LEJOG
Distance walked – 30.0km (18.7miles)
Total Distance – 974km (608.8miles)
I never felt magic crazy as this
I never saw moons, knew the meaning of the sea
But now you’re here
Brighten my northern sky
Nick Drake – Northern Sky
Out of Cowling
We are really enjoying the Pennine Way (PW), and it continues to deliver great walking. Today we crossed rolling green fields, followed a short section along a canal, visited the top of an isolated moor, had lunch in a pretty village and then had a fantastic riverside walk to complete the day. All this variety on a day that was largely a link day, taking us from the South Pennines to the start of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Even the link days are great.
We left Cowling at 07:30 after packing up the tent. Despite the beautiful weather we have been experiencing, the mornings are still quite cool (we were grateful for the hot shower this morning at the campsite) and the tent fly tends to be quite wet with dew. I have been packing this separately in the outer part of my backpack with the intention to dry it out during the day. The camping is definitely quite hard work and although we are enjoying it and it gives us much better accommodation options as well as saving some money, I wonder how we will feel if the weather turns. . . .
The morning coffee conundrum is also still a problem. I am currently having to make instant coffee with cold water which works surprisingly well, despite not tasting particularly great. The only other option would be a purchased premade coffee, but I find them far too sweet to be palatable. Maybe we will have to buy some cooking equipment next time we come to an outdoor shop.
Coronavirus Toposcope
The day quickly warmed up and we were soon crossing fields under a brilliant clear blue sky. It was consistent up and down over several valleys before a descent into the pretty village of Lothersdale. We walked past the smart looking Hare and Hounds pub, hoping for morning coffee, but it wasn’t open. We instead followed the PW out of the village, heading up to cross Elslack Moor, an isolated patch of heather moorland. The high point of the moor, Pinhaw Beacon (388m), is crowned with a fairly substantial toposcope. We love a good toposcope, and with its assistance we were able to identify Malham Cove and Pen-y-ghent, both of which we will encounter tomorrow. Toposcopes have been around since the early 1900’s, but this one is a recent addition. It is dedicated as a memorial to those who died from COVID-19 and is the first pandemic related memorial that we have encountered. As we thought about it, we agreed that It is important to have things that will remind us in the future of those difficult 2 years. I wonder if there aren’t many currently due to the fact that the management of the pandemic remains a somewhat divisive topic within society.
Tractor Porn
We left the COVID-19 memorial and descended from the moor along a flagstone path eventually re-entering farmland to pass through a farmyard. A series of farm lanes took us into the village of Thornton-in-Craven where we stopped on a grassy bank for a mid-morning snack. A check of the OS map app, showed that we had been heading almost due west (unusual for us as we need to generally head NE), but that from Thornton, normal northward service would be resumed.
Approaching the canal
A wonderful patchwork of fields and hedges were laid out below Thornton-in-Craven. The hawthorn is in full majestic white bloom at the moment and a line of it, counterpointed against the green fields, indicated the route of the Leeds and Liverpool canal which we now joined to walk alongside.
Canal life
We haven’t walked along a canal for some time, and really enjoyed this short sojourn on the relaxed world of the canal towpath. Easy walking with ducks and swans and long boats chuntering along the canal.
Fish and chips in the sun
All too soon we left the tranquil canal side path to cross more gently rolling hills. The final approach into the village of Gargrave was across a railway line and then a road walk across the River Aire into the village centre. We were surprised at how many people were around until we remembered that it is a bank holiday long weekend, and the sun is shining!
We bought fish and chips from The Frying Yorkshireman (highly recommended) and sat in the sun on the grassy banks of the river to consume them. It was pretty close to perfect, and I think we will remember this as one of our great LEJOG moments.
Long way to go
All perfect things however, must come to an end. For us there was still the small matter of a further 10.5km to Malham. We sadly tore ourselves away from the riverbank, put our packs on and headed off down the road. As Louisa says ‘This walk ain’t gonna walk itself.’ (What she actually says is far ruder and will remain unpublished).
Riverside walk
The afternoon walk was sublime with big fields and beautiful views, before a long riverside walk along the Aire River into Malham. We had a little celebration as we entered the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and then joined the throngs of people as we entered Malham. This is probably the most people we have encountered on our LEJOG so far, but it was nice to be in a happy crowd enjoying the sunny long weekend.
No tent tonight!
We found the YHA where we are staying and checked into our camping pod. We were both very tired with sore feet after another longish day. We are starting to realise that The Pennine Way demands respect. It delivers but it asks a lot as well. Hopefully we will be up to the task.
