YORKSHIRE DALES: 3 PEAK CHALLENGE - JUNE 2019

So now that we've finished with the Wainwright's we've found a new love in Yorkshire. We both prefer the Lake District for it's more ruggedness crags and variety of each area, but we also love the vast beautiful Dales to venture on to. We always go away for Mr F's birthday and we headed up on the day of his birthday after going to see our niece in Great Ormond Street Hospital...

Mr F decided that he really wanted to do the Yorkshire 3 Peak Challenge whilst we were here and done lots of research on the route, watching YouTube videos, reading blogs amongst many other various things. Mrs F of course was just going along with it! We planned to do it on the Friday to allow for the fact that Mrs F may not be able to walk the next day to do anything else! Mr F had walked the Coat to Coast in October 2017 which was 25+ miles everyday, so we knew he could do it no problem!

We arrived in our B&B called Ebor House in Hawes around 7pm. Mrs F hadn't seen any pictures prior as Mr F wanted it to be a surprise....even though it was his birthday! We unloaded the car into our top floor room with a great view over the back and headed into the little village which was less than a 10 minute walk. It's a beautiful quaint little village that made us both feel like we'd stepped back in time to somewhere like Downton Abbey! It had lovely little village shops and pubs and places to eat, just a really lovely old English town 😊

We sat outside the church on a bench that was decorated with little knitted things, as well as on the post box right next to the bench whilst Mr F looked at Trip Adviser for the best place to eat. Having looked ans saw they were all much of a muchness, we looked at he menus outside and decided to go with The Crown, which was good ol' pub grub. To be honest, all of the other options was also pub grub! Mrs F had steak pie and Mr F had fish n chips and both were very welcoming and delicious!

Fed and watered, we headed back to the B&B to get ourselves sorted ready for our first big walk and stretch of the legs the next day...

Beautiful Falls Looking From a Bridge In The Village

Mrs F Saw This & Thought It Would Be Good To Go & See

View From Our Room

Our Drawer of Goodness! 😋

DAY 1:

13 MILES HIKING

So as always, we like to try and ease ourselves in gently, which never happens; somehow we always manage to go in hard and kill ourselves on the first day! We knew we had to walk a fair few miles in preparation for Friday's marathon over three mountains and had already done quite a bit of walking around the Chiltern Hills in Tring about 40 minutes from where we live in London, so it wasn't as if we were starting from nothing. We've got enough muscle memory to keep us going too ☺️

It was a beautiful sunny day, unlike London which was miserable and raining, which makes strange change ☼ We had breakfast which was really lovely. Mrs F had a full English breakfast, whilst Mr F had scrambled eggs & bacon as he had to break his fasting diet, which he had already lost 3 stone from! 👏 Fed and ready to go, we headed out straight from the B&B up through the village. Mrs F stopped at the local bakery/butchers to get the biggest, heaviest ham, cheese & pickle roll in the world; it weighed a ton! We headed through the village towards to Dales and wasn't too long before Mrs F stopped to de-layer as it was really warm...

Making Our Way Through The Village

Making Our Way Through Familiar Holes In Walls

It was so lovely having the freedom to make our way through the open land with our destination ahead of us, with nothing but fields, fresh air and sunshine all around. It was a good job we wore our gaiters due to it having rained during the night. Mrs F didn't hear it because she had the best night's sleep she'd had in a very long time. The terrain wasn't boggy at all as we were mainly making our way through short grass, which was wet but not treacherous...

Lots of Lambs About Following Spring 😊

Mr F Fitting Through The Smallest Hole In The Wall!

Mrs F Loving It!

We Came Across a Stream Which We Walked Down Towards

First Couple Of Selfie Photos With Us Both Enjoying The Day

The Usual Scene of Mr F Checking The Route

A little further into the walk, we were faced with having to make our way up through tall grass, with no clear route/path in what was now scorching heat! It was the way up - according to the Satmap - but not a very popular way as there were no obvious trodden routes through. Mrs F was really feeling the heat and welcomed the rare intermittent cloud and what little breeze there was. It was probably one of the most humid conditions we climbed in...

