Day 07 - All Creatures Great and Small

Malham to Horton in Ribblesdale

Today's Miles - 15.2
Today's Ascent - 3959
Today's Descent - 3884
Total Miles so Far - 98.4
Star Team Member -  Mam for washing out all of our sweaty clothes in the hotel sink! Not a nice job!

Today we walked with Petra, our German friend, as she was sharing a taxi with us back to Malham, as she too was unable to find accommodation In Horton in Ribblesdale. We set off at nine o'clock after a hearty breakfast, and walked out of the village up to Malham Cove.

Walking up to Malham Cove

Having studied Malham in Geography, I understand how many of Malhams main limestone features are formed, but you don't want to know about that, do you? No, I can tell that you don't. We walked up the paving slab steps up to the top (I happen to know this is local stone, airlifted form Skipton, but you don't want to know about all that, do you?!)

Steps up to the top of Malham Cove

Having reached the top we could see the limestone pavements. If you are a Harry Potter fan, like me, do you remember seeing Harry camp in Deathly Hallows Part 2, on the limestone pavements? Well this was on these exact same pavements we had walked along! Cool, right?!

Limestone Pavements 

Of course, I had to do a bit of a re-enactment! (Walking pole is acting as a temporary wand- use your imagination!)

Potter le Mad

From the pavements it was a short drop down to Malham Tarn, where we passed some cows, once again! We threw some stones fro Paddy into the tarn, more like a lake really, and walked up to a field centre and they kindly filled up our water bottles. 

Malham  Tarn

Walked through some nice shaded woodland and passed a big metal spider, certainly unusual Pennine wildlife.  

More Pennine Wildlife

From here we started to climb upwards to a hill called Fountains Fell. We had a few sherbet lemons and continued on up. I got a text from both Uncle Paul and uncle Gerard, giving me support. I was looking forward to my lunch of a croissant (probably squashed) and some warm water. They both kindly reminded me that they were out in Colemans, South Shields, having fish and chips. I'm not bitter!

I got to the top to find my croissant, as I predicted squashed, but still edible, and we stopped for a break and lunch.

Top of Fountains Fell

we could see the challenge ahead of us; Pen-y-ghent, the smallest mountain on the Yorkshire walk, the Three Peaks. It looked quite steep and we were feeling a bit apprehensive, and Petra and I thought that the short cut was a good idea! But we plodded on! We walked down to the road and I did a bit of frolicking through the grass. Live while your're young! (and have the knees to frolic!)  

Daunting; Pen - Y - Ghent

We walked along the road and turned off at a farm to begin the descent up the big one. It wasn't as steep as it looked from Fountains Fell, but it was still very hard. We did a bit of scrambling up some rocks and the top was there! We congratulated ourselves with another sherbet lemon, and with three miles to go, pressed onwards. Mam wants me to say that the seat at the top had some interesting fossils (I thought they were a bit boring!), so to keep her happy I put that in. 

The Summit of Pen - y - Ghent

From here we took a path down that took us to a road. It was quite steep to begin with, but when we reached the road it flattened out. From the road we slowly mi-anded into the small village of Horton in Rinnlesdale. We picked up the only road running through the village, passing the church to reach the pub. After a drink and a packet of bacon fries, our taxi arrived to take us back to Malham. Paddy had a luxury fleecy blanket in the boot so was very pleased; he only travels 1st Class you know!

Church at Horton in Ribblesdale  (Pen - y - Ghent in the background)

It was a bit off-putting driving backer in the taxi. It took us 9 hours to walk form Malham to Horton, but only 19 minutes driving back. We kept telling ourselves that the distance was shorter and the taxi didn't go over Pen-y-ghent on the way!

Thank you for reading this post, I hope you enjoyed it. See you tomorrow in Hawes!

Caitlin x 

xxx