Pennine Way - Day 6: Stanbury to Malham

Nothing

Back onto the open moors. Spectacular in their purple hazy emptiness. We met people but, overall, not as many as we had expected. A product of starting mid-week no doubt. Or our late starts. Or maybe the smell. Who knows.

We were light. We were happy. 

We kept the carry-mats to still look hard core.

We passed a farm, it had guard geese. Extra vicious guard geese, build to intimidate. 

Punk Geese!

Punk Goose

The moors didn’t last long. Into the Great British countryside. Green and fresh smelling. If you consider the smell of cow shit to be fresh. I have yet to see a kitchen product that touts this particulat brand of freshness. 

But, it’s not so bad, so we were happy. Another canal,  Leeds to Liverpool, but no lock action, and a double decker bridge.

Double Decker

Despite what some more famous walkers might have written, it is pretty; ‘muck and manure’ have their charms, you just need to be a bit more open minded Mr. Wainwright.

Lots of old English villages to be enjoyed. The other three had had limited experience of this so they enjoy comparing Serbian and Slovak rural life with English rural life. A laugh for everyone. England sadly lacks in tractors.

Number of tractors = Wealth

& Manure

Muck

A pre-Ice Age Forest – we passed what was billed as a forest left over from the ice age. It was tucked into a fold in the Earth and somehow managed to get missed by the ice. We have seen glaciers, they tend not to miss much, but what  do we know. The fold was very steep and fenced off. Probably waiting to be cut down. We tried, not so hard but we tried, and we couldn’t find the way in. 

Maybe that's how the forest beat the ice; poor signage and a hidden door.

Sensibly, we had been carrying a large honey dew melon.

When I say we…

Boring

There was a nice river and we stopped to enjoy the melon in the sun. We were joined by a lady and her dog. Both of who were also walking the Pennine Way. We shared the melon with Vanessa but not with Gretel the dog – much to her disappointment. But she forgave us.

Gargrave, had been billed by the locals in Stanbury as a wasteland. It looked OK to us. Plus: we met Prince Harry outside a supermarket. Obviously incognito, so we didn’t say anything about who he really was. We thought that the crown was a bit of a give-away but apparently not. 

However, his friend was more interesting to us anyway, a body guard no doubt. His cover was that he was near the end of his Pennine Way There and Back trip. We discussed the Way and footwear, ate and continued to Malham, suitably impressed. Son was very impressed and still wants to try this.

Isolation

The countryside was fantastic, green and pleasant even, as the sun started to set, the colors got darker, fuller more vibrant (sorry, its the Bronte effect) it was beautiful. 

George's Box

Malham Youth Hostel was even more beautiful at the end of the day. Seems that YHA’s are closing everywhere; this is a shame as they are perfect if you want to walk and a damn sight cheaper than the alternatives. Green and pleasant is apparently expensive.

Note to conservationists: So far we hadn’t seen any wild life other than birds – wild mammals not a hide nor hair. 

So much for the English countryside.

29/7		Cumulative
Distance Walked	33km	115km
Start Point	Stanbury
End Point	Malham
Via
General Comments A catch-up day Light as feathers Our first YHA

Our Other Walks

Walking Across Slovakia