A short ride into town to pick up the first train of the day up the Settle-Carlisle as far as Kirkby Stephen. It's been a while since we've been along here.
KS station is a couple of kilometres up from the town itself (they wanted to build it near the railway
) so a blast downhill to find a shop to furnish us with snacks for the day. Saw a lot of bikepackers in town, at least a dozen, apparently it's on an alternative LEJoG or JoGLE.Then it was road to get up to Tan Hill pub, it's the highest in all of England apparently, which was generally steady away apart from a few steeper bits. About half-way you cross this old railway,
which crossed Bowes Moor close to the present day A66. Not far from this point was Belah Viaduct which until it was demolished following Dr Beeching's cuts in the early 1960s was the highest railway bridge in the UK at 60 metres above the stream bed. The two abutments can still be seen - I took a shot but they just looked like dark blobs in the distance!
Fine views over the Eden Valley
Once you are at the "top" it's still quite a way to the pub and the road just rolls over the moorland so there's still quite a bit of climbing. Not long before the pub you leave Cumbria and enter darkest Yorkshire.
It would be rude to just pass the pub without sampling their wares. Whilst we were doing so an autogyro circled the pub a few times. So the shot below isn't a sneaky "guess which Z-list non-entity we saw today?" but is actually of said flying machine in the distance (and in the sky).
Time to head down into Swaledale along the Pennine Way which for this bit is actually a bridleway. It's at this point that I'd like to say that life isn't fair as Cath got an 8th on Strava for a segment hereabouts, her time for same included our 25 minute stop in the pub! Anyway, this is the dry bit:
After some boggy bits it got a bit steeper for a few hundred metres -
Which led to this imposing obstacle, complete with "Please close the gate" sign.
Some more bog then it got a bit more interesting as the BW dropped down towards Keld.
Time was getting on a bit now, we'd only left Kirkby Stephen at about quarter past one. The plan was to eat at the pub in Gunnerside then wander on a bit and bivy. Up a steep road for seemingly ever, then at last things headed downhill. Unfortunately the downhill bit extended to the pub being shut, as in "not open". On a Bank Holiday!! Maybe the "for sale" signs had something to do with it. Only one thing, head to Reeth.
Rather than take the main road we took the Swale Trail which is a low level route along the valley floor.
At least the pubs in Reeth were open, it was Reeth Show day on the Monday. A couple of drinks and some food. Then it was time to head for a bivy. Our route took us past the area flooded a couple of weeks ago - some of the damage is quite eye-opening. Up the hill out of Grinton and on to the moor just as the sun set.
We got the tarps up in the last of the light and then sat supping whiskey and eating snacks whilst spotting satellites drifting overhead. It was bloomin' warm overnight, my thermometer showed 15C in the morning!
Leave No Trace - the antithesis of "dirty camping"
The day's first stop was Castle Bolton to get some water. At least it was pleasantly cool at 0730.
The cafes at Aysgarth didn't open until 10am so we just pressed on as the day began to heat up. Up the long drag on to Stake Moss from Thoralby. This shot is from about 2/3rds of the way up.
Down into our fifth dale, Wharfedale, and time to find a cafe. Zarina's in Kettlewell is shut for the while so it was the one opposite the garage.
The next climb was Kilnsey over to Hetton. Boss Moor has had some work, we'll see how it lasts through the winter.
Down into Hetton and through to Gargrave then following the canal to West Marton and another cafe stop before the last climb to get home.
We saw just five mountain bikers (apart from those in Kirkby Stephen) over the two days and four of those were a family up on Stake Moss.
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