John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 037 - Holmfirth to Strines

Day: 037

Date: Thursday, 07 July 2022

Start:  Holmfirth

Finish:  Strines (then bus to Sheffield)

Daily Kilometres:  33

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  1094

Weather:  Cool and overcast early, then sunny.

Accommodation:  Hotel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Egg & cress sandwiches

  Lunch:  Tuna & sweetcorn sandwich/Coronation chicken sandwich

  Dinner:  Steak pies, peas & mash, chocolate brownie & icecream/sticky toffee pudding & icecream.

Aches:  Dave - a few niggles.  Julie - zero.

Highlight:  While having a pleasant lunch at 12:30pm, high on the moor overlooking the Derwent Valley, Dave checked how far we had to go to the A57 road crossing (7.9km) and what time the next buses to Sheffield, where we had a hotel room booked, would go from there (2:19pm and 3:54pm).  Dave asked Julie whether she thought we could make the 2:19pm bus and she replied that she knew she could, but wasn’t sure about him.  We packed up in five minutes and then power-walked the sometimes technical and hilly trail, only stopping for photos, the remaining distance to the bus stop.  We arrived at 2:17pm and the bus came at 2:20pm.  We were very happy hikers.

Lowlight:  None really.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Knowing we were catching a bus to Sheffield, where we had arranged to have dinner with Dave’s nephew, Harry, and his partner, Rachel, at the end of today’s walk, we were keen to make sure we got there comfortably in time.  So, we passed up the breakfast included with our hotel room at Holmfirth and hit the trail soon after 5:00am on a cool overcast morning.

Our plan was to navigate our way back to the guidebook route in the first few hours and this started with a steep climb out of the village where traders were already setting up for market day.  The navigation app route was intricate and we found ourselves following suburban lanes and streets, public footpaths (some overgrown with nettles and blackberries), enchanting country lanes, and finally a busy road as we climbed higher onto the moors with the views getting better and better.

Once back on the guidebook route we had the moors to ourselves and luckily found a nice bench on which to have our first break, and breakfast, at 8:15am.  From there it was beautiful walking on a day which was becoming warm and sunny.  The trail was mostly good walking and we crossed high moors with views in all directions before descending to the Derwent Valley and the picturesque Howden Reservoir.  There is a chain of three reservoirs in the valley, of which the lower, Ladybower, is famous as the training location for the Dambuster squadron of the Second World War. As if on cue, an airforce jet made a very low pass through the valley as we walked alongside the Howden reservoir.

After passing the reservoir, our route climbed very steeply out of the valley and back on to the moor where we found a lovely spot with fantastic views to stop for what turned out to be an abbreviated lunch (see above).  From there, we walked briskly on the sometimes technical and hilly trail past the string of strange rock formations that lay along the high ridge.  It was awesome scenery and a very enjoyable walk despite the time pressure.  We reached the A57 road crossing just in time to catch a bus to Sheffield where we checked into our hotel just before 3:00pm.

Later, we had a very enjoyable dinner with Harry and Rachel at a nearby pub, a fitting end to a great day.

John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 036 - Hebden Bridge to Holmfirth

Day: 036

Date: Wednesday, 06 July 2022

Start:  Hebden Bridge

Finish:  Holmfirth

Daily Kilometres:  33

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  1061

Weather:  Cool, overcast and breezy with occasional very light drizzle.

Accommodation:  Hotel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pastries

  Lunch:  Egg & cress sandwich/BLT sandwich

  Dinner:  Kebab & chips, donuts

Aches:  Dave - a few niggles.  Julie - nothing to report.

Highlight:  Seeing some of the old industrial mills that fuelled the19th century Industrial Revolution in England - some derelict, some renovated - in the villages and towns we passed through, or near, on our walk today.  You could almost sense the entrepreneurial energy that must have existed in those times.

Lowlight:  Still no English summer.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Our route today was somewhat determined by where we could get accommodation for tonight.  Adhering to the guidebook route didn’t give us any easy options, so we booked a hotel in the village of Holmfirth and, rather than follow the longer guide-book route to get there, we used our navigation app to find another, shorter, route.

We left the hostel in Hebden Bridge at 7:00am and followed the Rochdale Canal to the south-east on its towpath.  The scenery was a real mix, with some parts full of moored longboats, used as homes, other parts park-like, and other parts passing by old mills and new housing developments (done in sympathetic traditional industrial style).  It was very interesting and the towpath had varying surfaces which made it easier on the feet.

We stopped at the village of Sowerby Bridge around 9:00am for breakfast, bought at a nearby supermarket, and watched the locals begin their working day from our bench.  Always fun.

