4. South Downs to North Yorkshire

 

some of that wide open South Downs sky - looking east from near Beacon Hill

and looking north from near Buriton

The South Downs Way is the only National Trail in the country which just happens to be a bridleway (apart from the Pennine Bridleway) and therefore bikes and horses are allowed to use it alongside us walkers.  Unfortunately, at weekends it is wildly overused for charity bike rides.  The first one we encountered had bikes ridden furiously down hills past us for half a day in their Winchester to Beachy Head 100 mile ride.  In five hours on a baking hot day we saw no marshals, no water points, no signs at main roads to warn drivers and no one ‘sweeping up’ the stragglers.  Near the end of our walk we came across one rider pushing his bike and he was really in a state of collapse.  We stopped him, checked he had some water and he was just out on his feet.  So we phoned the so-called organisers to call for help, to be told there was an aid vehicle nearby at the top of the hill (we’d seen nothing).  Our rider, Anthony recovered a bit and said he would go on to meet the support vehicle.  Half an hour later as we drove away and not in a location to stop easily, Anthony was slowly making his way to the railway station.   The following Saturday there was a British Heart Foundation ride (another 100 miler) with ‘about 800’ or ‘a few hundred’ riders depending which marshal we spoke to but this was at least organised although the bikes never have bells and very very few riders are women.  We saw two ambulances on this day collecting broken riders.  At the same time on the same day there had been an Oxfam walk (100 kilometres in 30 hours) which was cancelled due to the safety aspects of such hot weather but many people were still walking the route with some complaining about the cancellation.  Poor old Oxfam can’t win.  Keep it going and be castigated if the heat does prove too much for some people or be criticised for cancelling.  Clearly people had organised their weekend, accommodation and transport, and we saw one Spanish group who looked to be doing the Oxfam route.  The next day there was another off road cycle ride and an on road cycle ride.  Summary, a truly great walk but don’t walk it at weekends.

One thing is just so obvious and that is that many people who sign up for these events have no idea what a 100 mile ride or a 100 km walk entails and what a level of fitness it requires, so in the absence of mandatory health and fitness checks which is clearly unrealistic, Oxfam were entirely correct in cancelling their event. 

 

looking north from near Old Winchester Hill

We had planned the last day on the South Downs so that we walked into Winchester in time for a very decent lunch followed by a drive north to Malvern to see the oldest, Mary and youngest, Kaidon, members of the family plus Hazel who’s between the two.  Then on to Derbyshire which I always think is somewhat overlooked but is a beautiful County, so we can meet up with Jan and Mike, some old Dorset friends who are holidaying here, for dinner.   This meandering is good, we see people we haven’t for a bit and all the while we’re heading for Yorkshire to walk the Dales Way, 80 miles or thereabouts from Ilkley northwest up Wharfedale, the valley of the River Wharfe, up, across and down the Pennines and on towards Lake Windermere.

Ilkley is a place many of you will have heard of, if only from knowing one line of a song but it is a very attractive and bustling market town set apart to the northwest from the huge Leeds/Bradford conurbation.  It was a pleasant surprise for us to find a Booth’s supermarket here in Ilkley.  This is a chain we know but which appears to be located only in the north of England and it is very good, so a bit of stocking up went on.  You can tell that Booth’s outlook is northern with signs like ‘have you got your tea sorted yet’.  We reckon that it’s higher quality than Waitrose, you know, the one that has those ‘three for the price of five’ offers. 

On our first day walking, we see about four or five school parties of teenagers staggering along with huge packs, all part of whichever subject has ‘putting young people off walking in the country for life’ in the curriculum.  It’s clear that none of them are enjoying it, they have a map and that seems to be about it. 

definitely not enjoying it as much as we are

Their pace is snail’s and they have either totally ignored any advice (what are the chances, they’re teenagers) or they’ve been given no tips about walking.  We pass them quickly but Heather asked one group where they were going.  One boy showed her their map (an A4 sheet) and said they had four more hours walking with the same voice tone as if the message had been “I’m going to be hanged in the morning”.

We are walking on a Saturday and we are at the most populated part of the walk so we see lots of other walkers out and about.  I’m sure they’ll thin out as we get more up the valley and onto the moors, after all we don’t do this sort of thing to meet lots of people.  The Dales are classically beautiful, dry stone walls,

warm colours in the sun, specimen trees in isolation and smallish fields sloping up towards the higher ground which is often tinged with browns and purples from the heathers.  The Moors are differently beautiful, empty, wild and brooding.  Not the place to be lost in a storm and if this has been posted you can guess that we haven’t been.   The sun we had in Sussex is just as persistently evident here and it is just so much better to be walking in sun and heat than rain and wind, not least because the distant views are, well viewable.   This walk essentially follows the River Wharfe though not always near the river.  We bypass

Appletreewick (Appick locally, so we understand) and into a decent sized and very attractive village called Grassington.  We’ve found that paths are often poorly signposted in towns and sure enough we lose it here only to find it again by cunningly asking someone where it was.  Here we are higher, way above the river and walk over and between Limestone Pavements.  These are natural formations of horizontal layers of exposed limestone worn by weak acid rain into beautiful natural and sheltered rockeries full of wild flowers that sheep can’t always get to.  The crevices in the rock are called grykes and the blocks of limestone are called clints if any Scrabble fans are reading this.  It’s the sort of area that botanists and wild flower lovers come and drool at but unfortunately for us we’re too late for the best stuff.

looking along the Wharfe Valley near Conistone

Back down at river level we arrive at Kettlewell, full of tourists and apparently the home of the garage workshop in which the pin-up calendar that inspired The Women’s Institute Calendar Girls film was seen.  True or a Loch Ness Monster story ? 

The river is dropping off the moors and varies from furious to calmly benign, rocks dotted across it and crystal clear water, rapids here and there and the most elegantly arched stone single and multiple span bridges you will see anywhere.  There are lots of birds, Dippers, Goosanders, Teal, more Sand Martins than I’ve ever seen before but surprisingly we didn’t see a single Kingfisher. 

 

Burnsall Bridge

Up the valley to Buckden we’ve not been very far from the small valley road which we’ve driven up and down a lot because we have rented a car again but this time we did actually get a car.  Ten days hire for £90 which I think is a damn fine deal on Heather’s part.  We’re about a third of the way along The Dales Way now, other walkers are few and far between and we will begin to leave the road and climb up the Pennines on tomorrow’s walk.  The river is getting narrower and much less watery with the continuing drought but at Buckden they’re still having their annual yellow plastic duck race which with the river level as it is, is floated over about 25 yards.  By chance our walk gets us to the bridge at the centre of the course just as the race is about to start but tragically neither of our ducks are placed.  We can’t retire on our winnings but console ourselves with the fact that we’re already retired anyway.