Mrs F Looking Apprehensive About The Upward Route

Mr F Leading The Way

Mrs F With Her Radish Looking Face!!

And Getting Redder!

The levelled out top was a welcomed sight but wasn't too long before we were once again on the incline. The terrain was becoming more wet, spongy and boggy and came across a small water feature that we had to negotiate ourselves around. The way was quite obvious with well trodden paths and actual roman roads in parts that lead us to the trig point of Dodd Fell

Quite Hop Over The Fence

The Well Trodden Route Ahead of Us

Nice View Through The Valley

Mr F Having a Quick Check of The Route

Dodd fell Our Aimed Destination

The Roman Road 

Slight Water Feature In The Way!

At Last...Mr F Pointing The Short Walk To The Top! 😁

We wrote our nieces names on a rock and placed it upright on top of the trig point. 

The trig point was surrounded by water, so had to be careful when placing the rock on the top...

We decided to have short break at this point and found a nice little edge by some peat to plonk ourselves for a little while to refuel. It was a lovely little moment to just sit and take in all the surroundings. We then had to make our way through the peat which was a challenge in itself! It wasn't far off of when we done The Nab in November 2016 (See 2016, November entry)

Mr F Looking Out Contemplating Life...

Heading Towards & Through The Peat

We came across so many different birds we’d never seen or come across before, even in all our time un the Lakes. One particular bird was hovering overhead and chirping like a gooden! There were lots of butterflies too which we don’t normally see either.

We made our way off of the hill tops and onto a road where we took a short walk over towards the other side and onto what looked like a road track. We were then back and onto the hills where there was a short walk to the summit cairn trig of Wether Hill Mrs F was starting to feel a little hungry, so we decided we’d stop for lunch at the summit where she could also lighten the weight in her rucksack from eating the mahoosive roll - in fact, it was so n=big, she could only manage half of it! Whilst we were sat there, we kept hearing a little bird cheap which at first we were convinced was coming from inside the cairn. Mrs F had really bad fluid in her ears from a sinus infection so was hard of hearing anyway, but after a while, we could see it was some kind of grouse in the tall grass that we could just about see popping his head up to check us out. Mr F walked closer to get a good look but he scurried off.

Mrs F  With Her Humongous Sandwich 

We were on our way back from this point, connecting up our big circular walk back at the village, as we always like to do. Eventually we were on an ascent leading down towards the town, but still had plenty of beautiful fields, small gates and sheep to navigate ourselves through. It was a really pleasant walk back and down which wasn’t a hard walk at all. Mr F checked the map which indicated we should come across a waterfall at some point – waterfall is a bit of a stretch but did come across a rather lovely part of a ghyll with water cascading down and out the end. At least we knew we were going in the right direction ☺️

Heading Down Back Towards The Village

The Little Waterfall To Lead The Way

Some Local En Route

The Smallest Gateway In The World!

We followed a well-trodden path which Mr F was a little unsure of, as we couldn’t see where it was leading to. It was heading down towards the village a little further beyond so Mrs F said it has to eventually lead out somewhere by the village, so we stuck with it. However, it took us through a farmers’ field which was also a dead end! It wasn’t a complete waste of time however, because amongst seeing sheep, goats and rabbits roaming, the cutest little lamb came trotting up to us and let us stroke him! He started suckling on Mr F’s finger then jumped up at Mrs F. It was a very cute moment and glad for the wrong turn 😊

Hands sanitised, we headed back to a very sunny Hawes village and straight to our trusty pub for a well-earned drink. We sat outside in the glorious sunshine and drank our rewards. We headed back to the cottage for a short chill out and shower before heading back to the pub for dinner. Mrs F had the fish & chips this time and Mr F had a bowl of soup and chips!! He was very good at sticking to his diet. As we planned to go and see the sheep dog trials the next evening, on our way back to the B&B we took a short walk to see where the sheep dog trials were being held. There weren’t any signs out and so couldn’t find the field. We checked with Jannie and Stuart the next morning who said we were heading in the right direction, we just needed to keep going, so was a little further than we thought. It was a great first day all in all and looking to more of it the next day...

