All that comes with it

The task of reporting all 78 miles of our walk of the Dales Way seems almost as daunting as the hike was itself. Therefore I’m not going to bore you with a blow by blow account.

I do want to record it’s general feel for posterity however, and so I’m afraid I’m going to subject you to at least some half baked amateur travel writing. If that seems a bit too much to stomach then I’d advise you to give this blog a miss for a week or so and hope that when you return I’ll be back to blogging about my bodily functions once again.

The personnel of the walk varied slightly throughout the start due to various commitments, but those present right from the start were (from left to right) Mushy, Rich, Gav, Oli, Dave, Craig, me and Brooky.

Trying to look buoyant and optimistic while secretly worrying that our backpacks are far too heavy.

Within a mile we had naturally split up into two groups, the slow walkers and the fast walkers. I had anticipated this would happen, it was why I bought some walkie talkies so we could keep in contact. I hadn’t expected it to happen so quickly though. I stopped to take a photo, turned round, and half of the buggers were disappearing over the horizon.

The first six or so miles were very easy going, and we stopped for a horrendously overpriced lunch at a cafe near Bolton Priory (£1.50 for a can of Diet Coke! The swines!). Then it was over some stepping stones and into Strid Wood where we ran into a couple who had done the Dales Way twice before and assured us that the walk got easier as the days went on. I have since considered reporting these two to the police for such blatant disinformation.

Craig and Brooky stubbornly ignoring my pleas for them to ‘fall in for the camera”

Once out of Strid Wood we had to take a minor detour to Bardon Tower ruins where a very grumpy restaurant owner allowed Oli to refill his water bottle but wouldn’t let us sit down on their outside tables. Then onwards towards Burnsall via an ice cream van (£1 for a can of Diet Coke! The bastards!).

On reaching Burnsall we had done around twelve miles, and were starting to feel rather drained. We also managed to catch up with Rich, Gav, Mushy and Dave who told me they had been working very hard filling the video camera with “interesting facts”. It was, they assured me, television gold. They had also spent the last half hour or so drinking in the beer garden of a nearby pub and to my sweat stung eyes they all looked very unfairly refreshed.

The last three miles to Grassington was a bit of a struggle to say the least. Which was a shame as the scenery would have been breathtaking should I have had any spare breath to take.

Walking towards Grassington

We stayed the night at the Foresters Arms, but much to our disappointment had little energy for any serious drinking. We had a fantastic meal then sloped of in dribs and drabs to bed. The latest any of us were up was 10:30pm. Quiet the party animals I’m sure you’ll agree.

Vital statistics

Time set off: 10am
Time arrived: 6pm
Rough distance traveled: about 16/17 miles
Number of swear words uttered: 587

You can find more photos of the day here, and you can also still see the video footage we took of the first day over at the ITV local site. Neil also very kindly put some of it on youtube for us: