Pennine Way (North to South) 2024 – Day 14

21st August 2024: Kirkby Malham to Cowling – 17 miles

I made the mistake of taking my ear plugs out while I was still half asleep this morning. I thought it was about 6ish, and they are a little bit uncomfortable, so I placed them on the bed side table and then quite clearly heard the church bells strike 3am. Bugger. I got up and had a pee and a drink and put them back in again, and after what felt like an age, I must have dropped off again, waking at the correct 6am this time.

I want to be walking by about 8am, and the weather forecast I’ve just looked at suggests a morning walking in the rain and an afternoon of probably not. I’ve been lucky so far I think – although there’s been plenty of poor weather for the time of year, there’s been no proper rain yet.

Breakfast at the Vic was from 8.30am, but unlike the Crown, they allowed me to come down the dining room and have cereal, yoghurt and fruit if I wanted to leave early (which I do). So I crept quietly down the stairs into the breakfast room at 7am and had corn flakes for the first time in years, orange juice and snagged a couple of bananas for later.

I was out by 7.30, walking away in watery sunshine. Baselayer, shirt and coat, trying to keep me warm, but not quite making it. A hardshell waterproof can stop you feeling cold, but I don’t think they can make you feel warm, not the way a good Paramo coat can. I suppose if I was prepared to carry the weight, I wouldn’t be moaning about it, but I’m not, and I’m paying the price for it.

I rejoined the Pennine Way at the old stone bridge by Hanlith Hall and dropped down into the pasture beside the River Aire. The path is scenic enough, but it’s more bucolic than scenic really and there’s loads of livestock in the fields beside the river. I don’t have any problems with cattle, but they’re a bloody nuisance and they leave a field badly cut up and you always have to be on the alert at this time of year, as many of them have calves with them. Coming between a cow and her calf can be seen as a threat, so as much as they don’t bother me, I tend to treat them with respect, and give them a wide berth if possible. However, many of the pastures this morning were thin, so I needed to be careful.

Besides the inevitable cows, I also saw what I think were a small flock of Little Egrets in the river, maybe four or five of them, but they all flew off before I could get close enough for a proper identification. I also spooked a deer in a field on the other side of the river, it bounded off showing me just it’s tail and me scrabbling to try and get a photo of it!

After 3 miles, I left the river behind and began the climb over Eshton Moor, heading for Gargrave. The wind was savage as I left the river valley, and I was treated to that strange combination of bright sunshine and dark clouds all round. I was convinced it was about to absolutely chuck it down, but it didn’t. Eshton Moor isn’t really a moor, it’s just a series of big, wide, green fields and as I crossed one of them, and as it was such a rare sight, I took a picture of my shadow on the grass. The sky ahead had patches of blue now, with huge gaps in the mostly white clouds, and once I began the descent into Gargrave the wind dropped off considerably. I wasn’t warm, not quite, but the lack of wind was a massive relief.

In the town I diverted to the Co-op and picked up some supplies for lunch today and tomorrow and for a snack for my room tonight (as there’s no shops nearby my B&B). I grabbed a couple of hot bacon rolls for a second breakfast and ate them in the not-quite-warm sunshine, on a bench outside the shop. As I was leaving the town the sky became so dark and malevolent that I was convinced it was about to start raining, so I added the rain cover to my pack and stowed my Tilley on the back.

I’ll be honest, this isn’t close to being my favourite section of the Pennine Way, there’s just too many fields, too much livestock, too many stiles and gates and only short, too rare sections of woodland or open moorland. The little canal section with its famous double bridge makes a nice change from cow pastures, but then it’s more fields and farms and pastures into Thornton in Craven. This is one of those places that I find myself driving through at times and it always make me think of the Pennine Way. Some local yob made me smile as I left the village, they’d scratched ‘WANK’ into the national speed limit sign – for no apparent reason, but it had me considering their motivation for a few minutes.

I stopped for a break and for my first lunch, on a fallen tree beside the path, on the climb away from TiC. I was startled by a guy who’d obviously come round the corner of the wall, and he called a welcome and I nearly rolled off the back of the log in my surprise. I choked a reply and when I set off a few minutes later, I went the way he had come from, before realising it wasn’t the right way. That was almost my first navigational error.

