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Saturday 26th May 2012 Malham to Horton-in-Ribbledale Yet another blue-skies perfect day, this time benefitting from a bit of wind to keep the temperature down. I had a reasonable breakfast at the B&B, bought a sandwich and piece of cake from the nearby café and set off from the village at a minute or so past 9.00. Just a few hundred yards along the leafy lane out of Malham a car pulled up - it was James on his way back to the start of the day's walk. He was with his wife, Julie, his friend, Dave, and Dave's wife, Denise. Dave was going to walk with James today and tomorrow so after a brief chat I said I'd probably see them later and continued on my way.
I was soon being passed by various walkers on an Oxfam charity walk - they were doing a big loop, starting and ending at Skipton, covering 101 kilometres in 24 hours. Sixty-plus miles, a long old way. I made my way up to the scenic Malham Cove, ascended the steps to the top and crossed the limestone pavement there. Then I walked on to Malham Tarn, meeting James and Dave along the way. Dave turned out to be a sort of retired (ie redundant) commercial banker who said he had done a bit of cycling to keep fit.
We all walked on together for a while and then I dropped back for the usual reason that they walked quicker than me. I caught them up and dropped back a couple of times but shortly after dropping back one time I quickly came upon them again. Dave was sitting down on the path looking dazed. He'd slipped and gone headlong down the rocky descent from Fountains Fell (a wide, gentle-sloped, easy-enough to ascend hill) and split his head open as a result, grazing his chin and knee and bruising his chest.
James put a plaster on him and shouldered his pack and when Dave felt well enough to move we set off down to the road where we hoped to meet Julie and Denise who had been alerted by a phone call from James. After a while we were met by a couple of mountain rescue team members - on alert because of the charity walk - and after looking Dave over they walked back down with us. As we approached the road, where there was a marquee and refreshments, marshalls and first-aiders, two more MRT chaps came out and finally a nurse. I think they were glad to have someone to attend to. At the tent Dave was yet again looked over by the medics but more importantly, I thought, James and I were given a free cup of tea and a biscuit. That was more like it - much appreciated.
When Julie and Denise turned up they took Dave in the car but James decided to continue the walk to Horton via Pen y Ghent with me. At this point the girls very kindly offered to take some of my stuff for me to lighten my rucksack even more - this meant my stuff was now dispersed over three places: my sac, Les's car and the girls' car. James and I set off and as we reached the rocky part of the climb up Pen y Ghent we met Carol and Les coming down to meet us. Very nice to meet them again and of course they turned round and reascended the hill with us then accompanied us all the way back to Horton where we all had a couple of pints of Black Sheep at the pub.
Very kindly Les and Carol offered to put me up in their caravan as Horton was packed with people but I'd already accepted the offer of a bed at the cottage where James, Julie, Dave and Denise were staying for the night. It was half an hour away by car, at Newbiggin near Askrig, and belonged to friends of theirs. Very generous anyway and I'd accepted with thanks. We said goodbye to Les and Carol and drove to the cottage where Julie made tea for us all, kindly altering the menu to accommodate the vegetarian - very nice of her. I slept on the sofa bed in the lounge in my sleeping bag. The day had been one of green pastures, sheep, wind, blue skies, limestone paving and the striking visual impact of the Three Peaks: Pen y Ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough. Distance: 15.8 miles Average speed: 2.7 mph Total ascent: 3897 feet Total Distance: 100.84 miles | |||||||||
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