Te River By The Village

Was Slightly Tempted With This, But Decided Against It

DAY 2:

13 MILES TREKKING

Mrs F slept really well and was ready for another great day in the Dales. We were locked and loaded with breakfast and rucksacks full of water and snacks. The day before, both our rucksacks felt incredibly heavy, so we reviewed the weight of them this morning. Mrs F found she was carrying a spare fleece, windproof jacket, waterproof jacket, a long sleeve top, spare gloves, winter gloves, spare socks, a first aid kit (essential!) amongst other stuff! Mrs F didn’t buy her hefty roll this time as we had enough to keep us going from the drawer of goodness. Rucksacks feeling significantly lighter, we were going to head of the B&B and turn left, however Mr F reviewed the route and instead we turned right, walking up towards the village and down the same road we walked the night before looking for where the trials were. We were with more company today as the initial part of the walk was quite level and pleasant for most walkers. Only the hardy walkers carried on going beyond that! Mr F was very burnt from the day before, despite Mrs F telling him he needed sun cream…so she took a photo, which doesn’t do it justice with just how red his neck was. Even Jannie & Stuart mentioned how burnt he was and offered sun cream to us!

Showing Mr F's Very Burnt Neck

We were heading towards Great Shunner Fell which was quite a long walk out. We could see the top looking very small in the far distance. It reminded us of when we had a four mile walk from Crag Fell to Caw Fell in the Lakes (See 2017 July entry) We had it in our sights to the right of us the whole way and the summit just got clearer as we neared it. The walk out, although long, was actually quite nice. It was pretty much paved the whole way with a gradual incline, which actually was worst underfoot with the harder ground vs softer grassland. We were eventually on the ridge ready to turn right and head towards the summit. We had a couple in front of us the whole way and tried to catch up with them, which we did once we reached the summit that exactly the same as the summit on Helvellyn; four separate sections with seats in each to make an open square. The wind was blowing from behind us where we had just walked from, but the two front sections were taken. Very kindly, the man and woman who were sitting in one of them offered to share it with us, which we did. They were really lovely slightly older people who were brother & sister. Once a year they go on a big walking holiday for a week somewhere, which we thought was a really lovely thing to do. We just assumed they were a married couple!

Mr F Pointing To Exactly Where we were heading

Making Our Way On The Nicely Paved Route

The Summit In The Distance

The weather at this point had turned with it being quite cold and a bit moody so sadly didn't get any photos of us by the summit. The wind had picked up too which brought over some rain clouds. We were planning to go and do Lovely Seat over the other side en route back via horseshoe. It’s not a very well visited mountain and we could see why once we passed it – it’s pretty out in the middle of nowhere with nothing else around and looks pretty lonely…or content with no one bothering it! As we headed onto a gravel path that was a gradual descent, the rain clouds that the wind brought over were in full swing! We carried on for a little while before giving in to the fact that it wasn’t passing, but getting worse! Mrs F already had her waterproof coat on from our little pit stop on Shunner Fell but Mr F had to put his on as well as both of us needing to put the rain covers on our rucksacks. It carried on raining hard for at least a further 10 minutes from the point of stopping.

The Weather Turning So Mrs F Layered Up

Mr F Pushed On Until He Had No Choice To Stop & Layer Up!

You Can Just About Make Out The Big Fat Drops of Rain

Eventually it eased as we made our way further down off the Dales and was a though it had never rained at all! We made our way down and eventually connected up through a forest by River Ure which was lovely but dangerously slippery with all the smooth paved paths.  We turned off the path up a short but brutal steep path and out onto fields again. We were back where we were when walking in but we decided to head down towards to village that we could see just beyond the fields. We couldn’t see a way through the fields as there was a river crossing and quite a big one at that. Mr F checked the Satmap and OS map that showed a bridge further along, so we started to walk up with the aim to cross it which will hopefully lead us nicely into the village by the church. However, we were walking for quite some time and were in danger of walking right past the town with no such bridge in sight! We very reluctantly turned on our heels and headed back the way we came, which added an extra 30 minutes to our already aching feet. Mrs F’s feet were really aching from her plantar fasciitis and Mr F had a niggling blister on his heel. It was a grumpy moment but that’s all we’ll say about that! On the plus side, we did see a big group of geese in the river…

