14.5 miles/25 km

Total miles: 103 miles/166 km

The B&B we stayed at last night was nice and I ended up getting a good nights sleep. It was a little pricey, however, and was run by a dutchman with a few character traits in common with Basil Fawlty. Fortunately we had a lot in common as I’m married to a Dutch person so we had lots to talk about and he soon warmed up.

Leaving Horton-In-Ribblesdale, we walked northbound on a gentle slope towards Birkwith Moor. There were beautiful views back towards Pen-Y-Ghent and, so far at least, the rain seemed to be holding off. My sister also joined us for the first km.

The climb up to Birkwith Moor was fairly uneventful with some beautiful views (unfortunately behind us) of Ingleborough, Whernside and the famous Ribblehead Viaduct.

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16 miles/25 km

Total miles: 88 miles/141 km

We had a rest day yesterday which involved a trip to Skipton to buy a few bits of outdoor equipment and also visit the castle there which was built in Norman times and is still standing strong. This was followed by a trip to Harrogate afterwards and the Victorian baths.

Today, however, it was back on the trail as we walked from Malham to Horton-in-Ribblesdale. This is one of the premier sections of the Pennine Way for scenery and ends with a climb up Pen-Y-Ghent, one of the Yorkshire Three Peaks, the others being Ingleborough and Whernside.

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18 miles/30 km

Total miles: 72 miles/116 km

The day started by crossing farmland for a few kilometres between Ickornshaw and High Stubbing which meant quite a few ups and downs through rolling farmland to begin the day. After a while of this, we descended to Lotherdale which is the last former mill town on the Pennine Way. The village was decked out with flags for the platinum jubilee of the Queen next weekend.

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18 miles/29 km

Total miles: 55 miles/89 km

A quick note on the mileage walked above. The daily miles is the distance we walked in a day. The total miles is the official trail distance to that point. As we invariably walk further than the trail miles, to walk from the train station to the trail today for example, I’ve only included the official total in the total miles.

Today dawned to much better weather and, although cool and cloudy, it was dry and that was good enough. Today and tomorrow we are crossing the gap between the southern mill towns and the limestone country of the Yorkshire Dales.

We caught the train back from Manchester around 8AM and were soon back in Hebden Bridge. The only downside was a steep 5km climb out of Hebden Bridge and onto the moorland.

Eventually we bypassed Colden and climbed onto the open moorland of Heptonstall Moor up to Clough Head Hill. We met some volunteers out maintaining the trail as well as some inquisitive sheep wishing us good luck for the trail ahead.

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17 miles/27 km

Total miles: 38 miles/ 61 km

It was an early start today, mainly because I’d set my alarm incorrectly and then it was too hard to get to sleep. The forecast today was for rain until 4pm at which point it would clear up. We had a full breakfast made by the pub owner before it was time to head off.

We caught the bus to get from Marsden back to the trail at Standedge. Unfortunately in our rush to get on the bus, we realised we had got on the wrong one. Frantically getting off and running back to the stop, we managed to flag down the correct one who kindly stopped for us between stops. After a short ride, we were unceremoniously dumped in the middle of nowhere in the pouring rain.

The rain and poor visibility made it hard going with the wind trying to blow us off our feet. It was difficult on occasion to literally walk in a straight line with the wind.

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11.2 miles/18 km

Total mileage: 27 miles/44 km

After yesterday’s long day, I woke up surprisingly less sore than I was expecting. As I gazed up at the tent after waking, I was wondering why it seemed to have developed a bit of a camouflage pattern overnight. On exiting the tent, I realised why. A bird had been using my tent for target practice. All I can say is the clean up at 5 AM was not a good start to the day!

The day started with drizzle on and off and was forecast to brighten up in the afternoon. That turned out not to be accurate as it rained on and off all day. We began with a long climb from Crowden up towards Laddow Rocks and then Black Hill.

I’ve realised that it is hard on the Pennine Way to keep up the same speed as back in Australia. The terrain is generally either muddy, slippery, rocky or more usually all three together. This also makes the hiking quite tiring on the body. In addition, the winds so far have been strong and persistent.

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17.6 miles/28 km

Today started off with a very early start at 4.30 AM to catch our train down to Edale, the start of the Pennine Way. Our Uber driver arrived as scheduled and we were soon on the early morning train to Sheffield along with a few bleary eyed commuters grasping their coffees. After changing at Sheffield for the Manchester train we were Edale-bound.

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Today was a day at leisure prior to starting the organising tomorrow for the start of our trip. We took the opportunity to head to York to soak up the history and culture.

My sister kindly volunteered to drive us to York but then unfortunately had to work so we would be catching the train back. The good news is that the roads were much quieter than I remember the A64 so we made quick progress out through the suburbs of Leeds and across to York.

We decided to make our way to York Minster first of all. It was wonderful to walk through the old historic byways of York. Despite having worked in Leeds for most of my time in the UK, I have to say that York is still my favourite. And it was great to enjoy it without the usual weekend crowds.

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After all the travel yesterday, I had a great night’s sleep managing to stay awake until 8.30pm until the jet lag hit me but sleeping right through to 5 AM.

With the upcoming hike, we decided a few extra calories were the order of the day so headed down to grab an English Breakfast at the restaurant at the Premier Inn. Being so early, we were the first ones there and startled the staff who were not expecting to see two jet lagged Australians bound into their restaurant at the crack of dawn.

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Living in Perth, Western Australia generally means a long flight to get anywhere and this was no exception. I’d already been in Sydney earlier in the week so this meant there was a lot of travel this week before I’d even set foot on the plane. The trip to the UK involves two flights , 19 hours of flying and 14,612km travelled.

On this trip due to the logistics of our hike, we are flying into Manchester via Dubai and then returning home from Heathrow direct into Perth. This works better for us as we will be spending much of the last week travelling around the south of the UK and means we won’t need to travel back up to the north to return home.

Whilst there was a lot of travel ahead, it was good to remember that after three years of essentially being locked up in Australia, we were at last free to travel and explore the world. This was something which, even at the start of 2022, looked a long way away so it was amazing to be finally able to leave Australia and undertake this trip.

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