Where’s all the Concrete

 

One comment frequently heard from people “down-under” who have not been to the UK is “Why do you want to go to a concrete jungle?”   Well as any UK readers know “it’s not like that!”  Each trip Jan patiently allows me to spend a day walking in an interesting part of the country.  I quite like the Lake District where I have completed three walks.  The one problem is each time I get to the top of the hill I’m either in the clouds or driving rain, so I’ve never seen anything :-)

In 2005 I completed the “3 Peaks Challenge” in the Yorkshire Dales.  Jan spent the day in Skipton whilst I took the rental car to Horton in Ribblesdale.  The idea was to climb to the top of three local hills in less than 12 hours.  I competed the route in an anti-clockwise direction taking just over nine hours.

The first hill was Pen-Y-Ghent and despite taking an incorrect turn I made it to the top in good time.

From there I headed down and past the railway bridge

I would have been ahead of this young lass except I stopped and waited for the train to pass over the bridge :-)

One of the pleasant things about walking in the UK is you seem to meet a number of people out enjoying the countryside.  In Australia I can go for a three hour walk and not see anyone!  As I started up the second hill (Little Whernside) I caught up with a large number of walkers around my own age or older.  Initially I was impressed that they had managed to be so far ahead of me but then I realised they were only attempting this hill.

The top of Little Whernside with the third hill on the horizon.

By the time I reached the top of the third hill (Ingleborough) I was starting to feel my age.  I needed to get this walk over and done with so I joggled back down the hill to the car.  Unfortunately for me, I thought it was a short journey from the top of Ingleborough back to to the car at Horton in Ribblesdale.  It wasn’t! 

Driving the car the next day was agony!