YORKSHIRE - JUNE 2023
Yorkshire...another happy place of ours that is close to home for Mrs F. Her Nan on her Mum side was born in Malton, North Riding. The Ridings no longer exist (North, South etc...) it's just North Yorkshire now. Maybe this is why Mrs F has such a deep passion for fields and vast open beautiful places...it's quite literally in her DNA!
We really wanted to get some Yorkshire soil under our feet last June, but since COVID happened the prices of cottages have just shot up. So last year we stayed at home and walked locally. Mr F spent a bit of time looking around and found a beautiful little cottage in the most perfect location , a little village called Stainforth just outside of Settle. It was more of a cottage style flat than a cottage as it was all on one level once you made you way up the outside stairs, but it was quaint and we loved it. When we got there, we read in the welcome book that a couple spent their honeymoon here 😊💖
We set out around 10am, once we had said goodbye to Mopsy and Smudge (Auntie Jenny & Uncle Johnny were taking care of them 😻😻) However, at around 200 miles into our journey with still 75 to go, to oil light came on, which was surprising to Mr F as he had just got it back from the garage who had done a bit of work to it. There was quite an oil patch outside our house that Mr F had noticed but thought it was a car that had been parked outside for a few days, but after seeing the light come on, alarm bells were going. We somehow managed to navigate ourselves towards Blackburn (not sure how!) - think it was when we stopped at services and then must have took off from there in a 'different' direction! It actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because we were actually only 15 minutes away from Mrs F's Dad's, so we decided to call in and surprise him 😊 We pulled off at a Tesco so Mr F could look at the engine and oil situation and sure enough, the dipstick had hardly any oil and the engine was flooded! Mr F went to buy more oil, topped up and headed to Oswaldtwistle where Mrs F's Dad lives.
We knocked on the door and hid aside and when he opened the door and peaked around and saw us both the his face was a picture! It was really good to see him and also meant that we could see him open his Father's Day present that we had sent, which was a pocket watch, so even nicer. Mrs F had a bacon and mushroom sandwich and a cup of tea, as she hadn't had anything to eat or drink since we left so save having to stop. Mr F got onto the AA through our bank to get a mechanic booked to come out to our cottage that evening, so we had the mechanic and Tesco booked near enough at the same time!
The owner of the cottage, Carol, lived next door and also owned the cottage next to ours too and we saw her when we arrived. Seems they were once all the same house but done some work to separate them into little cottage flats and done a really good job of it. We had an amazing welcome package of homemade wholemeal bread, milk, jam, cranberry Wensleydale cheese, different teas, a jar of jam, coffee pods for the coffee machine and golden crunch biscuits, which were lush!
 |
| Amazing Welcome Package! |
 |
| Mrs F Very Excited To See Faith In Nature! |
When the AA turned up, they needed to rev the engine hard to help see where the leak was coming from, as you could literally see it dripping out from under the car! I'm sure the neighbours of a quaint, quiet little Yorkshire village really appreciated that upon our arrival! They recommended taking it to a garage in Settle to have the Rocker Cover Gasket looked at, as this was something that our trusty mechanic of 20 years had recently changed and suspected it could be faulty. After we unpacked and Tesco arrived with our food for the week, we headed out to explore our local surroundings and in search of a pub called The Knights Table. We passed a beautiful water fall running off a river and kids were jumping in!! It wasn't exactly a hot day but I guess they're hardy up here! The walk to the pub was a little further than expected and situated near a camp site, but the view sat outside with our soda and limes was really nice...
 |
| The River & Waterfalls Just Up The Road |
 |
| The View From The Pub |
DAY 1: MR F's BIRTHDAY (& MUGGLES!)
PEN-Y-GHENT - 8.8 MILES, 4 HOURS
Mrs F didn't sleep too well the night before the morning of Mr's birthday because she was too excited and couldn't wait to give him his presents....this year she had bought him some crackers!! So we spent the morning opening presents (there were quite a few to get through!) and had breakfast at some point, before making our lunch and getting our bags ready for the day. We were in the perfect location with so many walks on our doorstep, we just set out straight from the cottage which was great. Today, Mr F chose Pen-Y-Ghent to stretch the legs; its the first mountain we done when we done our Yorkshire 3 peaks challenge in June 2019 (See 2020, April entry)
 |
| Mr F's Big Pile of Presents!😀 |
 |
| Muggles Presents |
 |
| The Pile of Clothes to Return! |
 |
| Another Miniature Stone Wall To Our Collection |
So we set out in fair weather which meant Mr F had his shorts on and were almost instantly on the beautiful hills and fields of the Dales. Mr F quickly checked his directions to make sure we were heading the right way and sure enough...we weren't! We had to backtrack slightly, but only slightly. We headed up a hill which was slightly arduous given that the humidity was quite high and came across a really friendly lamb, who was clearly a pet lamb no doubt looking for a bottle and nibbling Mrs F's fingers 😊
 |
| Quick Birthday Photo Heading The Wrong Way! |
 |
| The Right Way! |
 |
| Beautiful Typical Yorkshire Views |
 |
| A Docked Lambs Tail, Still With The Ring! 😝 |
 |
| Pen-Y-Ghent Poking Up |
Once we reached the top of the sheep hill and over a couple of stiles, we were on a nice even path with Pen-Y-Ghent firmly in our sights. When we did Pen-Y-Ghent before, we walked from Horton-in-Ribblesdale, which was closer, so this walk out to it was longer....but nice!