Our Walk Back Through The Forest

The Harsh Little Upward Path 

We Saw This Big Group of Geese

Unknowingly Heading The Wrong Way

So eventually we found the path that we should have stayed on before diving off and was back at the village. Mrs F by this time was really feeling the negative benefits of not having a proper lunch, hence why she may have been grumpy at the wrong turn incident! Mr F suggested going into a little tea shop/café that he’d seen the day before…and it was a good call! Mrs F ordered a brie & cranberry toastie which came with salad that Mr F eat. Mr F said he’d never seen her eat so fast in the time he’d known her!

We planned to go to the sheep dog trials that night, so headed back to the B&B for just a short rest before showering and heading out to dinner to make it back in good time for when it started. As Mrs F’s feet were still aching and it was a little further to walk than we thought, we drove there and parked up in the field where it was being held. The farmer started off by talking about the land and different areas that offer different grass according to the soil that sheep prefer to eat. He also told stories of when sheep were lost and the dogs went out to look for them after a couple of weeks in the snow and found them all, including a heavily pregnant sheep who gave birth once she was back safely. He’d been all over the world with his dogs competing in dog trials and had a champion called Lola, who was the Mother of Keef, Carly & Solo. After a few demonstrations, we chipped off before most people. We’d already seen him practising with Solar that day as we made our way down into the village through a field, so we had our own personal show 😀🐶

We headed back to the B&B for a much earned and well needed early night, ready for our big day the next day…bring it on!!

The Dogs Lines Up Raring To Get Going!

DAY 3: YORKSHIRE 3 PEAK CHALLENGE

10 HOURS, 40 MINUTES

Neither of us slept particularly well. Mrs F had dreams about the challenge and was maybe a little apprehensive about it due to it being such a big long day and with a time limit thrown in for extra measure! We needed to get out pretty early as only 57% of people actually manage to complete the 3 peaks in the 12 hour time limit. We made sure to get everything ready the night before, only carrying essentials so not to feel like donkeys again! We were up 6:30am and had brought porridge pots an protein breakfast drinks with us. Stuart and Jannie said they would leave the breakfast room open for us and kindly boiled eggs and put them in the fridge, along with some cheese strings and roll that we bought from the local shop in the village. Breakfast eaten, we were ready to go…well, Mrs F was already knackered from her lack of sleep but still up for it. Mrs F taped up Mr F’s bad blisters so they didn’t cause him any pain or problem on our big day ahead of us and we were all set to go…

Mr F Thought He Might Have a Blister...Yep, He Did!

Mrs F's Mum Sent This To Us

The Breakfast Room All To Ourselves

We found this Amish looking man quite funny, but turned out to be a bearded lady! Apparently the lady became agitated when she found out the man was painting her so he gave her a read! Not sure why, can only imagine because she was a bit of a dragon lady 😕

We had a short drive to the start of where you need to clock in at the Pen-y-Gent café. They were currently not open due to family issues, but you could still post your times through the letterbox when you first set off and when you got back. We didn’t waste too much time at all setting off with a march on the go. We parked literally just a 2 minute walk from the café up the road, where there was an organised charity group also doing the challenge.

Arrived At The Cafe & Clocking Our Time

Posting Our Official Paper Through The Door

Our first mountain, Pen-y-Ghent, wasn’t too far to walk to at all. Initially from the café we had to walk through some fields and join up with a gravel path that lead us pretty much the entire way to Pen-y-gent. In fact, there were places where we had a perfectly placed paving slabs! It was a nice steady walk with a gradual incline to the bottom of the mountain, with a short scrambly climb to the top. The weather was set fair and we could see for miles, perfect weather conditions throughout the day. We had a charity group up ahead of us that we caught up with on the summit. We stopped very briefly for a family video update to send on WhatsApp, had our breakfast drinks that we didn’t have for breakfast – which made the rucksacks feel somewhat lighter – and carried on over the style and onto the next one….6 miles away!! 

