Matt Bye – Photography

As one of our walks every year, me and my Grandad walked The Dales Highway and also raised money for Birmingham Children’s Hospital Heart Unit (Details: Here). The walk takes 90 miles from Saltaire in West Yorkshire through the Yorkshire Dales to Appleby in Cumbria at the foot of the Pennines. The walk took us 7 days and took us through some great landscape. From the moors of Ilkly and Skipton, to Malham and the limestone country, to Pen-y-Ghent and Whernside along with the awe-inspiring Ribblehead viaduct, through the Howgill range and then to settle in the foot of the Pennines; a lot of the week was spent just simply admiring the view around us, which is the greatest pleasure along these walks.

The first day started early in Derby. Up at the crack of dawn to catch the train to Saltaire and start the weeks walk! Thankfully, 4:30 alarms for work make early mornings much more bearable. We had packed everything the day before, so it was a stress free morning of toast and tea! Outside, the sun was rising and the day was just about ready.

We arrived in a very wet Saltaire not really enjoying the prospect! This was after a strap on my bag had snapped while we were changing trains at Leeds, so a quick repair of this was done. We walked out of the train station and had a gaze at the mills of Saltaire, namely salts mill before joining the Leeds – Liverpool Canal, which has become infamous with me and the Grandfather.

We spent many days on the this canal during a walk from Leeds to Garsdale and also got lost and made life 10x harder for ourselves while walking the Pennine Way. Much to our relief, we only walked along for a mile or two before leaving and climbing up to Ilkly moor.

While the weather wasn’t “Wet” as such, there was a slight drizzle for a long while which didn’t make the walking nice because of have of having the hoods up and loosing the views. How ever, as we reached nearer Ilky, the weather started lifting off and we were met with great long views over Ilkly and the moors. We stopped off at a café, which true to our luck was closed. We settled for some cobs and a brew. It was a magnificent place though, real high over Ilkly.

From here on, the day went on rather pleasantly, dropping out of the moors and into a town called Addingham and we a pint of Ale with some fish and chips. Grandfather had been studying google maps a lot over the months leading up to the walk and had found a stream by a path a few miles out of Addingham and just short of Skipton, which looked like the perfect place for the first nights camp. We set off out of Addingham knowing we didn’t have a lot of daylight left. Walking as the light set, we knew we had had too much of a rest and ended up pitching the tent in the dark. The stream also was quite out of bounds so we settled for a cup of milk and a biscuit for the night!

The second day started off in glorious sunshine and a great morning mist. After clearing up camp we set off on down to the path for Skipton. The morning started with a great little forest path, of which we both agreed was the perfect start to the day. We headed down into Skipton town and found a great little café which provided some excellent tea and biscuits!

A steep climb led us out of Skipton behind the church. The sun was shining high and there was no shade about in the fields. The drizzley start of the walk was a real distant memory now as this lovely bit of farm walking led us a long a simple path through fields of relaxing sheep.

Our first big hill was a long here, it took it out of us quite a bit! It’s always a struggle at the start of a walk. But from here, we were on the back stretch to Malham…a place we had stopped at during the Pennine Way and I fell in love with; a beautiful little village in the center of limestone country. It was a long walk down to Malham, down a very steep road. It always feels as though you have to earn your way into Malham and we were definitely doing this! Once we dropped right down, we joined the beck at the famous Janet’s Foss waterfall. Apparently haunted, we were not greeted by any ghostly beings.

The walk followed the beck into Malham from here. The night would prove to be a restless and unsatisfying one, and a massive climb out in the morning but this was no problem to me because climbing over the limestone hills; the large hill named Pen-y-ghent came into view. We camped at the bottom of this on the Pennine Way and I totally fell in love with it. But between here and there was a fair few miles still to cover and go through the great little settlement of Settle! The path down to here led us through some great limestone scars.

We stopped in Settle at a pub we stopped at during our walk from Leeds to Garsdale. I was realising here now just how much of the Yorkshire Dales we have covered and all this crossing of paths was great! A bowl of soup (which no one actually seemed to know what is was) and a bitter shandy set us up for the afternoon. We walked out of Settle, around the sports fields and down along the side of the Ribble (A river of which I have been to the source of, and walked a lot of the Ribble way!) which during some more lovely afternoon sunshine, heads set down for Stainforth.

Our night is Stainforth was a good one! A great meal at a great little pub and had a good chat about tigers in the far east. Some heavy rain in the night bouncing off the tent but I slept through that and we awoke to a crisp morning and a breakfast of chicken noodle soup! I was excited today; our destination was the Station Inn. I knew it was great here, we stopped here during our Leeds to Garsdale walk! But more important than the digs was the amazing Ribblehead viaduct behind it. An amazing feat of man, 24 arches on a curve along undulating land…the last great work of the navvies. It was a rather uneventful day of walking, we we’re both not feeling too great so just got in with it looking forward to a room with a view.
We did stop of in Horton for lunch; another soup and bitter shandy at the foot of Pen-Y-Ghent. As we left, we headed up to walk along side the rail way; part of the infamous settle – Carlisle line and leading to Ribblehead.