Pen-y-Ghent is the second tallest of the Yorkshire 3 Peaks sitting at 2,280ft, with Whernside being the tallest at 2,410ft and Ingleborough the lowest at 2,370ft
 |
| Getting Closer |
 |
| Love a 'Through The gate' Photo 😊 |
We were soon moving away from grassland to a cut out path leading to what looked like quite a steep scramble up onto the top. We were at the bottom of a very new signpost through a gate coming from Horton, which is where we came up from before and this is the start of the upward hike and eventually little scrambles over the rocky areas. It was here Mr F was running through his all age talk with Mrs F, as he was preaching the Sunday we were back 😇 Once we gained the height from a steep-ish hike and then the scrambles, we were then on a steady upward walk to the summit on nicely placed paving slabs...
 |
| Mr F Pointing to the Top |
 |
| The Scrambles to Come |
Once we got the summit cairn, we headed over the stile and sat up against the wall on the other side and had lunch. It was at this point we could both feel our faces glowing from what was clearly sunburn...although it was cloudy, the sun did come out quite a few times and was hot, which meant we were sweating which attracts the sun even more and we didn't have any cream with us...schoolboy error!
Once lunch was consumed, we headed back the same way we came up...Mrs F took a couple of photos of Whernside and sent them to an elderly man from church named Jim, who was contemplating joining us to hike up Whernside; he's 80 and panned to climb 10 mountains in his 80th year and wanted Whernside to be his last because he lived in a road called Whernside. He however didn't join us due to being needed at home and not ready to climb such a height. Hopefully one day we'll join him on his conquest to complete his mountains 😊
 |
| Whernside In The Distance |
 |
| View From Our Lunch Spot |
 |
| Muggles & Buggles Having a Summit Photo |
 |
| All 3 Mountains in One Photo |
We were invited to a local garden party by Carol, which was just a couple of minutes from the cottage, which was quite nice thing to do for Mr F's birthday. As we headed down the sheep hill (no friendly lambs on the way back) we could hear the live music being played...
 |
| Almost Back at Stainforth |
On our way back to the cottage just up the road from our cottage, we saw this beautiful Bengal cat who Mrs F named Geoffrey, just because it suited him...he was a gorgeous and very friendly boy. Each day from then on we walked past the same spot hoping to see him again, but we didn't see him again 🙁
We walked past the garden which looked to be quite busy, dumped the rucksacks at the cottage and headed over. Mr F played a game on a stall where you had to pick a pile of sand and see if there was any treasure inside, then we sat on a table right next to a tombola stall where the prizes were bottles and could be anything from bottles of alcohol, shower gel, soft drinks etc...
Mr F quite fancies a bottle of coke, so just as Mrs F went up with her £1 to have a go, the person before her had literally just won it! So she had a go and won a bottle of bubble bath, but as she doesn't use those kinds of things (and told them so) they kindly gave her a bottle of coke instead 😊 Mr F also had a go and won a bottle of pink grapefruit gin! It had a couple of downpours of rain so most people dived under the stall canopy. Mr F spotted that there were also cream teas on offer with the charge of a donation, so Mr F went and got Mrs F a cup of tea and a scone with cream and jam, which Mrs F didn't think she would eat all of and ruin her appetite for dinner, but they were only small and she managed just fine! 😋
 |
| Mr F Looking Pleased With His Bottle of Coke |
 |
| The Live Band....Extremely Average! |
 |
| Looking Even More Pleased With His Gin! |
 |
| Mrs F's Cream Tea...For £1! |
Mrs F asked if Mr F wanted to go out to eat for his birthday, but he wanted to stay in and have a meal at the cottage just us, so Mrs F made him a chilli and then we headed just across the road to the pub called the Craven Heifer. We turned up at 8:15 and were greeted with a very cocky barman who said "What you doing coming in here this time of night!" Thinking he was funny and it continued when Mrs F asked for a half glass of cider called Inch, to which he replied..."You want half an inch, that's a bit rude!" Apparently on Trip Advisor he's known for his crass mannerism, but you wouldn't expect him to behave that way to people he's only just met...and his patrons! We took our drinks and went in the games room next door and played a couple of games of pool...to which Mrs F won twice, almost feeling bad about the fact it was Mr F's birthday and he didn't win!
