Day 66 A longer, hotter day.

Today I left early trying to beat the heat. There were only the three young men and myself at the campsite and they left at about the same time as me. They had heavy-looking tents and heavy-looking packs and I was in awe of how fast they had walked yesterday laden with those packs. Until I found out that they weren’t carrying them. There was a fourth man who had intended to walk with them but had found the heat too much so he was carrying their luggage in his car. They were walking with daypacks.

I set off at 7.15 as I knew the first part of the day was quite hilly. What I didn’t know was difficult the stiles were going to be. The first challenge was at 7.35, and was typical of the day-how wide do they think people are? And what about backpacks? It is the Pennine Way after all.

I managed to shimmy through the first stile only to find more of a challenge with Daisy. I don’t think she’s really called Daisy, she didn’t seem to respond to the name but I stuck with it, although was tempted to try Buttercup. I tried a gate-too wobbly to climb but there was a gap between it and the barbed wire on the wall where I could manoeuvre the backpack and leave it resting until I could get past Daisy (see photo below). I called to her. I reasoned with her but she didn’t move for quite some time. Eventually she staggered to her feet amd I slipped behind her, egged on by a woman who was walking her dogs. Getting the backpack a) down from the wall without snagging it in the barbed wire and b) back on my back was tricky. I felt disgruntled. Still, chin up, I headed off, across the field and up the road.

The route was uphill, then steeply down and by 9am I was in Lothersdale where there was a roadside cake stall. Naturally I had to support them. I didn’t want to carry the extra weight so I ate it, leaning against a wall.

I carried on, up and up, to Pinhaw Beacon, passing Robert Wilson’s grave on the way. Robert Wilson was a beacon guard. The beacon was guarded during the time of the Napoleonic Wars. The beacon guards lived in a hut but, one January, were running out of food and Robert volunteered to get supplies. You can guess the rest. He was 69 and was buried where they found his body.

On a cheerier note the view from Pinhaw Beacon was 360 and there was a handy -not sure of the word-disc which showed you what you could see in various directions. I saw a man approaching, not carrying a backpack. When he got up to the beacon he asked “Are you Rose?” I have to admit that I was a little surprised. It turned out that he was the fourth man (Chris) and the three others had told him that the view was worth seeing (and there was a car park not far away). I nearly asked him to take some of my pack but didn’t. If I see him again, I might.

The road headed downhill for about an hour but, of course, there was a difficult kissing gate. A brand new kissing gate that was too small for a person with a backpack leading to my having to detour and scramble down a slope to the road.

The bulk of the uphill was done by now. I passed through a few sheep fields, filled my water bottle at a stream and passed through Thornton-in-Craven. Not a difficult stile this time, but a path that went steeply up a bank and tipped you out onto an A-road when there was a set of pedestrian lights not 50 yards away.

It had been getting hotter and hotter. I stopped under the shade of a hedge and had my lunch. The countryside was mainly farming now. I chatted to a couple of people coming in the opposite direction and then found myself by a canal.

The rest of the day passed slowly, punctuated by a large number of difficult stiles-steps too high, cross pieces too wobbly, no post to hold onto at the top (and you really need that with a heavy backpack) or just too narrow. Some of them had a sprung gate over the narrow gap. It was all a bit trying.

At long last, Gargrave was in sight. I was very hot by this time (2.30). Happily my Airbnb host was around so I could check in early. I had a bath, washed my clothes, and had a wander round Gargrave. I sat in the shade, on a bench by the river, with a Coca-Cola, replenishing my sugar and electrolytes.

I have booked dinner in a local pub which will be a change after two nights of camping food. I hope they have ice-cream.