Ravenber Way #FAIL
8th July 2019: Garrigill to Allenheads – 12m If you asked me describe my perfect hill path I would probably just point you at the bridleway that runs over Knockshield Moor. It’s a lovely thin path, across spongy, springy peat running between mixed heather and moorland grassland sprinkled with bog cotton. Above, the curlews, plovers, […]
Ravenber Way – Day 1
7th July 2019: Dufton to Garrigill – 15.5m I knew I wasn’t fit, but today exposed that as one of the understatements of the millennium! I’m in my B&B in Garrigill now, and my feet are quite literally singing, my calves are tight and sore and my thighs feel like they’ve been beaten with rubber […]
Ravenber Way – Day 0
6th July 2019: Home to Dufton I heard the rain on the window before I got out of bed this morning. Bloody typical, it’s not rained for 2 weeks around us and the day I’m setting out for a long walk it decides to bloody rain! I had 150 miles of public transport and about […]
The Pennine Way Process
It was now or never really. I’d been waiting until as close to deadline as possible to conduct a comprehensive village survey for the Pennine Way guide book update. I figured that there was no point doing a survey months ahead of the publication, as B&Bs close, new businesses open and the information needed to […]
Burnhead to Sycamore Gap
I’d requested an early breakfast for this morning, despite it being Saturday and feeling a little selfish at asking Dave and Christine to get up even earlier to provide for me. However, I wanted an early finish as I had about 2 1/2 hours in the car at the end of the walk. I was […]
Knarsdale to Burnhead (on the Wall)
The wind has been the dominant factor for the last two days of this walk. The cold has been as a result of the wind for the most part, but today was the sort of winter day I look forward to. So few of them coincide with a day that I can walk too. But […]
Garrigill to Knarsdale
If I’d started this walk today, I would almost certainly either have had to cancel it, or I’d be dead on the summit of Cross Fell, having been blown away by the reported 112 mph winds that were recorded by the weather station located at the radar station on Great Dunn Fell. I consider myself […]
Appleby to Garrigill
If I had to use just one word to describe today’s walk from Dufton to Garrigill along the Pennine Way it would have to be “gruelling”. There was a point when I didn’t think I was going to be able to make it all the way to the end. I stood gasping in the lee […]
Langdon Beck to Appleby
Well, if I’d thought I was knackered ta the end of yesterday, then today I was double knackered with knobs on! The wind was relentless and biting cold too and by the time I stumbled into Appleby it was all I could do to put one foot in front of the other. I arrived on […]
Baldersdale to Langdon Beck
Wow, what a day! I’m absolutely knackered. I struggled up the gentle incline of East Underhurth Farm’s drive and felt sure I couldn’t have walked another 100 yards. My boots felt like blocks of lead (wet and muddy lead) and every step was hard work. I think it was the wind that did me in. […]