 |
| Frazzled Looking Faces...Cheers! 🍻 |
 |
| Mrs F With A Very Frazzled Neck!! |
DAY 2: MALHAM TARN - 13 MILES, 6 HOURS 15 MINUTES
Just by where we saw Geoffrey, we saw a sign for Malham Tarn, 6 miles. Mrs F had been struggling with pain in her heels from Plantar Fasciitis for a while and was getting to around 7 miles before the pain would really kick in, so was nervous about long walks and the impact it would have. But we decided to give it a go at least. Breakfast had and lunches made, we set off towards the waterfall just up the road and continued along that route beyond it to more waterfalls, which were beautiful and in full flow. The first waterfall, we had to walk down some steps to see it, which was worth the very small diversion. The second one was further up where we were level with the top of the waterfall. Mrs F went as close as was safe to the edge to get a good photo from above, whilst Mr F held a branch out of the way with the walking pole, again, from a safe distance!
We were walking across country fields for quite while and the weather was overcast but warm and a bit muggy - according to Mr F's new temperature and humidity gauge that he got for his birthday, humidity was at 70%! The Dales are such a beautiful part of the world, quite different to the Lake District. The Lakes obviously have all the high fells which make it look invitingly rugged, but the Dales are pretty with vast stretches of stunning unspoiled countryside. We came to a stile and Mr F consulted his Satmap to show Mrs F how far we still had to go and the route. By now were were almost 6 miles in and Mrs F heels were already throbbing. We had a short chat about what to do because we had a fair amount of road waling to do from this point, which is always a killer on the feet at best of times, but Mrs F has never let her aliments get in the way of her enjoying what she loves doing, so we soldered on...
 |
| Our First Waterfall |
 |
| Our second Waterfall |
 |
| The Beautiful Dales |
The road was never ending! We stopped y a cattle grid to put sun cream on as we were already quite frazzled and very sore from the day before and Mrs F wore her buff around her neck to save some layers of skin! Then the road turned back into grassland areas that were quite secluded. As we were coming over the brow of a small hill, we saw Malham Tarn in the distance which was a welcomed sight, as we thought it would be a while before we caught a glimpse of it. It was however deceptively close as we still had quite a walk to reach it. We walked down to level ground and Mr F checked the Satmap and saw that thee was no direct route to it, but had to walk up and around it which was quite long winded and would add about 3 miles onto our day. We opted for heading straight for the tarn but there was barbed wire that was near enough impossible to climb over. We walked on a bit to look for a 'safe and easy' place to get over. Eventually, Mr F used the walking pole to push and hold the wire down so we could get over...but the weight of him pushing on the pole caused it the snap!! Mrs F tried to bend it back to it's upright position but it broke off completely 🙁
We walked across the grasslands towards the tarn and the temperature dropped slightly with the darker clouds rolling in, so we picked up the pace. As we neared the tarn, we entered into a little woodland area. The tarn was on our right and we came across a walkway of decking that we thought we needed to take, so we started walking out on it, thinking it would eventually lead us the the banks of the tarn. It was however a little nature reserve that was next to the tarn, rather than leading you directly to it, so back we went! We walked along the path of the forest with the tarn close to our left and eventually saw a little path that lead down to the waters edge and an archway of some sort, possibly the entrance/mooring for boats. When we got there, there wasn't anywhere to sit and have lunch as we envisioned, but saw a couple of elderly gentlemen in a little boat (fishing we assumed) They asked if they could help, which was a bit of an odd thing to say and made us feel we shouldn't be there! We contemplated sitting here for lunch but decided to move on away from the grumpy men!
It was a good decision because further up, there was a little picnic viewing spot with a bench...perfect! 👍
 |
| Our First Glimpse of Malham Tarn |
 |
| The Archway By The Water Edge |
 |
| The Grumpy Men! |
 |
| Our Lunch Spot View |
 |
| Perfect Lunch Spot |
The forest path that lead to where we had lunch had a view wooden calved animals that were really good...
 |
| A Hare |
 |
| A Salmon (We think!) |
 |
| A Owl! |
After we filled our boots, we headed off on our circular route back to Stainforth. We walked back through the forest path that lead us to walk alongside the nature reserve and eventually saw where the decking path would have lead us, which was nowhere near the tarn! The route back was predominantly fields and grassland with the occasion bit of road past a farmhouse. We walked past a farmhouse that had about 12 golden retrievers come bombing down their front garden, which was rather larger, and all barking at us! We were in some quite secluded areas too; Mr F pointed out that there was a cave nearby but couldn't see where the entrance could possibly be. From here, we had a nice flat and trodden grass path that lead us downwards to a gravel path, where we could see all three peaks in a single view...
 |
| The Three Peaks In One View |
 |
| Pen-Y-Ghent |
 |
| Stainforth In The Distance |
 |
| Panoramic View |
By this time, Mrs F was in agony with the pain in her feet. The route that we took back lead us straight back in to Stainforth and went straight to the stepping stones where we sat and soaked our feet which was a perfect way t end the day...bliss!