I passed a north bound Wayer a few minutes later, but he didn’t stop talking into his camera as I went by, so I guess he’s vlogging his journey – maybe you’ll hear my little ‘morning’ in the background if you ever track it down.

The highlight of the day was the ascent of Elslack Moor, which IS a proper moor, and it has flowering heather to boot! I was also dismayed (but not at all surprised) to find a massive pile of dog shit bags beside one of the gates leading onto the lower part of the moor. There must have been a hundred bags, all different colours, and beside them a black bin bag overflowing with more of them. I just hope it was some sort of clean up collection point, but I suspect not. It’s just some (probably more than one) lazy bastard dog walkers who can’t be arsed cleaning up properly after their little shit machines.

I revelled in the climb (even the bit along the road) up through the heather onto the summit of the moor, where the trig point on Pinhaw Beacon has been joined by a wonderful hill finder. I looked back over my path from the last day or so, picking out the hills on the finder. Unfortunately it’s all downhill, both literally and metaphorically, from here into Lothersdale. More fields, more stiles, more cattle. I was now about 3 miles from the end, and as I dropped down the road I began to calculate my potential arrival time at Cowling. I can’t get into my B&B until at least 3pm, and that’s on the outskirts of Colne, for which I have to catch a bus from the road in Cowling. The bus runs every 30 minutes, at 20 past and 10 to the hour. I was aiming for the 14.50 bus, so I reckoned I could spare 30 minutes in the Hare and Hounds in Lothersdale, before the long slog up the hill beyond. It was open, which was a good start, so I went in and ordered a £3.50 pint of Diet Coke and sat and listened to the talk of the people around me. I left when I had 80 minutes to get to the bus stop.

On the way up the steep slope out of the valley I met a guy, obviously walking the Way, with a tiny dog beside him. I said I was surprised the little thing managed to do the daily mileage needed to complete the Way. He said he only walked as far as the dog could manage each day and then he stopped and camped. He was hoping to reach Horton (and a train home from this section) by Friday afternoon. I wished him luck and pressed on. The final miles of the day were a mixture of steep ascents and the occasional descent and I have to admit it was hard work. The last two full miles were done at little more than 2mph pace. I forgot to say, I managed to get a charge into my watch yesterday, so it’s still working! However, that was fast enough to catch the bus.

On the way into Cowling I managed to lose the path and I was wandering about in front of a house looking at my map and down the side of the houses, hoping for a ginnel or hidden path. An old dear came out of the house and asked my (kindly) if I was lost? I told her I was looking for the Pennine Way path to the main road. I guess she gets a lot of folk doing the same thing, and it’s probably a highlight of her day to point us in the right direction. She gave me very detailed instructions, that basically amounted to ‘down there on the left’ and I said my thanks and she was very kind for coming out to help.

Up on the road (after some big steps that nearly did for me) I found the bus stop. It’s bloody well disguised – it’s basically just a pole with the timetable on it, on the side of a very busy A road, surrounded by trees. There’s no shelter, not bus stop marking on the road, nothing. I sat on a wall, on the wrong side of the road for as long as I dared, not wanting to stand inches from the rushing traffic beside the ‘bus stop’. A couple of minutes before the bus was due to arrive I scuttled across the road and stood, risking life and limb and waved down the bus as it rounded the bend.

It dropped me outside the Emmett Arms in Colne and as it was only just before 3pm I went in for a drink. It was at this point that I decided to eat now and not later. It would save me coming back here for tea, and I could just chill for the rest of the afternoon and evening. I had two full days journals to catch up on!

I had a very nice beef ciabatta with chips and a lovely pint of Black Sheep and then left about 4pm, to walk the 250 yards or so to my B&B. It rained on me as I walked down the road!

So, I’m back up to date. Rye Flatt B&B is ace, but it’s not going to be here for much longer by the sounds of it. The hosts want to retire while they can still enjoy it – and who could blame them!

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