Pennine Way - Day 8: Horton in Ribblesdale to Hawes

Somethings over the wall

We left Horton after a look around the old church – it was old and therefore had been built with care. Built to last. The grave stones were even older and the inscriptions on them only slightly less so.

A hand

Once again into the geology. Limestone everywhere. We spotted a stream on the right that didn’t seem to be on the left. Closer inspection revealed a cave into which the stream disappeared. Could we be the first to discover it? The climbing pins for the cavers led us to believe otherwise. There were caves everywhere. 

It’s a shame that we were walker and not spelunkers.

More wonderfully bleak moorland.

In the distance, we saw a big railway bridge, lots of arches. Unfortunately, the walk didn’t take us close enough to have a good look. It was, we learned later, Ribblehead Viaduct. We argued long and hard about the number of arches. It’s twenty-four. Seems young people can count better.

Distant Bridge

We looked at the limestone, we ate on the limestone, we admired the limestone. We slowly got sick of the limestone.

Again, the scenery was on a big scale. And it was empty. I suspect that our late starts and ambling pace mean that everyone is simply further down the track than us on any given day. But either way, we met few people but those who we did cross paths with all spoke. No one believed we were doing The Way, not with two young kids – no way. While probably not the youngest people ever to do the walk – Son was only 11 and Daughter 13.

Disappearing stream

I know that we were not very original with names – but they seemed to fit.

We still hadn’t really been rained on. Just threatened once or twice. My tales of the English weather were being further called into question with each passing day. Without water, the Pennine Way is not as, well, wet for one thing, but as challenging for another.

Hawes was decked out for the Tour de France, like almost everywhere else we had passed through. 

Cycling mania had come to Yorkshire. It didn’t seem to be important if the cyclist actually went past or not. They had been close. Three of the four of us are cycling fans so... 

Hole

Note to self: next walk be more German.

Hawes is also the home of Wensleydale Cheese, which was my favourite even before it became famous. But the diary was closed when we got there. Of course.

The Youth Hostel was in hibernation mode. Once it opened up however, we were given a room and told that if we were lucky we wouldn’t have to share. 

We were lucky – luxury.

		Cumulative
Distance Walked	23km	161km
Start Point	Horton in Ribblesdale
End Point	Hawes YHA
Via	Cam fell and Dodd Fell (Mis-named after Ken Dodd I believe)
General Comments More limestone bloody pavement Holes everywhere Disappearing streams

Our Other Walks

Walking Across Slovakia