The Walk

I ended up hitting the sack quite early last night, although that doesn’t necessarily mean I got an early night. I sat in bed watching TV, eventually dropping off around 11pm, just to be woken up at 3am by the howling wind outside. From then on all I could manage to do was doze until it was time to get up and get ready for the day ahead. The Rambler Inn where I was staying was a lovely little place: good food, good beer and a very nice room. The only thing that goes against it, especially on a walk like this, was the fact that they didn’t start breakfast until 9am, even locking the door stopping me and everyone else getting in until 9am. This was not a good start to the day as normally I would be on the road ages before then, especially with a tough long walk ahead.

Shock and horror…I actually managed to get seven hours sleep last night! Clearly the walk from Edale took quite a lot out of me, but then that’s not surprising considering the terrain. Unlike yesterday morning I was sat and having breakfast at 8am, much better. Even though today’s route was shorter than yesterday’s I knew there were some tough bits to come so the earlier I could get on the path the better. Breakfast was good and for £5 they provided me a lunch for the day, which I have to say was enough for today and tomorrow, so well worth the money.

A]fter struggling to write yesterday’s update, and then to upload the photos to Flickr, I ended up having a very late night, followed swiftly by a not very good sleep. Still, I woke up feeling ok this morning and not hurting too much. Luckily, the rain from yesterday looked to have passed and over breakfast I enjoyed some very nice views over the hills through the dining room window. I’d checked the weather and the forecast was looking ok for the day, and knowing that the route was supposed to be a bit easier than the previous two days I was hopeful for a good walk.

I was a little concerned this morning when I woke up and tried to move to find that my hurty bits were still hurting quite a lot. I guess the Pennine Way over the Peaks had really done a number on me over the last few days? Fortunately, today was a rest day so I didn’t have to rush up. In fact, much like other rest days I didn’t even bother getting up for breakfast, knowing that if I did then that would be it – up, awake and then trying to find things to fill the hours with. I didn’t want that as I truly needed a proper rest day today. I suppose eventually getting out of bed at midday classes as a good way to start a rest day?

Having missed breakfast yesterday on my day off, because I just couldn’t drag myself out of bed in time, I didn’t know what to expect this morning. I’m pleased to say that Bar Place did me proud and produced an excellent breakfast, which kind of made me wish I’d had one yesterday too. Oh well, never mind. It’s a good job the breakfast was good as the first task of the day after grabbing my gear was climbing the 500ft up to Heptonstall. Even at that early time of the morning the sun was beginning to get hot and the hill just seemed to go on and on. The view over Hebden Bridge made the hill worth it.

I was awake quite early this morning, feeling pretty good after my feet felt so bad last night. I pottered around sorting my stuff out and went down for breakfast.
I had a really nice chat with the other people staying at Woodland House and if I’m honest, the chat probably went on a little too long as it was 9am before I realised what the time was…late! I rushed around, got my gear on and got out the door five minutes later. After leaving the B & B my route quickly headed down…and then straight back up again, which pretty much describes the vast majority of todays walk. But I guess I’d better not just leave it there for today’s update, should I? No, I guess not.

I had a bad night’s sleep last night. The bed wasn’t the most comfortable but after the late finish with yesterday’s blog update, my own fault for spending too much time chatting in the pub last night, I just couldn’t drop off to sleep. I definitely remember seeing 1:30am and then after dropping off up some point I then promptly woke up at 5am. Maybe today’s walk was playing on my mind, knowing that there was going to be some tough terrain after a hard, hot day yesterday, and the fact that my right foot and left leg had been playing up too. I don’t know. Not a great way to start the day though that’s for sure. Beggars can’t be choosers though and there wasn’t a great deal more I could do about it.

After having a soak in the bath last night I realised the new blister on my right foot was right where I’ve had one before, many times! It was quite painful and that, along with the general pain in my feet kept me awake most of the night last night. I don’t know why it hurt so much as my feet/blisters have never affected me that badly over night. Talk about it being a good thing I wasn’t walking today. We had a pretty slow morning talking a lot and generally chilling out, which was lovely and just what I needed. Rachel washed all my stuff bless her – thank you! It was at this point though, as I was getting all my clothes out of my pack, that it dawned on me that I was a pair of boxer shorts short. I have absolutely no idea where they’ve gone to and I had horrible visions of someone cleaning one of the rooms I’d stayed in recently to find them hanging somewhere, drying after I’d washed them. Oops!

I did sleep better last night compared to the night before but, as has been the case for this entire walk so far, I still didn’t manage to get a great night’s sleep. Better yes, great no. Still, the day ahead didn’t involve a great deal of effort or energy so that was ok. Russ drove us to Croft racing circuit near Darlington to go and watch the Touring Cars, along with a load of other classes of cars to fill the racing day. We set off around 9:30am and drove through some lovely lanes to get to the A1 just to then sit at 50mph in the roadworks which will be there until 2012! It’s a good job Russ doesn’t go that way very often as that’s quite a long time for road widening to be taking place.

Final day off before starting the second half of the walk and I didn’t have a great deal planned. First order of the day, after I’d dragged myself out of bed, was to head in to Harrogate with Russ to get the last few bits I couldn’t find on Saturday. We got the bus in and first things first, seeing as I’d not had breakfast yet, I needed something to eat. Russ took me to a little deli/cafe where I got a sausage buster: a rather large roll with four sausages in…just what the doctor ordered.
Feeling better for having some food we shot round the town to get the bits I needed and then headed to the Old Bell pub for a well deserved pint.

As expected after last night’s hassle with my phone, I didn’t sleep very well. I awoke around 5:40am exhausted and lied in bed waiting for the alarm to go off. Even then I couldn’t get myself moving straight away, finally dragging myself out of bed at 7:15am. I couldn’t hang around as we had over an hour in the car before the day’s walk could start so the aim was to be on the road for around 8:30am. After we all got up and breakfast eaten we eventually got on the road a little late but I wasn’t too worried at that point as we were on schedule to start walking for around 9:45am. I only had fourteen miles to do today so I wasn’t too concerned.

After yesterday’s great day’s walking, putting me in a very happy mood, the Fountain Hotel in Hawes (i.e. a pub that does accommodation) did a great job in robbing me of that mood last night. The room was tired, stuffy and in need of decorating and the bed was awful, meaning I ended up with one of the worst night’s sleep since I started this walk. If that wasn’t bad enough the breakfast this morning was quite possibly the worst breakfast I’ve had so far. Poor quality produce, and not a lot of them on the plate, all swimming in a nice layer of grease…yummy, er, not! I ate as much of it as I could along with a slice of cold toast and got the hell out of Dodge, hoping that the day’s walking would cheer me up a bit. Using the word “Hotel” in their title is stretching it somewhat I would say.