We didn't have to make dinner as we already had chilli from the day before, so after much needed baths, we enjoyed our dinner and then watched Game of Thrones which Mr F also got for his birthday, that neither of us had seen before...
 |
| Just A Short Way To Go From Here |
DAY 3: MALHAM COVE - 3.2 MILES, 1 HOUR 31 MINUTES
So today was a bit of a wipe out due to it pouring day from the minute we woke up! We were awake form around 7am and Mr F spent time working on his sermon, as he was preaching the day after we were back, so Mrs F went back to bed for an hour! after a cup of tea! We waited for the rain to ease of as much as possible before heading out, this time in the car. We headed to the town of Settle for a mooch and potentially some lunch. There was a market on but most stalls had closed down due to the weather, which was a shame. We parked in a little side road just outside town and it was still raining, but not as hard. We had our waterproof coats on so wasn't too tragic. We looked in a couple of shops and then decided to go and have lunch in a lovely quirky little café/tearoom just off of a side road/alley called The Wonky Cake Cafe. Mrs F had the lamb and veg soup, which was basically a Heinz rather than homemade and a toasted brie and cranberry sandwich, which came a s a deal with the soup. Mr F had a large slice of coffee cake. When paying, Mr F ordered a slice of lemon cake to go for Mrs F, even though she protested that she didn't want or need a slice of cake...but gave in fairly quickly! 😉
 |
| Watching The Rain From The Cottage Barn Doors |
 |
| Mr F's Coffee Cake |
 |
| Mrs F's Lunch |
 |
| No Idea What This Selfie Is All About!! |
Once lunch was consumed, we headed bac to the car and drove to Malham Cove, which is somewhere Mr F had always wanted to go and see. It was also the place where they filmed some of the Harry Potter film, The Deathly Hallows Part 1. We parked in a little car park area and headed over quite a range of grassland that eventually lead us to Malham Cove. It was quite something to see; the rock formation was stunning and how they all had their owns shapes and sizes but still managed to fit perfectly together. There were a few people around, so is very popular. The view from the top too was awesome...so glad we were able to go and see it 😀
 |
| Mrs F Got Proper Eaten By Horse Flies! |
 |
| En-Route To Malham Cove |
 |
| Admiring Malham Cove |
 |
| Amazing Rock Formation |
Mrs F video called her Mum from the top to show her where she was...Mrs F's Mum had also been there quite a few years ago 😊
 |
| View In Car On The Way Back |
After we'd taken in the awe of Malham Cover, we headed back to the car and back to the cottage...and just in time before it started to really rai again. Glad we were at least able to get out and see something special if not the whole day for a walk. When we got back to the cottage, as we were back fairly early in the afternoon, we played a game called Othello, which Mr F used to play with his Dad for hours. Mrs F however was bored the minute the game started and couldn't see the attraction!! Mr F tried to help her play the game get her to understand, but there was far too much thinking and strategy involved for Mrs F's liking...or capability! 😄
DAY 4: FEIZOR & AUSTWICK: 7.25 MILES - (3 HOURS 20) 6 MILES (2 HOURS 30)
Another big day today and the weather was not forecast to rain 😊 Mr F showed Mrs F the planned route for the day on the map, heading to two villages. However, there would involve a big diversion around through the town of Settle and onto the hills behind the town, as we couldn't (as far as Mr F could see) a route leading from the main road, as there were farmers fields and a river with no obvious bridge and way over. It added more mileage onto the walk but after the morning cloud had cleared, it was a beautiful sunny day with a fair bit of cloud covering to keep the scorching sun at bay. We headed down to the stepping stones because we realised that we hasn't got any photos of them yet...then we headed back towards the waterfalls just up the road, with the river on our left and a forest area to our right, so was walking through a large clearing for quite a while which was lovely....
 |
| The Stepping Stones |
 |
| The Sun Just Coming Out |
 |
| More Of The River Leading To The Waterfall |
 |
| Our Walk With The River To Our Left |
Once we were out of the wooded area, we reached a main road leading into Settle. Not too far along the road, Mr F spotted a public footpath sign and checked his Satmap to see if this is what we needed to take, as the big hill we needed to be on was literally on the other side of the fields between the road and the hill. So we headed off down the narrow footpath, past a factory that was still in full swing operation and nice to see. We picked up the river running through the fields and saw a little family of ducklings that was lovely to see 😊🦆
Thankfully Mr F double checked the route and found that we were off track and needed to head back onto the main road, because we had dived off too soon! However if we hadn't taken a wrong turn we wouldn't have seen the little family of ducks, so the wrong turn wasn't too terrible!
