Day Four
Rest Day – hurray!
After the ‘Howgills in the rain’ day and suffering a sprained ankle it was so good to soak in a bath, have dinner and sleep in a little later.
We met for breakfast about 9 am and then settled down to wait for Mr Mark Richards ( no relation), his wife, Helen, and son, Dan. Mark has written numerous walking books but, as a young man he walked with Wainwright and was taught how to draw by him! He was very good company and has been very supportive of Debs and her quest to enable those with disabilities to enjoy the walking the hills.
Mark had planned to join us over the Howgills, but a date mix up saved him the experience.
After that, to be honest, an afternoon nap called before dinner and, yes, bed again!
Day Five
Shap to Pooley Bridge
Today it didn’t rain! In fact it was cloudy but the sunshine came to say hello,occasionally, and we even saw blue sky once in a while.
Leaving Shap village, we encountered a different type of walking, this time along country roads instead of off road. It was very pleasant, especially as it was very quiet. Not only did the breed of sheep change but the view to the left was much more Lake District than Yorkshire Dales.
A brief stop in Bempton Grange, to eat lunch and meet up with Jane, we then continued along country lanes, exchanging pleasantries with various groups of sheep and their lambs and even the odd cow. Debs even held assembly with one flock.
We came across a hamlet called Knipe which had an old phone box, set up as an information post. Knipe is a family name of mine so it was only right to have a photograph. We also noticed that we had returned to the more gentle dale like environment, all very pretty.
After a short wrong turn we carried on to Whale and Askham. There we had a quick stop for a cup of tea at the Post Office which, looking at the number of men sat in there, looked more like an episode of Desmond’s than a Post Office.
Rising up from Askham, past an inquisitive sheepdog and the wild ponies, we reached the peak to find, below us, the spectacular view of Ullswater and the Lake District beyond. A definite WOW moment!
The walk to Pooley Bridge was quite a steep decline, over moorland and then country road to the village and the welcome site of Ullswater House B and B.
Dinner next door at the Sun inn was tasty and eaten in the atmosphere of a church service. It was full of people watching football, we didn’t dare make a noise.
An early night was called for before meeting up with Jonathan tomorrow and off to Threlkeld.
Meet the team: Sue, me, Andy & Debs
Tagged: adventures, cumbria, dalesway, expedition, hiking, Lake District, pooley bridge, shap, Ullswater, Walking, Yorkshire, Yorkshire Dales