After breakfast, we had a bit more canal towpath walking before leaving the canal at North Dean Wood where we encountered our first hills of the day.  There were plenty more as we seemed to go from valley to valley and village to village for the rest of the day.

We were constantly transitioning from village to woodland to farmland, not necessarily in that order, on a mix of streets, country lanes and rural footpaths.  It was interesting, if tiring, and there were good views in many places and history all around.

Around 4:00pm we reached the busy village of Holmfirth, found our accommodation, and checked, glad of an early finish after yesterday.  Later, Julie ventured into town to buy supplies for tomorrow and dinner tonight.

John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 035 - Gargrave to Hebden Bridge

Day: 035

Date: Tuesday, 05 July 2022

Start:  Gargrave

Finish:  Hebden Bridge

Daily Kilometres:  40

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  1028

Weather:  Cool to mild, breezy, and partly sunny.

Accommodation:  Hostel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Breakfast sandwiches

  Lunch:  Cheese & ham sandwich/Cheese sandwich

  Dinner:  Pasta bolognese, banana & butterscotch pudding & icecream

Aches:  Dave - a few niggles.  Julie - nothing to report

Highlight:  The hike across windswept, desolate and featureless Ickornshaw Moor in the middle of the day was special.  We felt like we were on top of the world and had the moor to ourselves.

Lowlight:  Arriving at our unmanned hostel after a long day’s hiking, keen to have showers and eat, to find the room we had been assigned (by email) was already occupied and nobody answering their phones.  We were about to go and find somewhere else to stay when one last call was answered and a new, unoccupied, room assigned.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We left the pretty village of Gargrave soon after 6:00am, aware that we had a long day and keen not to arrive too late in Hebden Bridge, our next stop.  Not knowing how difficult the trail will be or how hard the hills, makes predicting arrival times a challenge.

Most of the morning’s walking was through rolling farmland, with plenty of ups and downs, and a short stint along a canal.  The weather and grass pastures were dry for a change and we enjoyed the bucolic scenery.  After the village of Cowling we climbed high onto Ickornshaw Moor and enjoyed the sense of remoteness (see above) even though we could see it was surrounded by villages and towns when we had the chance to look down.

While stopped for lunch, and given our relatively slow pace because of the terrain, we decided to follow the route suggested by our navigation app, which was four kilometres shorter, for the final section to Hebden Bridge rather than the guidebook route or the Pennine Way.  It worked out well, though some of the trail was very steep and other parts seemed little-used.  We got to see the gentle Bronte Falls, follow an old aqueduct with dress-circle views over Yorkshire and Lancashire, and finally cross another moor.

The last part of the afternoon saw us descend steadily to Hebden Bridge through farmland and then pretty woodland before we entered the very hilly town.  As luck would have it, there was a steep climb up to our hostel, where we arrived soon after 6:00pm, and then we had trouble checking in (see above).  Julie was a saint and trekked down into the town to buy some microwavable dinner while Dave sorted out the room mix-up.  It was a later day than we had hoped, but not too bad and the scenery was again spectacular.

John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 034 - Horton in Ribblesdale to Gargrave

Day: 034

Date: Monday, 04 July 2022

Start:  Horton in Ribblesdale

Finish:  Gargrave

Daily Kilometres:  33

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  988

Weather:  Cold and very windy with showers in the morning; milder and partly sunny in the afternoon.

Accommodation:  Hotel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Cereal

  Lunch:  Egg mayonnaise sandwich/Chicken mayonnaise sandwich

  Dinner:  Fish & chips/Chicken nuggets & chips

Aches:  Dave - a few niggles.  Julie - nothing to report

Highlight:  The last 10 kilometres of the day, from Malham to Gargrave, were very pleasant.  Easy walking alongside the picturesque River Aire or over rolling green hills in warmer temperatures, less wind and occasional sunshine.

Lowlight:  The pub we stayed in last night was a bit quirky (and very pricey).  They were originally unwilling to provide us with an early “continental” breakfast, even though they had a sign up saying they would for early starters (the cooked breakfast wasn’t served until after 8:30am, which was later than we want when we have a long day’s hiking ahead).  Anyway, in the end they agreed to give us an early breakfast which turned out to be a jug of milk left out overnight on a table with a selection of cereals and that was it.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We left our hotel to start walking at 7:30am after a rather unsatisfactory breakfast (see above).  It was a dreary morning with a low overcast and had been raining.  We wore our full raingear in anticipation of more rain to come and decided not to follow the Pennine Way over Pen-Y-Ghent peak, which was cloud-covered, and instead take a short-cut.  It proved to be a wise decision because the wind was cold and fierce, there were occasional rainshowers, and the peak remained cloud-covered most of the time.