 |
| Our Diversion Off The Main Road |
 |
| The Big Hill We Were Heading For |
 |
| The Little Duck Family, 6 Ducklings |
Once we were on the main road, we realised at this point we needed to head into settle, around the back and up onto the hills behind, leading us on a very steep path up onto a track that eventually lead up onto the big hill. Have to admit, as we neared a particularly steep path, Mrs F looked at it thinking, 'I really hope we don't need to go up there' and guess what....we did!
 |
| Saw This Sign For A Café In Town!! 🤯 |
Once we were on the big hill, we could see a couple who were heading towards us and asked about directions to Feizor, as they couldn't see a clear path. To be honest, there was no clear and obvious path, but would need a compass (or Stamap) to direct the way up and over the hill and over the tops that lead the way to Feizor. We were at this point back on Dale territory with walls and stiles to navigate. The couple went ahead of us and we caught up with them once they went through a gate in a wall and checked their map, but as long as were we heading in the same direction they knew they weren't going wrong...
We arrived in Feizor which was a very small village. Mr F had read about a café called Elaine's Tea Rooms that was very popular and had great reviews and was open when we got there...and busy! We saw the couple who checked their directions with us too after we arrived. The café even had it's own parking area in the farm field opposite, so word must get about as it was situated literally in the middle of nowhere. We stopped and looked at the menu and everything was really quite reasonably priced, so Mrs F ordered a chip butt (roll to fellow Southerners!) and a banana milkshake and Mr F ordered a coffee...even though Mrs F had lunch, it just had to be done and we always like to support small and local businesses The chip butt came and it was impressively large, so Mrs F had to pile the homemade/cut chips onto each bap and eat it that way!
Mr F asked the waitress about Austwick and if it was worth the walk. She said there was nothing there but didn't want that to stop us from seeing ourselves. We thought - from looking on the map - that it might be a similar village to Settle with a few little local shops, so we decided to go and see what was there. It was 1 and half miles from Feizor to Austwick, so a 3 miles round trip from the café...
 |
| Cairn At The Top Of The Hill |
 |
| Mrs F's Impressive Lunch! |
From the café, we headed through a gate that lead through fields upon fields that were broken up by the occasional wall. We had to step aside to allow a truck carrying sheep to go by...twice on the same road; in fact, he must have passed us about 6 times on our way to and from Austwick! As we made our way along the narrow public paths across the fields, we came to a stile where two elderly people were heading over it to our side of the wall. WE stopped to have a little chat about it and they asked if we'd been to Elaine's Tea Rooms and they've lived here all their lives and been married for over 50 years, which was really lovely to hear. Mrs F told them about her nan who was born in Yorkshire (Malton, North Riding) and we were talking about how the Riding areas no longer exists and that they are just called North Yorkshire etc...then the man said to Mrs F "If you've relatives from Yorkshire, then you're a Yorkshire lass!" 😊💗
We could see the village of Austwick ahead of us and when we got there, it was just a residential village. We came into Austwick via a bridge over the river with a bench nearby and opposite there was a restaurant that was mega expensive from looking at the menu and could smell fish being cooked, which actually smelled quite nice...but for the price we'd expect it to be! We saw a man in his front garden and asked if there was a village or community shop, which was just a little further on. We went and bought some cakes for Mrs F's Aunt and Uncle who were taking care of our cats for us and headed back to the bench by the river. There wasn't much point in venturing any further as it was clearly a large residential area with nothing more than a shop, pub, restaurant and post box! We sat and had our lunch (Mrs F skipped her sandwich after her chip roll!) then we headed back the same way we came to Elaine's Tea Room. We carried on walking through the farm where the allocated parking for the café was and picked up a route that took us onto more fields and narrow paths. By this time it was mid afternoon and the sun had really came out with little cloud covering, so we stopped under a tree to cream up. We had to walk through a field where the farmers who were carting livestock around had just plonked some young cows, so naturally they were running around and a bit rowdy. Mrs F is actually quite scared of cows when having to walk through a field of them and these cows were all heading in our direction at a bit of a lick! So we picked up pace to head for the stile over the wall to safety, by this time the cows were now interested in the sheep who were also in the field.