And Off We Go!

Pen-y-ghent In The Distance

A Short Push To The Top

Our First Conquered Mountain, Pen-y-ghent 😀

Yet again, we had a nice path laid out for us which looked like the pristine yellow brick road! We wanted to ensure to keep the charity group behind us with the theory that if they are also aiming for the sub 12 hour marker and started before us, as long as they were behind us we should be ok. It also became a bit of a competition between us and them, unknown to them of course, it was just something we were doing! There were also a few people along the way we passed and a couple of times where people passed us. As it was a Friday, there weren’t as many people out doing the challenge as there would be on a weekend. On some Saturday’s there can be up to 3,000 people taking part as it’s quite a big charity event. We walked past a few sign posts that stated we were on the 3 Peak Challenge route, but it’s pretty difficult to get lost. From Pen-y-ghent, we had a short walk down and onto a level path along a tall wall to our left. From here, we could see just how far we had to go which seemed like the full length of Yorkshire! The clear day was great but we could see just how far we had to go. From the tall wall we took a left turn through a kissing gate where we stopped for 5 minutes to reload and drink. Each time we stopped briefly and saw the charity group gaining on us, it gave us inspiration to get a move on, which was good if we were going to finish in under 12 hours. We were eventually off of the grassland hills and back onto a gravel path which lead us through some fields and farms and onto the main road that we drove on to get to the start. We stopped here again for just a couple of minutes so Mrs F could sit down and take the weight off of her really aching feet. By this time we had only done 6 miles and still had a long way to go. The walk along the main road was a long and painful one with the hard ground pounding our feet, but we didn’t slow the pace down. The fact that we were planning to have a proper stop at the popular car park at the end of the road gave us incentive to not slow down our pace. Once we were there it was already quite full of people. Was sat on the small wall by the edge of the road and Mrs F took no time in taking her boots off and rolling her feet around on a nearby rock! We had a great view of Ribblehead Viaduct, which was where we were heading to next. Mrs F done another family video update on our progress, which was 10.2 miles in 4 hours, so pretty good going. We were eventually caught up by the charity group after about 10 minutes and a couple of them were wearing CLIC Sargent t-shirts, which is a charity very close to our hearts and have done lots of fundraising for them in recent times.

Setting Off On The Long 6 Miles To Whernside

Sign Posts Showing The Way

It Looked Like The Whole of Yorkshire Was Ahead Of Us!

Slight Obstruction Over The Stile!

The Short Walk Along The Road Which Battered Our Feet!

The Pit Stop By Ribblehead 

Feet reluctantly back in boots and tummy’s re-stocked, we headed off towards Ripplehead Viaduct. Mr F had read that people often make the mistake in walking as far as the Viaduct, but there is a path you need to take just before you reach it, which is often missed. We walked alongside the railway and towards mountain number two, Whernside. The path was once again a very pristine gravel path didn’t look as though many boots had made their way over it. It was near enough level with an ever so slight incline which lead us right to the bottom of Whernside. The crazy thing about this path, is that it takes you right along the bottom of the mountain where you walk right past it, only to come back up via gruelling incline at the back end of it, to then walk back right along the top and down the other side! If we had known this was the case we’d have just taken our much preferred ‘up n at em’ route. Once we had walked past the mountain, it swung around to then take us on the never-ending path leading up to the ridge. Just before the final push to the ridge there were steps, which we were not best pleased to see :-(   We past quite a few sorry looking people who were equally displeased with the detoured route, including three young girls who looked destroyed!

