Another really lovely day! 13.7 miles of perfect walking weather, soft ground, easy navigation, and pretty scenery. But, before I describe all the fabulousness, I have to correct something from yesterday. I wrote that the folks I saw sailing up into the air over Pen-Y-Ghent were hanggliders; nope, I meant to write paragliders. That makes more sense.
Today marks 8 weeks of being on this journey, and many of the things I hoped would be going on inside me (the reflections, the learning, the improved health) are, and many of the new things I hoped would be experienced are also. But mostly, it’s been a treat to discover that I’m pretty much the same here as at home. Joys, worries, conceits, laughs, questions, hopes, quiet moments, frustrations, prayers - it’s all consistent and familiar. I know it might sound odd, but it is comforting to see myself respond to hard or novel situations over and over and not be that surprised at how I react. It sounds very cliché, but I’ve traveled all this way to return home - to being very comfortable with who I am, and enjoy it.
Today also marks a big milestone: I crossed 500 miles just before lunch! Total miles walked since April 1st is 506, or put another way that’s 1,206,540 steps. https://m.youtube.com/shorts/R67LhQmjc2I?ra=m
And what a nice day for a happy celebration. We left the pub after a big, tasty English breakfast and a chat with the pub’s new owner. He is a great guy with lots of enthusiasm, but the pub is quite rundown and needs a lot of work. I hope it all works out for him and his wife. The first half of the day was a slow ascent, gently climbing up. And up. We had great views to Pen-y-Ghent that just grew grander in the distance. The fields and hillsides of the Yorkshire dales are remarkably the same, not much variety over 6 or so hours of walking; but they are gentle and pleasing. The ground has definitely changed since we left Malham yesterday, and I understand that we are walking on Yorkshire limestone now. Whatever the reason, the result is a much softer trail underfoot. This was a day to just quiet the mind, follow the well marked path, and enjoy the views. Extraordinary in the expansiveness. My body felt good, I ate and drank and rested to take care of it.
There were some fun things that broke up the beautiful hillside monotony. We passed an old series of stone pens used to sort sheep to do whatever one needs to do to sheep up in the fields; most are made of fences now. Shortly after that we had to step off the path to let a very modern young woman shepherd pass driving her specially kitted out ATV (this seems to be the transportation of choice on farms here, I’ve seen many farmers zipping across the fields on them). She had buckets of feed, ropes, and best of all - two black and white border collies who were clearly enjoying the ride balancing on the bed of the trailer she was pulling. I wasn’t able to get a photo because they zoomed by so quickly. There were a couple of stone bridges over babbling brooks, and in the distance the impressive 150 year old Ribblehead Viaduct.
Because I’m looking down so much of the time interesting things on the ground catch my attention. Today there was a large brown spotted egg shell, that four crows were crowded around. The birds flew off as we approached and I expected to see a small dead animal, but instead this deeply colored and large shell. I suppose it was from some ground nest the crows had raided. For the last couple of miles we walked downhill through some really pretty grasses. My favorite was the deergrass; it’s a brilliant green with little tufts of brown on the top of each stem (probably not the correct term for a grass). They make excellent stepping places through muddy patches, and they move so gracefully in the wind. Another dancing plant today was the buttercup that exploded through fields near our destination of Hawes. So many little yellow heads swaying vigorously together in the breezy day.
The constant companion of sound for almost the whole day were the skylarks. And every so often one would pop up over the trail, just in front of me at head height, then flap its wings and it was off soaring and singing. This bird is really growing on me. The way it flies and its insistent, energetic song delight me.
Eventually we walked into Hawes, staying at the Herriot Inn. This is James Herriot country and the area just exudes the ‘All Creatures Great & Small’ vibe. Tomorrow is a rest day; weird timing I know since we just had one the day before yesterday but the schedule is dependent on the distance between places with accommodation. These are small towns or villages, so you have to walk, sleep, rest in conjunction with all the other people walking the Pennine Way.