Once we were back in Stainforth, we headed straight for the stepping stones for some feet dipping, as Mrs F's heels once again were killing her! This time, the water was slightly warmer so could keep them in longer without them seizing up with pain from the cold! We saw a lady and her Dad who were visiting and she kindly offered to take a photo of the both of us 😊
As the sun was still shinning, Mrs F sat on the step of the front door and enjoyed an ice lolly 😋 Our dinner tonight was enchiladas which always goes down rather well and very much enjoyed, especially after a long day of nearly 13 and half miles. We had to break it up into two walks on Mrs F's flash Garmin watch because he accidentally saved the walk half way through, so had to start it again, hence why it's broke u p into two times with mileage...
We were enjoying having hot baths after a long day our on the Dales. It was only until the point that Mrs F stepped into the hot bath that she realised the back of her legs from her 3-quatre length trousers were fired!!! She was so good with putting sun cream on all exposed areas, but completely forgot about her legs and ended up with what is known as 'a silly tan' (or burn!)
 |
| Mrs F's Very Burnt & Very Sore Legs! |
 |
| Like A Zebra Crossing! |
DAY 5: VICTORIA CAVE & JUBILEE CAVE - NO TIME OR MILEAGE RECORDED
So today's weather from the moment we opened our eyes was beautifully sunny with clear skies 🌞 Another thing that Mr F really wanted to visit was Jubilee Cave. It was definitely a shorts day, but Mrs F was really conscious of how burnt her legs were, so slathered factor 50 on. We headed out early because Mr F had booked his car into a garage in Settle, recommended by the AA, so dropped it off at 8am. Once car was left with the garage, we walked to what seemed like a park near town (a green area with lots of trees and a walking path) which was a popular place for dog walkers and kids heading to school. We also saw a group of young kids with rucksacks on with a teacher, looking like they were on a hike for the day.
We stopped to put sun cream on, ensuring (this time!) to cover every bit of exposed skin! We walked along the path and eventually onto farm tracks that lead us to the back and beyond of the Dales. We were walking along a farm track for quite a while before coming across a support vehicle turns out the local school have adventure/walking days to get our and appreciate the Dales. Depending on the age group depended on the mileage they were doing for the day and the older group (who the support vehicle was for) was on a 20 mile hike!! Not much fun in the heat, but it's so good that the school encourages activities like this, as we wee only saying the day before that we wondered if people get so used to where they live, they stop seeing the beauty of it all...
 |
| The River Running Through The Park |
 |
| The Open Dales...Heading Up There! |
From where we saw the support car, we had a slight incline walk to a stile that took us over the back of some hilly grasslands areas to where the caves where. It was soooo hot and Mrs F isn't a fan of or used to walking in the heat. We've had countless hiking days in rain, cold and snow, but we hardly ever get really good weather when on a walking holiday up North, so was struggling a bit (and not overly enjoying it!)
 |
| Clear Blue Skies 🌄 |
As there was no clear and obvious path, Mr F kept track on his Satmap. In the picture below, you'll see a big hill to the right of Mr F that we needed to get onto. The path lead around the back of it to the right, which seemed to be a gradual but longer route or we could just hack straight up and be on top quicker. We never like to do things easy and of curse we chose the latter!! There was lack of thought to how hard this would actually be in the heat, as it was a fairly steep climb and not easy...inevitably, Mrs F got a little grumpy! 😠
 |
| You're Smiling Now...!! 😆 |
 |
| The entrance To The cave |
 |
| Beautiful Views |
We eventually made it Victoria Cave, which was welcomed for many reasons, most of all for how cool it was inside. There was quite a big opening and a barrier, which naturally most just walk over or around it to get to the opening at the back. We were however sensible and didn't go all the way in; we had a torch, so Mr F went a little way in to show just how far it goes back and it was a long way!
 |
| Looking Back To The Opening |
Once we had explored as far as was safe to do so, we headed outside the cave where we sat down to have lunch which was really quite lovely. We had an amazing view from being quite high up and with the sunny weather, it just made it a great place to cop-a-squat...
 |
| Our Lunchtime View |
As we sat eating lunch, an American couple made their way to the cave and asked if there was a different way down from the short walk up to the cave, but alas, no...there are only two paths and both lead to the main path at the bottom of the entrance.
We headed down to the main path that run along the bottom of the cave entrance towards Jubilee Cave. Like Victoria Cave, we had to walk up towards the entrance, which was smaller but opened up more inside to have a little wander. Mrs F has claustrophobia and didn't like to go too deep, whereas Mr F was up for going further in...Mrs F said no! We done our best to take photos with the flash, but it doesn't do it justice, sadly. We left the rucksacks outside whilst we went to explore. The Americans went in first, so we sat and waited for them to come out before we went in. They were here form Chicago because the lady had always wanted to visit the Lake District, so her husband (the man with her) booked what he thought was the Lakes, but booked the Dales! I said it's all beautiful to which they agreed. She did say she thought she saw a chipmunk scurrying in the cave, to which we said we don't have chipmunks here and more likely to be either a squirrel or rat...
