Yorkshire Dales walk, five days in

Today is our layover day in the lovely village of Dent, and a chance to catch up a bit on the blog.  After Coby's Bar Mitzvah in Briarcliff Manor NY, we all flew overnight from JFK to Manchester England.  Took a series of trains from the airport to Ilkley, the starting point for our walking trip through Yorkshire.  We had set up this trip through Wandering Aengus, so all our accommodations were pre-arranged: a good thing because there are very limited places to stay along the way.

starting out from Ilkley

We were in Ilkley by mid-afternoon, and surprised to discover the town in the midst of a huge carnival.  The village was packed with visitors enjoying the warm and sunny day.  We had fun exploring the village, and ate a fantastic dinner (so much for all the jokes about English cooking).

Linda and Dick at Bolton Priory

First day of walking was from Ilkley to Appletreewick, a distance of about 11 miles.  We were mostly following the River Wharfe through its beautiful valley.  Appletreewick has one place to stay (we filled it up), and a pub (The Craven Arms) with wonderful food.

Next day we continued a similar distance along the river to the village of Kettlewell.  This is sheep country.  Our route generally passes through farms and fields full of sheep and baby lambs.  There are frequent stone fences to cross, sometimes with gates and frequently via stiles: lots more vertical than the maps would indicate.

along the River Wharfe

Day three we headed into more remote country where there are not a lot of villages and the farms are quite spread out.  We had accommodations at the Swarthghyll Farm (near Oughtershaw), miles from the nearest village.  The owners of this farm have won awards for their efforts to replant some of the hillsides with trees (most of which are quite new).  The planting is a lovely mix of conifers, hardwoods, and some fruit trees.  It should be beautiful in another ten or twenty years.  Because there is no place to go for meals in the area, we had pre-ordered dinners from the farm owners which we heated up in the kitchen of one of our rooms.  The meat pies and pasta dishes were delicious, washed down with plenty of beer and wine, and roughly twice as much as we could eat.

lunch break

Day four took us to Ribblehead Station.  There is a little station here for a tourist excursion train, an inn which held us and two other rooms, and that's it.  Nearby is a large viaduct for the train line, which is a (surprisingly) popular destination.  This day took us again through very remote country, and over the highest elevation for the walk.  A portion of the day's stage we followed the Pennine Way along an old Roman road.

high point along the Pennine Way

Day five was our short day (maybe seven or eight miles), but took us over a large hill between Ribblehead and the River Dee.  After a steep descent we followed the river's course the remaining few miles to Dent, which is an English village from central casting and the site of our layover day.  We had a great dinner in the packed and noisy pub.  Today (Sunday) was our rest day.  We explored Dent and its small heritage museum, had tea and cakes, and another dinner in the village's other pub.

Note: Out of time for today.  Will add more pics as time allows.