The detour avoided one cloud-covered mountain but not the next, Fountains Fell, which was very bleak on top.  We were buffeted by the strong wind, occasionally lashed by rain, and hidden in the cloud at the very top, but things got better as we descended towards Malham Tarn, with good views over the fells and farmland.  On the way down we encountered some small groups of high school children, obviously on some kind of expedition, heading up towards the bad weather.

Malham Tarn was a large windswept lake, home to many waterbirds, and obviously a popular tourist destination as we began to see a lot more walkers, many underdressed by our standards. There followed a technical and slow descent via a stony trail through a ravine to the overlook to the spectacular Malham Cove surrounded by vertical limestone cliffs.  After a steep descent on a long stairway, we had a look at the Cove from groundlevel and then walked to the very picturesque, but also very touristy, village of Malham.  We found a cafe where we bought sandwiches for a late lunch and ate it on a bench outside.  A lot of students were wandering around town with clipboards, obviously on some kind of excursion.

From Malham, we had a pleasant walk (see above), mostly downstream along the River Aire, reaching Gargrave around 5:00pm after another good day.  The forecasters say the weather is going to improve, and we’re looking forward to that.

John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 033 - Hawes to Horton in Ribblesdale

Day: 033

Date: Sunday, 03 July 2022

Start:  Hawes

Finish:  Horton in Ribblesdale

Daily Kilometres:  23

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  955

Weather:  Cool all day, windy and mostly overcast with numerous icy cold showers from late morning to mid-afternoon.

Accommodation:  Hotel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Full English breakfasts

  Lunch:  Skipped

  Dinner:  Chicken pie, peas & chips, Chocolate brownie & icecream.

Aches:  Nothing to report

Highlight:  Passing half-way (according to the guidebook) on our journey from John O’Groats to Land’s End.  It seems to be going very quickly.

Lowlight:  The regular icy showers, driven by a strong wind, were a bit of a downer.  We just seem to dry out from one and the next would arrive.

Pictures: Click here 

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We slept in a little and ventured to the hostel dining room for breakfast at 7:45am, along with most of the other residents.  It was packed.  After eating our fill, we finished packing and left the hostel soon after 9:00am to navigate our way out of the very attractive village of Hawes and back to the Pennine Way.

The first hour or so involved a steady climb up onto Cam Fell, a broad long mountain which we followed for much of the rest of the day.  It was plateau-like in places at the top - a soggy moor, populated by the ubiquitous sheep - but mostly our route ran high along the edge of the fell giving fantastic views to the west and down into the valley, occasionally marred by squally showers.

Much of our route for the morning followed the Cam High Road, another old Roman road.  You have to admire their energy and expertise.  Around noon, we began a gradual descent from Cam Fell and followed old cart trails, which were very rough and stony underfoot, towards Horton in Ribblesdale, our goal for the day.  We had a break, our first for the day, around 1:00pm, when we finally found a protected spot under a tree beside an old stone wall.

We reached Horton soon after 3:00pm and checked into our hotel.  It will be our most expensive night so far (and by far), because accommodation was hard to find.  The room is fine, though no shower, just a bath, and there’s no wi-fi or mobile phone reception.  We’ll manage, though it meant we had to go for a walk, after dinner in the pub, across the valley a little to upload photos and update Julie’s Strava.  Dave has paid for wi-fi access through a BT hot spot on his laptop, so he can do the blog and book some accommodation on our route ahead.

John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 032 - Middleton in Teesdale to Hawes

Day: 032

Date: Saturday, 02 July 2022

Start:  Middleton in Teesdale

Finish:  Hawes

Daily Kilometres:  51

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  932

Weather:  Cold and rain showers in the morning.  Windy and partly sunny in the afternoon.

Accommodation:  Youth Hostel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Cheese & tomato sandwiches, hard-boiled eggs and cold sausages

  Lunch:  Breakfast sandwiches

  Dinner:  Chicken kebabs and chips

Aches:  Both have very tired feet.

Highlight:  Despite feet crying out for relief, the last five kilometres down to the village Hawes, bathed in late afternoon sunshine in the valley below, was a fitting end to a long, but enjoyable day.