Once we reached Ribblehead, the view of the viaduct and the pub sporting Timothy Taylor Landlord pumps improved our spirits massively. We had a pint or two at the bar before heading up to the room. After a quick relax I just had to run back out and have a wander about the viaduct. Unfortunately the afternoon sunlight was perfect for the photos I wanted to get but it was still immense just walking through the arches.

The morning was a great one. A massive gale in the night had broken the power supply to the pub (We we’re totally out in the sticks here) but at 8am luckily the power came back just in time to was before breakfast, which, impressively was on the tables for half 8! The weather in the morning was beautiful. A very cold wind, the hats and gloves were out! But it was dry and clear and the sunlight was on the other side of the viaduct which made me very happy!

It was a fairly tough days walk ahead along to Sedbergh at the foot of the howgill mountains, which was the thought to keep me going. The day led up the shoulder of Whernside where various groups of three peakers zoomed past us (Yes we were slow, backpacks full of a weeks supply of camping, cooking, food and clothing does that!). It was steady climbing, the biting wind keeping us fresh however and keeping us going…no one wants to stand still in that wind! A slight drizzle met us over the shoulder with views breaking of Dentdale. This made for a great array of rainbows and views over Dent.

We stopped off in dent for…SOUP AND BITTER SHANDY! Perfect fuel. We had a great chat with a man who (Claimed to have) worked with a Mr Alfred Wainwright, a very interesting, if sceptical discussion. The walk out of Dent and ontop Sedbergh via Millthrop was a steady one, walking down a rather nerve racking country lane until we joined a track which led round some hills and through some fields. We joined the Dales way path round into Sedbergh. As we rounded the hills, the amazing rolling hills of the Howgill Fells came into view; massive hills looming over us, tomorrows challenge calmly awaiting us. A great sight to behold!

A rather funny night was spent in Sedbergh. It slowly dawned on me and the Grandfather that we had stopped in the same digs and same room before on The Dales Way so we spent the evening discussing this. We also had a great meal, infact too great, some Rennie munching went on and we sat and watched thew news go by…it’s easy to lose touch! But while this happened, the lovely old landlady seem to spot me, the handsome young fellow and figure I must be able to use technology, and so I was dragged into setting up her new tv for her. It’s a nice feeling doing things like that.

A good nights sleep was had; they were some comfy beds! A hearty breakfast followed the next morning, my good deeds obviously being recognised. It was another gloriously warm and sunny morning. This was beginning to disappointing me. After my previous waterproofs failing slightly during the Pennine Way the year before, I have invested in some more quality gear and it was rather frustrating slightly that these investments weren’t being put to use!

We walked up out of Sedbergh in the sunshine and the climbing was steady, “we could do this all day!” we thought to ourselves. Once we crossed the gate, out of Sedbergh and into the Howgill Fells however; things instantly changed. These hills welcomed you with a brutal initiation. You climbed and you climbed fast. After just 30 mins of walking, Sedbergh was a small dot down below. This effort was worth it however, the height we had gained gave use views right back over to Pen-y-ghent and Whernside which was a great time to stop for a bite of chocolate and swill of water (No pubs up here unfortunately!). We walked on up for the summit of The Calf and came across a view, of which totally stunned me. Apparently a rare, clear glimpse of the Lake District stretched across the horizon; my favourite place of all this country. It really was a spirit lifter seeing such a view. This walk was really making itself know, every day pretty much, I had been in awe of the landscape.

The day sadly petered out as we walked down a valley. Now, I do enjoy all the walking but we walked down this narrow valley for 5 or 6 miles and it does become very tedious which does upset me after a while! We walked on down the valley, through the farmers’ land and down the road into Ravenstonedale where setup camp in a farmers field. There was a slight buzz between us both because this was our last night, just one day of walking remained. There’s a mixture of excitement of getting home along with sadness the walk is coming to an end; you get used to the nomad lifestyle and worry free days of just wandering around the great countryside we have.

We enjoyed a meal at a pub about 15 minute walk away. It was a bit of a posh deal. I hadn’t shaved all week, needed a haircut and there’s no styling facilities in the tent and felt like a right oddball there! It was, however, on of the best pints of black sheep I’ve ever had a great fish and chips! We got chatting to a local couple who were very interesting people and they gave us a lift back to camp in their lovely Jaguar.

The last day started very slowly. We didn’t have massive mileage to cover and we didn’t want to rush ourselves. A good walk through Asby, Hoff and onto Appleby for the last day. It was a largly uneventful day really, we arrived at Asby in good time and settled in a pub next to a lovely coal fire and had soup and bitter shandy! The afternoons walking dragged a little. We walked along the river Eden for a large amount which, while nice, the views of the past few days were missing. This was until the last mile or two when the North Pennines shot into view. We spent these miles trying to work out where we had walked last year along the Pennine Way. This was until came over the brow of a hill and were greeted the spectacular sight of High Cup and then it all fell into place. From here, we simply followed a path into Appleby and found our way to our final digs, a very smart B&B and a good nights rest and a weeks reflection over a Chinese and a few beers.