L2L Day 41 Cowling to Malham - 14.5 miles

In an AirB&B how do you sort out breakfast in a half-horse town on a Whit Monday? Sally went out in search and came back with a packet of Alpen some orange juice, a baguette and some marmalade. What more could we have wanted???

We were soon up and flying.


We started the day ay Elsack Moor with great views to the North and West. The sky was full of the sound of skylarks.

On the way down to Thornton in Craven the field walls were different from any I'd seen before on the walk


and I had to stop to admire these old guys!



I've had the good fortune of meeting many community spirited people along the way and Catherine is clearly one of them. She was in the process of clearing some invasive ivy and other weeds from a patch of ground by the side of the road.


 Catherine was proudly wearing her husband's Swaledale RFC fleece. They'd met many years ago when she was a young art teacher and he - as a front row forward - was keen to get in to a dance that she'd arranged in the village hall.

We talked about 'what is a weed and when is a weed a wild flower ?' and the beautiful Honesty that had spread from her garden across the road and was now displaying  proudly in the hedgerow.

Just up the road the wild garlic was in full bloom. 


Definitely not a weed in my book. The smell was glorious.

At East Marton the trail runs alongside the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.




On the walk down to Gargrave we stopped for our picnic lunch and used a bench with reputedly ' the best view in England' . While there we met Seamus. 


He's an Irish Terrier with an Irish Terrier's instinct. He'd obviously spotted my cheese and Pickle sandwich.
While he was transfixed, we were able to have a lively concersation with his owner Hilary - a retired civil servant who in retirement has been able to become more involved with Wildlife rescue, whether it be hedgehogs, foxes or Tawny Owls.
We could have talked for ages but Seamus was hungry for his exercise.

We dropped down into Gargrave and I was disappointed to see that the lovely cafe on the corner is no longer



...but they've decided to go into antiques and bric a brac. Give me strength!!!

There was a short length of road beyond Gargrave where we saw a number of butterflies


An Orange tip butterfly


and possibly a Small white!?


We followed The Pennine Way as it headed off across attractive rolling fields of sheep and cattle.


There was always a friendly reception committee.



The distant views of the moors became more prominent.


The route then followed the pretty River Aire upstream.




Through a 'slight navigational error' we'd been calculating our distances to the wrong hamlet so after 13 miles were disappointed to see that we still had another 1.5 miles to go to Malham.



Only in the last miles did Malham Cove come into view.


Eventually, the Lister Hotel, our accommodation for the night.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

L2L Day 1 Dover

Image
While waiting for the 09:14 from Arundel to Dover Priory , I had a perverse exchange with a driver on the taxi stand who I thought was cleaning out his coffee machine. After a brief, rather one-sided discussion over coffee blends and flavours greeted by his puzzled expression, I realised he'd actually  been cleaning his vacuum cleaner and the detritus from the floor of his taxi. Ah well!  Here's to more enlightening conversations over the next few months!! £37 gets you two tickets from Arundel to Dover Priory in comfort in just about 3 hours which at a rate of about 10p per minute, I reckon is pretty good value. Alas, on arrival in Dover  and checking-in to the hotel, the smiling receptionists told us they had no mains water supply. Catastrophe!!!! While looking for alternative accommodation, we were also struck by the intriguing instructions on their key-cards. With the prospect of no showers or flushing loos, we checked in to Dover Travelodge - cheap, cheerful and with...
Read more

L2L D5 Rye to Hastings - 13 miles

Image
With the prospect of a longer walk today, we had an early breakfast and were out to enjoy Rye in bright sunshine and a gentle breeze. There were few others around and we almost had the streets to ourselves. Our route for today. My apparel for the day now includes Barrie and Sheila's oyster shell from Whitstable. After  leaving Rye, we walked along the Royal Military Canal and came across a Stanton shelter dating from 1942. These were of prefabricated concrete panels that could be bolted together. This one was used to provide shelter for the men organising a Starfish decoy - made up of lights and fires set up in the middle of fields - a long way from habitations to mislead and confuse Luftwaffe pilots into believing that they were flying over a burning town and thus drop further bombs - out of harms way. Along the Royal Military Canal we came to the ruins of Camber Castle.  Commissioned by Henry VIII, he realised that the location could defend the whole of the estuary. Today, a...
Read more

L2L Day 2 Dover to Folkestone - 11 miles

Image
The weather forecast for the day was promising full sunshine all day but a low temperature combined with a keen wind from the North resulting in a 'feels like' temperature of 2 degrees. It was going to be a cold walk. Despite the forecast, the bright sunshine gave us a welcoming start to the day. Before heading out of town, our eyes were caught by a shop selling an alternative form of transport which might well become more attractive as the days go on. The 'Savvy Defender' had an air of indestructability and at a mere 6 and a half grand seemed to be a mere snip. We soon realised that the route was not going to be flat. The King Charles III coastal path as it heads West rises steeply out of Dover with open views back towards Dover Castle, the White cliffs and the harbour. The route westward passes the Drop Redoubt, built in 1804 to fend off any French invasion. The walk along the clifftops was a delight   with hearing our first skylark of the year, gorse coming in to f...
Read more