 |
| The Entrance To Jubilee Cave |
 |
| Mrs F Looking Slightly Nervous! |
When we came out, we had another little sit-sat and admired the view once more before heading off. As we were quite high, our walk back was in a downward direction along a gravel path that lead us back to Settle to pick up the car. We walked past a school that had sports day which was nice to see 😊
 |
| Our Road Back To Settle |
As it was still early enough in the afternoon and still hot and sunny, Mrs F suggested that we went for a wild swim in the waterfall just up the road. We enjoy a wild swim when weather permits back home, so brought our swim stuff in case there was an opportunity to have a dip somewhere...and there was! We made a quick turnaround once back at the cottage, putting on our swimwear and taking a towel and a couple of drinks and headed for the waterfall, which by the way is called Stainforth Force and is a very popular place for swimming and jumping in the deep water.
It was such a perfect afternoon...apart from Mrs F stepping into a rock pool that was more slippery than ice underfoot and fell directly on her backside...which hurt quite bit!! The bruise she had from that was monumental!!
Mrs F enjoyed sipping in the first pool, whilst Mr F enjoyed jumping in the first small pool and the bigger one below....he was like a little boy enjoying himself, jumping in, getting out and jumping in again! Using the rope and even went to a high point to make a big jump with a big drop! There was already a man there who was happy to sit on the side with the occasional jump in and then we were joined by a couple of guys who also enjoyed jumping in like little boys!
It really was such an amazing way to spend the afternoon...we absolutely loved it!
 |
| Mr F Found A Pair Of Sunglasses |
As we were getting ready to leave, a big rambling group turned up and a lot of them were heading into the water, so we turned up and left just at the right time! It must get absolutely jam-packed in the height of summer. When we were walking back in the early evening, a van pulled up on the main road and dropped a load of teenagers off who had inflatables with them, so they were heading down to swim too...definitely arrived and left at the right time when we near enough had it all to ourselves 😁
It was such a lovely day of exploring caves, beautiful views and finish with a wild swim...a very special day indeed 💗
 |
| Lasagne & Chips For Two! 😋 |
DAY 6: HORTON IN RIBBLESDALE - 12.71 MILES,
5 HOURS, 52 MINUTES
We did plan on doing the Yorkshire 3 Peaks again today, but Mrs F suggested doing something we haven't done before, rather than doing something we had. We would only be doing it to try and beat our pervious time of 10 hours, 40 minutes...and because we really enjoyed it. Mrs F didn't sleep well due to a bad IBS episode the night before and it carried on through the night, so didn't sleep well enough for a 23 mile hike over 3 mountains. So Mr F looked on the map and made up a circular route through Horton in Ribblesdale. We headed back to the hill with the friendly sheep and along the track that we took coming back on our first day from Pen-Y-Ghent, but this time going the other way. Mrs F packed some rich tea biscuits in case she saw some friendly sheep again...and we did, but different ones from further up along the track. We opened the farmers gate to go and see them - two little pet lambs who thought we had a bottle. Mrs F didn't give them the rich teas but instead gave them little pats on their heads and they ran off again. She did however give the biscuits to a couple of horses with the most funky hair styles in a filed further along...
We cam across this building with P & C on it, which also stood for Piggers & Cheddar...so Mrs F sent this photo to her Aunt 😊
 |
| Continuing Along The Track |
We were walking along a river to our right and eventually came to a bridge that we needed to cross. Mr F checked his Satmap after making a early turn before the bridge and good job he did, because it was the wrong turn...but we hadn't gone too far out of our way, it was a quite realisation, thankfully!
 |
| Crossing The Bridge |
Once we crossed the river, we had a nice walk through a flat open field into Ribblesdale. We came to a little village just on the outskirts with an old church which was really lovely. Once we got into Ribblesdale, we walked along the road where we saw lots of parked cars and past the car park we parked when we done the Y3P before, so assumed these were all doing the Y3P today. We walked past a little shop that sold ice cream, so Mrs F had every intention of going back after lunch! We sat on the wall by the Pen-Y-Ghent café, which has sadly now closed but was the place where people would log their times for starting and finishing their hike and then it would go into a book of finishers. You could also buy a certificate....but Mrs printed her own and saved £8.00! 😜
As we sat and had our lunch, a man came and asked if we were doing the Y3P and after a bit of chatting (that turned into a lot of him chatting) we found out he was the owner of the café and why it closed down during COVID and never picked up again...then he spoke about COVID and the dangers of the vaccine and many other random topics! Once we had finally managed to get through our lunch, Mrs F did indeed head back to the little shop to buy a banana ice cream 🍦😋
 |
| Our Walk Along The Flat Field, Pen-Y-Ghent Behind |
 |
| The Beautiful Old Church |
 |
| Mrs F Pleased With Her ice Cream |
We then headed through the village towards Horton in Ribblesdale train station, which is a very popular place for taking photos due to it's 'stuck in time' look. Mrs F runs the photo competition for the Wainwright Society and a couple of years back, someone won with a great photo of the station in snow. We walked across the track and saw two ladies sitting on fold up chairs, thinking they were train spotters but turned out the be yet more support for a group of people doing the Y3P. rom here out walk took us quite far up over the back of where there was an active query. We looped quite far behind it onto the high Dales and continued to climb beyond it. We were quite secluded at this point and the weather had closed in slightly, but didn't rain, it was just moody and the temperature dropped slightly. We were walking along a very faint sheep trail up and over marshlands and grasslands, with the up and down of hills. Mrs F checked with Mr F - a few times - if we were heading in the right direction, because it seemed lie we were going quite far out of our way. But as we clocked up almost 12 and half miles I guess you need to head quite far out of the way...which was no bad thing.
