here the route did a figure of 8 where we had the choice to scrabble up a
very steep part of the route or scrabble down?! Which choice would you have
made?! After some contemplating we chose
to scrabble up. What some of us didn’t
realise though that this upward scrabble
was actually up a large rock in the middle of Gordale Scar, a waterfall!
After careful consideration ( we were slightly put off by the rain and the fact that many other eager walkers had attempted and appeared to be stuck half way up the waterfall), we decided to reconsider and re-planned our route. A welcome lunch break came on our way to Malham Tarn (England’s highest freshwater lake) & the Pennine Way. After being beaten down by rain and hail earlier a little earlier we were definitely ready to re-fuel and enjoy some Capri-sun love (our drink of choice)! A word to the not so wise - do not believe all you hear when someone tells you the grass is not wet!! (Eh hem Leigh)
The next leg of our journey did include some downhill scrabbling;
I fondly tagged it Devils Bayou, although it was a hundred times more beautiful
and had no connection whatsoever to
Disney’s ‘The Rescuers’! (Em's Edit : No,
absolutely none Soph ;) – it’s actually a swamp...) ‘Devils Bayou’ lead us to the amazing limestone pavement which s on top of Malham
cove - wow! Admittedly we did spent a
lot of time jumping from one rock to the next at this point; the wobbly ones
really do throw you off your step! The views from this part of the route can
only be described as breath-taking; the dales really are beautiful and offer
miles and miles of lush green moorland to satisfy any country bum-kins passion
for scenery!
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| This is apparently "Devil's Bayou" Have a look at the link above for the errr similarities! |
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| Malham Tarn |
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| The Lime Stone Pavement |
The promise of an ice cream hung in the air as we made our
way back to Malham. We made some friends during this break, 2 pairs of ducks who
were also tempted by an ice cream treat including one drake which we named
‘stealth duck!’ (He was sneaky I tell you!) At this point, the thought of
sitting in the local pub with a beer and no boots was very inviting, and our reward dinner of venison (or mac &
cheese for Leigh) was just out of our reach…several miles away! Nevertheless,
we made a quick getaway and powered on for the last stretch of our walk,
following the river pretty much all the way back to Hurries farm.We kept up a steady pace along the river and even cracked
out a Guide song or two, with one final break for a last piece of cake. The sun
setting over the dales with the light bouncing off the water of the river was
the cherry on the cake of a fantastic day. We only had to whip out our torches
for the last ½ mile and made it back to Hurries Farm for a very welcome and
very enjoyable home cooked meal! Delicious :-)
30Km/ 19.6 miles in the bag in 9 ½ hours, though ideally
this should have been done in 7 ½.
Although we packed
a fair pace for the majority of the walk, we spent a
while negotiating/ enjoying certain parts for a bit longer than perhaps we
should have. But what’s the point in going to some of the most beautiful parts
of the Dales without having the chance to enjoy them?!
Some points we learnt along the way…
- Claudia’s cake = winner!
- A more appropriate base layer is definitely needed; cold sweaty clothes are not a fun thing to contend with!
- A second pair of shoes needs to be invested in to stop continuous pressure on the same areas of our feet and really, to give our poor feet a rest from massive boots!
- Changing the map reader/ leader worked really well, it kept us all on our toes and ensured we all knew where we were… always helpful!
The next stage of our team training will take place over
Easter weekend in the Pentland Hills in the Lothian’s –so excited, bring it on!
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