Over the Top on the Dales Way, May 26

A male Pheasant near the trail

He said:
May 26

Today, we went over the top and out of Upper Wharfedale, meeting the Pennine Way at around 1800’ elevation.  This is almost upper moorland, but the grass is still green, not brown, maybe because it has started raining again.  At these elevations, there are no shrubs and few trees, just mud, grass, stone, and sky.  Having topped out, we followed the track west down towards Ribblehead and its Viaduct we can see in the distance.  In fact, we are staying at the Station Inn right near the Viaduct, where the train tracks fly over the road.  It was still raining, and we arrived quite drenched but happy for our evenings shelter.

She said:
May 25 and May 26

May 25

Kettlewell to Nethergill Farm

10.5 miles

We started off from Kettlewell after stopping at the (only) local shop to pick up sandwiches for our lunch on the trail.   This store sells everything, from hunk cheese to fresh bread to envelopes to candy bars to wrapping paper to pasta to light bulbs to key chains.  Kites and canned goods.  Laundry soap and jam.  All in a room about half the size of a schoolbus.

We had fine weather – sun, even – and enjoyed and easy day’s walk.

We stopped in Hubberholme to check out the church with the carved mice.  There are, supposedly, 30 mice in this particular church, though I could only find 29.  The mice are about 4-5 inches long, including their tails, and are hiding on pew ends, choir benches and chair legs.  It was an historic, entertaining treasure hunt for me, though I couldn’t tell you anything else about the church as I was sort of obsessed with finding the mice.

We ate our lunch on a bench in the sun in the churchyard, surrounded by gravestones with sweet, sad stories to tell – loving wives, children gone too soon, soldiers buried in faraway lands.  One long-lived family all made it into their 80’s – unusual for the 1700 and 1800’s.

We arrived at Nethergill Farm, a working farm run by Chris (formerly a marketing guy) and Fiona (formerly a graphic designer) who still do a bit of those things on their way to making Nethergill a totally organic, sustainable farm.  It’s a huge task but they are committed and have made great strides.  Fiona served some honey currant (raisin) flapjack biscuit thing for tea that was out of this world.  They also had a real, honest-to-goodness French chardonnay that blew me away and supper (beef and ale stew, perfectly steamed fresh-as-fresh-could-be broccoli, cauliflower and potatoes, butter, butter, butter, killer rolls, apple ad strawberry crumble with heavy cream) was a meal to remember.

Our housemates and dinner mates and breakfast mates were retired Jim and Marilyn, from small town (pop. 5000) Iowa.  Jim had walked the Dales Way before, along with several other English walks, but this was Marilyn’s first walk.  Talk about a good sport.  This is a tough walk, made more so by the “shocking” weather (stole that description from Fiona.)  And, Marilyn had new boots.  She was absolutely delightful, though, and we had great meal conversations with both she and Jim.

May 26

Nethergill Farm to Ribblehead

6.5 miles

Breakfast was another banner meal, then off we went (J and M had a rest day at Nethergill – luckies) for our shortest day of walking so far – to the Station Inn in Ribblehead, 6.5 miles away.

Easier said than done.

Heavily rutted path, fog, rain, mud, more rain, some sun!, then rain, rain, rain.  Some boggy terrain, so our boots were pretty soaked by the time we arrived at the (World Famous!) Station Inn.  A less than stellar accommodation, but a decent shower and a 7 ft. long, always-on radiator that will dry everything nicely before we walk again tomorrow.  From our giant picture window we can see the 1875, 24 arch, ¼ mile viaduct (topped by train tracks) and the driving rain.

The kookiest thing so far is that this room has a waterbed.

Yes, a waterbed.

Not much to say after that.