Pennine Way - Day 5: Hebden Bridge to Stanbury

Up in Hebden \Bridge

The (Cunning) Plan

Before setting off we carefully separate all the stuff related to camping. Tents, sleeping bags and other bits and pieces. Together we proudly marched – well we proudly marched to the Post Office (remember its Monday today).

We bought a big box, some tape and borrowed a pen.

We, cunningly, sent 12kg of, hopefully, the only things stopping us from finishing the walk, to my father. We would be doing the rest of the Way sleeping in nice comfortable beds. Walking lighter and feeling gooder.

Or at least, that is the plan. Maybe, there is German blood somewhere (wife's side of the family).

We have no photo's of this momentous occasion as ... as ... as, I guess we were a little embarrassed. 

Big Sky Day

That done, we set off towards our new walking experience to Stanbury. A mistake, this was much further from the planned day's end than the guide book had intimated. Ok. Let's put it down to the lack of Teutonic blood in my side of the family.

But we were tired and needed to recover a bit – so it wasn’t such a terrible cockup on the accommodation front (reference for older, predominantly English people only). For those of who are not in this group, watch The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, now available on You Tube.

Hides

Back to the moors. Apparently, allegedly, they say that 80% of all of the world's moorland is in the UK. There are actual groups who campaign, vigorously, to keep the moors; moory. 

Probably funded by the the people who rent out the hides etc to the grouse shooters. We saw a lot of hides today. It’s not very sporting. But without the shooters I suspect that there would be no grouse at all and no bloody moors.  So, its conservation.

We saw a shining white pub in the distance.

     It pulled us magnetically. Pavlov’s dogs didn’t drool as much.

          It stood like a shining beacon. It promised untold delights.

               It held within in it lunch. And a beer.

Closed on Mondays

                    It is closed on Mondays.

Today is the literary highlight of the walk. Every walk should have a literary highlight or at least some type of highlight. But today it's really really a high highlight, for real literate people. Therefore, we didn't fully appreciate it. But it made a good place for lunch.

Top Withins. Yes, The Top Withins. Need I say more.

Emily Bronte

A quick pole of the four of us seems to indicate that, Yes, I need to say more.

Top Withins is the farm in Wuthering Heights, the Earnshaw home in Emily Bronte’s novel, of the same name, her only novel Good job she had sisters. 

Allegedly. 

It says on the sign next to the ruins that looks nothing like the description in the book. But the name and the tenuous association is enough to warrant way markers in Japanese and a couple of other languages.

The Old Silent Inn, Stanbury was undoubtedly the culinary Highlight. A mere 400 years old, Australia is less old than that, except to the people who lived there for 40,000 years before it was discovered. But, I mean, where did they think they were living? 

Purple(ish)

It was, potentially, still is, run by some very nice people who made us very very welcome. They fed and watered us and generally made the stay one to remember. 

Plus they were open on Mondays.

We wondered up the hill. With instructions from the Inn keeper to say that John sent us. We picked one of the pubs at random, the village having been taken in at a glance, and stayed much longer than planned. 

The locals entertained us or we entertained them, I am still not sure which way round it was. But we all had a good laugh at each other. And no one got offended. I know, I know it sounds unlikely: but it really did happen this way.

The beer was good. 

		Cumulative
Distance Walked	20km	82km
Start Point	Hebden Bridge
End Point	Stanbury
Via	Emily Bronte's novel.
General Comments The Solution unfolds.    Life is good again. Blood to the brain.

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