 |
| Horton in Ribblesdale Train Station |
 |
| Not Sure What The Top Was... |
 |
| Vast Open Nothingness |
After quite a while, we were then walking across what was essentially a cliff edge with a very big drop and a very big walk running along the top with barbed wire. We had to somehow get over it at a safe point to get down. We walked along it for a while looking for a point to get over and saw a wall that run from the bottom, right up to the wall running along the top. The route down for there was bit steep but have done much worse in the past, so we decided we would try and get over. The wall was really quite high with no stepping stones, but the farmer who built the wall should have provided a right of way as it was a public footpath! We had no choice but to try and make our way over otherwise we'd be walking along the top for miles and right out of our way.
Mr F went over first with a bit of struggle and Mrs F struggled so much she thought she wouldn't be able to get over! It took quite a while for us to both get up and over without getting caught by the wire or scrapping anything with lack of foot holding, but we got there in the end and started to make our way down the bank. It's funny when we take rogue routes because when you look back from further down, you'd never think there was any kind of possible way!
 |
| Our View From High Tops |
We got to the main road and stopped briefly on a big tree root and finished our Ovaltine, which was very nice after a hard climb...literally! We still had about 3 miles to go but at least now it was all flat and easy....although it's the flat and easy that really plays up with Mrs F's feet...and they were on fire!
We picked up the route past the friendly sheep and a few stiles and once back in Stainforth, made our way to the stepping stones for one final feet dip...
 |
| Stainforth Just In View |
 |
| Perfect End To A Perfect Week 💗 |
We packed up our things that night and Mr F loaded the car ready for us to chip off early in the morning. It's always a really sad moment packing up; normally Mrs F packs things away during the week so it's not such a big job on our last night and to stay organised, but this time - for the first time - she wasn't fused about being organised and didn't want to be reminded of having to go home...if only we could have stayed forever...just the two of us in our little cottage 💑
VERDICT OF YORKSHIRE IN JUNE 2023
Mr F: Never thought i would find a place i loved better than the Lakes but it is getting to be a difficult choice to choose. Great week away and i always enjoy it more when walks can be completed directly from where we are staying. Very blesssed with the weather with only one dodgy day but even that brightened up in the afternoon. Great afternoon in the heat messing around in the water fall pools near where we were staying is a special memory from this trip. Yorkshire is so beautiful but a different kind of beautiful to the lakes, either way these two places are definately my happy places and cant wait to return again soon.
Mrs F: There's nothing I can say that will do it justice for how much I enjoy being in Yorkshire. The Lake District will always have such a special place in our hearts and will always call it our happy place. But Yorkshire is becoming a fast competitor and literally runs in my blood which maybe is why I have such a deep fondness of Yorkshire...and I do love a stone wall that says you're up North! Our happy place is actually just anywhere in our great British countryside, untouched, unspoiled, vast miles as far as the eye can see of beautiful greens lands and hills and most importantly....anywhere we're together enjoying all these things. I really loved the little village that was so central to a lot of walks and as much as I love the drive back after a long day of walking (always a glorious sight to see the car!) it's great to be able to just head out straight from the cottage, which we were able to do for a different walk each day (apart form the garage day) The cottage was lovely and quaint and had everything we needed. The kitchen was slightly o the small side but nothing to moan about. I really loved the day we went to the caves and then a wild swim, that was my favourite day. I just felt so happy to be in the moment of being together, having just done a days walk early enough to still enjoy the sunshine with a wild swim at the end of the day and chill out on the warm rocks...it's such a memory that will stay with me forever. I do hope we can stay here again because there are so many wonderful places to walk right on the doorstep and the feeling I get being out in the Northern territories, be it Yorkshire or The Lakes...I'm just happy to be with my amazing hubby who I can enjoy what I love with him, who equally enjoys it. Truly blessed in so many ways 😇
