Day 65 A short day

Today, when I woke up, I realised that the sun wasn’t shining. I looked out and saw low cloud on the hills. It was wonderful.

I was woken by the cry of a peacock, followed by a very noisy piece of farm machinery at 6am. Oh well. I didn’t get up for a while as I had only 6 miles to go amd there was no point arriving too early. I had breakfast (porridge and camomile tea) and went to wash up. To my surprise, the (moulting) peacock was pottering about the washing up area

I set off, uphill. Every day ends with a downhill into the valley so every morning starts with an uphill. Just as I left, the sun came out. I plodded on, past the reservoir, up the hill, over a road and up again. I was going pretty slowly today, and was still drenched with sweat (long-distance walking isn’t very glamorous) within a few hundred yards. There were stiles to negotiate

Not to mention muddy paths, despite the lack of rain and excessive heat.

The view on reaching the top Ickornshaw Moor, was again, of moorland stretching away to the sky. There was no-one in sight until, quite a bit of flagstoned path later, the path turned downwards and two teenage boys with backpacks came from the other direction.

They were the only people I saw all day, although I knew that a couple from my campsite had set off about thirty minutes ahead of me.

I came down from the moorland to farmland. At one point the path was diverted round a newly-built, or newly-renovated house and it’s garden. I took the opportunity to sample some of their black currants. (Only two). Delicious and quite different from the blaeberries I have been snacking on over the last few days. We learnt as children to call them blaeberries-bilberries to most of you. They do tend to stain one’s hands though.

The last field I came through was full of young bullocks. I say “full” there were a couple waiting at the gate, the others were lying down. I spoke loudly and firmly to the ones at the gate who looked rather uncertain but then moved away. I didn’t look back.

I had now hit the road I needed to walk along to reach my campsite. It was about 1.20. The only person there was a cleaning lady. I sat on a tree trunk in the shade and ate my lunch, noting drying tents on a washing line. It turned out they belonged to three young men who had got up at 3am to walk from Hebden Bridge. They had arrived about 10am. That’s a lot faster than I could have done the distance.

The campsite has a pond, with a duck and ducklings. It also has free tea and coffee and a kettle and a fridge. I spent the afternoon sitting, reading and charging my devices, apart from a trip to the village shop for an ice cream. Later I shall rehydrate my freeze-dried meal (chicken tikka and rice tonight), then retire to my tent to read. I hope to leave early tomorrow to beat the sun as the forecast suggests it will be hotter than today amd I have eleven miles to do.