#the first date we went on a little walk (actually up a pretty steep hill in the city xd but with a lovely view) and then coffee

[adore-gregor]

soooo

[wanderella-w]

Three days in the Yorkshire Dales

So.. a full Pennine Way adventure of two more weeks wasn't going to be it for me. Not on my own, and not carrying a slightly too heavy backpack with a two-persons cooking set and tent. But I didn't want to leave the UK without having had at least a peak at one of their famous National Parks, so I decided to do an easy three day's stretch on the Pennine Way in the Yorkshire Dales.

I traveled by train and bus to Skipton and, strangely, I had knee pain after my travel day, something which I had never had on the entire SWCP. I hoped a rest day in Skipton (staying two nights on a campsite) would fix it. I explored the town a bit and it turned out to be quite a nice town, lying next to the Leeds-Liverpool canal with lots of houseboats.

The next morning I took the first of the only two busses per day going to Malham. After recovering from car-sickness on a bench for a little while, I set off with a lot of other tourists towards Malham cove. The cove is quite well-known and indeed impressive, and there were some climbers climbing on it.

Behind the cove, towards Malham tarn, the Pennine Way got much quieter and I even had one little panic moment where all the straw-colored hills around me looked the same and I wished for a coastline to help me orient myself. But soon after, I stumbled upon a waymarker and I figured that I was walking just a few meters to the left of the Pennine Way. After that, wayfinding got easier.

The weather was beautiful but actually my knees still hurt so I wasn't feeling my best. I was planning to wild camp, but the landscape was so open, there were sheep everywhere (I think wild camping with sheep is okay but I wasn't entirely sure?), and I wasn't really feeling so much at home in this new landscape yet, so I decided to skip the steep climb over the Pen-y-ghent hill and go to the small village Horton-in-Ribbelsdale right away, where I would go the campsite that I had spotted on the map.

The Pen-y-ghent:

The campsite was great, it was run by an old man who welcomed me in a reception that gave off a Pirates of the Caribbean-like vibe and who handed me a tent label stamped with today's date after doing his all-paper administration. In the evening I had a nice call with Melli, who I am going to do a one-week hike in Germany with soon.

Because I had skipped a bit, I was now actually only a one-day stretch from my end goal, Hawes, away. My knees felt better the next morning, and as I was already awake before six, I thought I might as well do the whole stretch in one day. I really enjoyed the first bit of the hike behind Horton-in-Ribbelsdale!

After that, it got really windy because I was walking higher up on the hills, and the views weren't so varied anymore. The path was broad and there were some cars and a truck passing me. On a positive note, however, I saw a lot of the type of horned sheep that are typical for the Yorkshire Dales and a medium-sized bird with a long, arched beak.

I arrived in Hawes at around 1:30 and I went to sit into a café with lots of locals. I was glad to be out of the wind. In the café, I read the magazine 'The Yorkshire Dalesman' and found out that the bird I had seen was a 'curlew', a really rare bird that they are pretty proud of here! Sadly, it also said that it is in danger of extinction.

I did groceries in the lovliest little shop before I went to the youth hostel to check in and pitch my tent in the garden.

In the youth hostel I met two guys from Nottingham doing the whole Pennine Way, Jack and Shady. They asked me if I wanted to join them to the pub, and I said yes - I was up for some company actually. They were nice and chatty people, scolding me for having skipped the Pen-y-ghent, but envying me for having seen a curlew. We talked about all the ins and outs of backpacking/hiking and I advised one of them with knee pain to do warming ups and cooling downs (Yes, I'm a hiking nerd now;)). But it was evidence-based advice, as my own knee pain had in the meanwhile completely disappeared.

The next morning I was a bit jealous when they continued their hike on the Pennine Way. Britains oldest national trail is definitely something to come back for!

I'm staying in the hostel for two more nights now, doing some small hikes in the region, like going to two waterfalls.