Whernside

Ribblehead Viaduct

Walking Past Whernside To Come Back Via The Back

We finally reached the ridge and it was a short walk to the summit cairn. Mrs F wrote our nieces names on their own stones and placed them on the cairn 😊👪 We decided we would have a proper stop as we were doing well for time. Saying that, we actually only stopped for about 15 minutes in the end. Mr F was trying not to be so regimented with our stoppage time but he did look at his watch at one point and said we had 12 minutes left! There were quite a few people who arrived after us, so that was a good sign to get going again, as we didn’t want anyone catching us up! From the summit, we could see very clearly our final destination for the day, Ingleborough, which although it looked a bit of a trek to get to, it looked a lot closer than Whernside looked from Pen-y-Gent! We headed down via an unfinished path that was currently being built, as the original path next to us was completely destroyed. No doubt from either years of boots on a popular route or storm damage. We came across a sign to say they needed to raise £40,000 to fix the path…don’t get us wrong, we’re all for getting out on the mountains and fully support the preservation of it all, but £40,000 to ensure trekkers have a comfortable way up & down seems a bit steep to us!

Finally On The Ridge

More Steps!

Our Second Conquered Mountain, Whernside!

Heading Off With Ingleborough In Our Sights

Yet More Steps!

Ingleborough Dead Ahead...

Eventually we were on level ground where we were welcomed by perfectly placed slabs once again. They took us over the fields and onto the main road slightly before crossing over and heading back on the fields that took us over the start of the Ingleborough climb. Before that, we were nearly knocked down by an energetic postman in his van who came charging around the corner where he could not see if anything or anyone was coming. If he is a local, he should know that this is a popular route for walkers doing the challenge and be more careful! Rant over…

We reached a main road where we caught up with a couple who asked if they were heading in the right direction, as they were also doing the 3 Peaks Challenge. The man looked more up for it than the woman as he walked off and left her quite far behind a lot of the time. We crossed the road and over a hole stile that took us across a level field. We were shortly back on the familiar paved steps that took us up towards the start of a rather sharp upward ascent, which after a long day of having just climbed up and down two mountains and a lot of walking in between was slightly cruel! However, when we reached the bottom of the steep ascent, we were pleasantly surprised and greeted with a good scramble, which is what we both really love. Considering it looked a little daunting from the bottom, it took us no more than ten minutes to get to the top, which we were both very impressed with, if we do say so ourselves! We were overtaken en route upwards by three young guys who looked like they were training for the SAS and had quads the same size as Mrs F’s waist…very impressive!

Useful Sign!

The Short Walk Across The Field...

...To More Steps!

That Scramble Looked Brutal From This Angle!

Making Our Way Up The Short Scramble

Looking Down At Our Progress

Looking Back At How Far We'd Come Since Whernside

Excited To Nearly Be At Our Final Climb For The Day

It was a really enjoyable scramble and still had the legs to get us up in good time. In fact, there were people who were already on the scramble who had not long made it to the top by the time we also did. We thought that the top would literally be just as we pulled ourselves up onto the top of the mountain, but we had a little five minute walk over the cairn that looked like the moon! We touched the top and made a swift 180 turn to head back. We met a couple of guys who were asking about the three young girls we had seen making their way up onto Whernside. They were part of their group but has been separated…that’s a big separation! On the way back, Mr F pointed out a big wrong turning point that people make. They go back the same way they came up, missing the sign over to the right to indicate making a right turn, which is what we did.

Our Short Walk Across What Was Like The Moon!

The Boys On The Summit of Ingleborough

A Great Family Summit Photo 😊💑

We then had a rather gruelling four mile walk back to the car, which seemed to just last forever! We were by now in good time of finishing in under twelve hours, but now wanted to do so in under eleven. By now our feet were hurting and we still had a long way to go across yet more steps of slabs in a very gradual descent. The path alternated between grassland areas, stepping stone slabs and just plain old gravel paths. We passed a group leader who was with just one young girl who was part of the charity group we had been in contest with the whole way. He must have broken off with the group to walk at her very capable level and speed. We came across a sign post that said we had just one mile to go, which was so good to see.

Eventually, we walked across a railway where the group leader was with others and talking on his walkie talkie to say they had completed, so we assumed the station is the finishing point. Looking at the watch, we had done it in 10 hours and 40 minutes….boom!!! We had a short walk through town to get back to the café to post our finishing time back through the letter box. Mrs F phoned her Mum to let her know we had conquered and achieved for the day 😀

Starting The Long 4 Mile Route Home

This Was A Gorgeous Sigh To See

Back At The Car & Finished in 10hrs, 40minutes...BOOM!✊

Sitting back in the car was a glorious moment. We met the guy who had parked next to us when we got back who set off the same time as us, who was with the charity group at the very start by the car park. He was equally proud of himself and rightfully so. We headed straight to our faithful pub for some much needed grub. Mr F had his fish n chips again and Mrs F had her pie once again…both didn’t see much of the plate let us tell you! Mrs F got up to go to the toilet and the man sitting next to us told Mr F that that (meaning the way I was walking) looked rather painful!

