The Globetrotter

The final day, in true d of e spirit was gorgeous. We had a "nice" walk along a river and then we walked up to High Pike and the back down into the valley to the finish. Of course it would have been nicer if there weren't so many midgey insects swarming around just waiting to attack me and we hadn't bumped into the assessor in all her purple glory just as we had been singing a song about her.

To amuse ourselves on day 4, we took great delight in writing a song(on my arm in permanent marker) which completely slagged off Yorkshire. When we got tired of that we started singing a song "Hey Big Purple!" about the assessor who sported a rather fetching purple coat.

As we approached the finish, we could see where exactly we were supposed to finish, but had no idea how to cross the river between us and the finish. It was suggested that we just walk right through the river, but i then pointed out that i had finally dried off after being soaked through to the bone for 3 days and would like to remain so until we got home. We eventually found the bridge that we were supposed to cross although it really didn't seem like it could be where the path crossed the river, seeing as it had a sign on it reading "absolutely no public right of way WHATSOEVER". - We risked it.

Despite having left at 8.15am, we still didn't finish until about 5 and we were knackered, but that didn't stop us all from having a party on the bus on the way home.

I was relieved to get away from the Braida Garth Farm. By this time on the expedition my thoughts of Yorkshire were very negative, what with the rain, the endless and boring hills, the orange water at camp and everything being wet. Thankfully, after only 3 hours of walking and a small amount of rain, a gap formed in the clouds and we saw the sun and blue sky. The sun really lifted our spirits as we continued to ascend Whernside, the tallest hill in Yorkshire.

Finally, we reached the top of Whernside in time for lunch and for once we could "enjoy" the view, although i can't say the views in Yorkshire are particuarly "breathtaking".

The rest of the day was spent walking downhill, much to the dislike of Caroline and i. Our "brain" feet were really struggling, but none the less we made it to camp 3, in the village of Dent.

It was a really nice sunny evening and despite the assesor hanging around we had a good time, especially when the dog at the campsite kept chasing Ross and wouldn't let him go up to the toilets. Its a shame we couldn't get it on camera because it was dark, but it was hilarious to watch.

Well after 10 hours walking on day 1 and very little sleep due to very noisy campers at the camp site, i was shattered on day 2. Again it looked like a perfect walking day when we woke up, but i wasn't taking any more chances, i wore my waterproofs and gaitors, determined to stay at least semi dry.

I am so glad i waterproofed myself, because as soon as we started to ascend the hills, the cloud started to drift in again and surround us. It was truly miserable. I may have enjoyed walking in the rain if we could have at least seen the views (not that they are that wonderful).

The route on day 2 involved walking through some of Yorkshires "star attractions", but i must say i didn't see anything fabulous about trow gill of gaping gill, they were a bit pants if you ask me.

Anyway, Ingleborough seemed to be a never ending hill, i may think that because all we could see was white all around us, but it really did go on forever and yet again we were all getting pretty wet and i was really concerned for the contents of my bag. My sleeping bag had got a little bit wet on the first day, i was simply praying that it could survive another soaking. Another worry was that Caroline was getting drenched. I will admit that i thought her poncho was kinda funky when we started on day 1, but it was a tad impractical in the torrential rain. Thankfully, i found a fleece neatly folded at Little Ingleborough and Caroline was really glad of it. She must have a guardian angel or something, either that or i stole someones fleece whilst they had gone to the toilet.

When we got to the top of Ingleborough, Lisa used the last of her enthusiasm to do a lil' trig jig on the camera and we gave Andy the flat cap we found in the "miracle fleece" pocket. - He can really pull of the Yorkshire man look.

Time dragged as we headed to camp at Braida Garth Farm and my feet were killing me, as i'd been walking in wet boots all day. Although the weather brightened up towards the end of the afternoon, we were really behind time and Carolines foot was hurting really badly. In the end, as we approached the end of the waterfall walk, caroline was walking with one boot off and me and ruth were carrying her bag between us. By the time we got into camp that night, it was beginning to get dark, we had been out almost 11 hours and we were exhausted. We were definitely getting a raw deal on this expedition. So much for the 8 hours recommended walking a day.