DHW1
Dales High Way- Day 1
SATURDAY 14TH JULY 2018: Day 1 and after months of anticipation the day is finally here – too early in fact as it is a 4:30am alarm wake up for a flight to Manchester. A train to Skipton and bus to Ilkley then brings me to the true start of my DHW adventure.
This adventure is really the culmination of the last few years. I started walking around my home Channel Islands, enjoying that, then discovered there was a whole world of Long Distance Walks out there. The Hadrians Wall National Trail was my 'baby steps' introduction to this world, followed up with a quickie in the Mendips, but this DHW is the first serious walk that I have prepped, planned and properly kitted myself out for. This is the real deal now.
It is a tweaked version of the DHW, missing out the first few miles and instead starting at Ilkley, but aiming to include all of the Yorkshire 3 peaks. That's the plan anyway.
On the bus to Ilkley the enormity of the landscape hits me – rolling hills everywhere you look – and I am walking back along these very hills I am passing. Ilkley bus station leads to the bustling High Street but it is amazing how quickly this turns into green countryside. Up a hill – obviously – and before you know it I come across my first grazing sheep – even before leaving town. Up, up and soon I am on the moor, heading North, the views soon opening out to my right where I can look down on Ilkley and Addington and across to hills stretching away into the distance. A few people are about but it soon thins out, then only me. Soon,I come across my first DHW waymark – always nice to see.
The moor varies from scrub, to fern, to heather. Glorious up here. What a back garden if you live here – although I bet it is wild and bleak in the winter. I follow the moor edge for some distance, enjoying the fine views on offer, eventually coming down via a fairly steep, rocky track to valley level and cross the fields towards Addingham.
It is a reasonably hot day and I could do with some more liquid so I try and detour into Addingham village, but I can’t seem to find the crossing over the very busy A65 road. There must be a path leading away the other side of the road but I can’t find it and after padding around the roadside for a bit I decide this is a bad idea and beat a retreat to the original path – I will make do with the water I have.
Along the way I come across a chap walking his 3 dogs and we chat for a while as we potter along – slowly as one of his dogs looks done in! He leads me through a local nature area (slightly off DHW path) then I leave him behind and cross over onto “the Roman Road” which is unsurprisingly straight and long.
In fact, it is fairly straight all the way to Skipton, although the road reverts to track and is a constant gentle incline. I stop for a break in a fairly remote area, sit down and take in the scene. Not bad!
My walk description and route sometimes refers to streams or areas that could be muddy or boggy…not for me. The ground is bone dry and often cracked as if an earthquake has hit. All the consequence of the very dry weather we have had for the last couple of months.
I can spy Sharp Haw in the distance, a destination for tomorrow. However, I do have to be careful looking around. The path is often rutted, stony or uneven so I need to look where I am going – difficult when these hills are acting like a magnet for my eyes.
A change of scene through some light forest, then a track leads down to Skipton, with a walk of a mile or so through the streets to reach my overnight stop – the Woolly Sheep Inn, a very pleasant pub. A welcome shower, then a meal of a better than average burger while I contemplate a great start to my trip.
To round off the day I take a stroll along the canal near the Inn – part of the Leeds/Liverpool canal. It is a lovely evening, blue skies, setting sun, almost a balmy feel and the canal and the boats make a fantastic backdrop.
Been a long, but enjoyable, first day – time for snooze now.
Stats: 12.4 miles, 4hr 17mins moving, 4hr 54mins total, Average moving 2.9 mph, 1804 ft Ascent