We (Mrs F) hobbled back to the car and straight in the shower, which was rather glorious! It didn’t take us very long at all once our heads hit the pillows to get straight off to a much needed sleep. It was an incredible day and achievement for us both and so very blessed to be able to do it with each other.

The next day Mrs F kept feeling something  under her foot which she kept trying to brush off with her hand, but after a few times of keep feeling it and having a look at what was stuck to her foot, it was in fact a huge blister on her little toe that looked like a second little toe!! How she did not feel it on her way around is beyond! We loaded the car with our stuff and loaded ourselves with breakfast before having a long chat with Jannie & Stuart before we left. Mrs F was aching somewhat whilst Mr F was fine as always. He asked he the question of whether or not she had it in her legs to do another 25 miles today, as that what Mr F had to do when he done the Coast to Coast walk in October 2017, sometimes even more than that; 32 miles was the biggest day he had to walk!

Mrs F's Mahoosive Blister!!

Packing Up Our Room ☹️

We reluctantly packed up the room, loaded the car and headed for one last breakfast. We had a nice long chat with Jannie and Stuart just before we left about how the previous day went and various things that were going on in our lives back in London and with them in Yorkshire. We had a nice hug and parted ways, but maybe will one day see them again if we stay in that area again, which we loved.

There’s always a sad feel about the air whenever we have to say goodbye to wherever has been our home for a short while. The escapism of leaving our chaotic London living life and coming to somewhere beautiful and raw is therapy in itself. We have thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Yorkshire and came with a purpose to conqueror to 3 Peaks Challenge with success…what more could you ask for!

VERDICT OF YORKSHIRE IN JUNE 2019

Mr F: What a fantastic little village Hawes is..really was like stepping back in time. Our B&B was fantastic with great hosts and fab breakfasts. Walking straight out from where we stay is always a big hit with us both so it was great to be able to do that on a couple of days.
The three peaks challenge is something i have wanted to do for a while and have done a lot of research into..the weather was great and to get round well within the twelve hours was a great feeling/achievment.
The weather was kind, the village fantastic and the B&B very comfortable with great hosts. A fantastic few days in what the locals call "Gods own Country", we call it his fantastic creation.

Mrs F: I really loved the little village of Hawes; it was so very quaint with everything you need for a functioning town. I love an old English town, it was like stepping back into somewhere like Downton Abbey, which just so happens to be our favourite programme ☺️ The B&B was really lovely & comfortable and Jannie & Stuart couldn’t have been more helpful. It was great to be able to walk out from the B&B again as we did before and enjoy different areas of the Dales. It was good to have done a couple of days long walking to get our legs ready for the big day and both were really enjoyable days. Even the day we had a bit of rain didn’t spoil it for us. The lamb coming up to us for cuddles and attention was really cute and special too 😊

I must admit I was nervous about how my knees and body would hold up for the 3 peaks, but was amazingly and pleasantly surprised that my legs carried me the whole way without pain. Albeit my feet were killing my plantar fasciitis, the Lord certainly gave me the physical and mental strength I needed to get through the day and in an absolutely amazing time too!

The walk around Whernside was slightly soul destroying so if/when we do it again, we will most definitely just hack up the side, which may be slightly harder work but will get us there quicker without the monotonous slog. It was just such a great day and achievement for us to do together, I was so proud of us both for having done it and in a time that neither of thought we would. We would definitely do it again, maybe going the other way around but would like to do it again. All in all, it was a great trip away from the monumental stresses back home and just to be with each other and God at the centre of it all as always, who is the sole provider of our strength and blessing us with an immense love for appreciating His wonderful creation 😊