Lowlight:  It wasn’t really a lowlight, because the Yorkshire Dales scenery was truly spectacular, but the mid-afternoon seven kilometres of Pennine Way from Keld to Thwaite was slow and technical on very tired legs and feet with still a long way to go.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Dave had been unable to get accommodation at the hamlet of Keld as we had originally hoped for today (which would have made for a 32 kilometre day), but did manage to get a room at the hostel in Hawes, making it a 50+ kilometre day instead.  We knew there would be hills, bogs and technical trail, so decided to start walking at 4:30am from Middleton in Teesdale, to give us some chance of reaching Hawes around dinner time.

It was raining and dreary as we walked out of the sleeping village and began our first climb of the day up onto the moors.  We made steady progress, but the terrain did not favour fast walking (which Dave doesn’t seem to be able to do any more anyway).  We just moseyed along, following farm tracks and back roads, literally up hill and down dale, passing through farmyards, climbing stiles and opening and closing innumerable gates.  Up on the moors it was bleak, with a cold wind strengthening and, by the time we reached the Tan Hill Hotel, claimed to be the highest in England, it was very cold with few places to shelter.  This meant our second break for the day, lunch, was postponed until nearly 2:00pm after 32 kilometres of walking.

While having lunch, we calculated our remaining kilometres and decided to skip the Pennine Way over Great Shunner Fell and instead follow the shorter, but still challenging, road from Thwaite to Hawes.  When the Pennine Way to Thwaite proved to be much more technical and slow than expected (see above), the wisdom of our decision was confirmed.

After a last break in Thwaite, we climbed over Buttertubs Pass on the road, enjoying great views of the Yorkshire fells.  With five kilometres to go, Julie walked on ahead at her faster pace and bought some take-out dinner in Hawes, which was nicely ready just as Dave arrived in the village and we then walked up to the hostel, checking in around 7:30pm after a very long and tiring, but satisfying day.  Having said that, we will be trying to avoid any more 50 kilometre days.

We now have a much shorter day tomorrow and will sleep in a bit given the hostel breakfast isn’t until 8:00am.

John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 031 - Dufton to Middleton in Teesdale

Day: 031

Date: Friday, 01 July 2022

Start:  Dufton

Finish:  Middleton in Teesdale

Daily Kilometres:  34

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  881

Weather:  Cool to mild, mostly overcast with some rain periods.

Accommodation:  B&B

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Cereal, English cooked breakfast, toast & jam.

  Lunch:  Egg mayonnaise sandwiches

  Dinner:  Pizza, custard tarts

Aches:  Dave - a few niggles.  Julie - nothing to report

Highlight:  The thundering waterfalls of the day - Cauldron Snout, High Force, Low Force - were all very impressive.

Lowlight:  Take your pick.

After a long solid climb in clear weather, very disappointed that heavy rain and cloud rolled in just as we reached High Cup, a spectacular lookout that we were eagerly anticipating.  Nothing to be seen but fog.

Julie slipped on the muddy and slippery trail and fell, ending up sitting in a puddle ….. but she was already pretty wet.

Julie dropped her phone while we were having lunch and the protective cover screen got broken.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

The hostel breakfast was good and filling, but later than we would have liked, and it was nearly 8:30am before we started walking.  Although it had been raining when we woke, it had cleared and we soon doffed our raincoats as the solid climb back onto the fells warmed us up.  Although the forecast had been for rain most of the day, we began to be hopeful that we would get a good view from High Cup, a well-known spectacular lookout.  But fate stepped in and when we got close the rain and cloud arrived and there was nothing to see but fog and a sheer drop-off.

Disappointed, but not willing to wait to see if it cleared, we continued on across the vast High Cup Plain in the rain, meeting a very wet and cold-looking, but cheerful, trail runner heading in the other direction.  The high plain had a desolate and remote feel to it as we trudged across, with the rain easing a little, then we began gradually descending as we would do for the rest of the day.

The Pennine Way followed a mix of soggy rocky trail and little-used farm roads down to the first of our waterfalls, Cauldron Snout, for the day where we stopped for lunch at the top.  We could see the difficult trail which followed the falls down to the valley below, and watched a hiker climb slowly and awkwardly upwards.  It was then our turn to negotiate the trail down and, although it only took twenty minutes or so, it was challenging and a bit scary in places.

At the base of the falls we turned downstream to follow the River Tees which was the story for the rest of the day.  Sometimes the going was easy and at other times slow and frustratingly technical.  Along the way we passed the impressive High Force and Low Force waterfalls where the River Tees pushed through narrow rocky gaps and gorges.

We were hoping to finish a little earlier, but it was 6:30pm by the time we finally reached our B&B in the little village Middleton in Teesdale.  It wouldn’t have bothered us much, except we have a very long day tomorrow and will need a very early start.