Day 6 - Cowling to Gargrave

Postscript on last night. Sean had originally planned to come out to Roger and Philippa's house for dinner last night, but having arrived at his B&B at about 5pm he couldn't actually get in until 6pm, and had to seek shelter in an open veranda in the garden. After a while he noticed that Saffie was starting to shiver, so he improvised a dog coat with his puffer jacket, which apparently did the job very well.

Saffie does not find this humilating

Today was a walk in the (National) park compared to most previous days, at (officially) 9 miles, or if you believe the GPS (which I do) then 10.9 miles. Also there were none of the savage ups & downs of the first 2  days. In fact Cowling to Gargrave isn't a section of the Pennine Way that many people walk in isolation. Most walk right through to Malham, our next stop, making for a 17 mile day. Sounds a lot, but after our 17.5 miles to Hebden Bridge I think we wouldn't have minded. As a result this was the day where we had to part company with Sean and Eric later in the day, both of whom continued on to Malham.

However, Roger and Philippa joined us for most of the day's walk. In his hurry to get to Cowling on time Roger forgot his walking boots, so having decided that smart shoes probably weren't a good idea drove home at breakneck speed and back to Cowling, then sprinted over slippery muddy fields to catch us up.

Again the day started with a couple of hours of uninterrupted sunshine, dropping down a steep muddy slope to Ickornshaw (apparently pronounced Ik-con-shu, with the emphasis on the 2nd syllable), then threading up through numerous sheep farms on the way up to open moor land. Most fields with lambs or ewes in lamb seem to be littered with large feed beet/turnips, or mangels as they might be called in the West Country (maybe they're t'nips around here). I supposed they're a form of feed supplement when the ewes need extra energy and the grass is still fairly low and slow growing.

A barrow of feed beet for t'sheep

Since this is the last day when all four of us who set out from Edale on Tuesday 17th will be walking together, and the only day when Roger & Philippa will be with us, photographs are called for. So here are Eric, Sean (+Saffie), Jonathan, Roger (+Ziggy), and Philippa (+Stitch) in some of today's sunshine. The three dogs got on well with each other, playing games of catch-me-catch-me and teaching each other bad habits of running after grouse and eating sheep poo.

Just north of Lothersdale

Dropping down to Lothersdale it was rather too early for the pub to be open, and with no cafes in sight for the 11ses which the time demanded we slogged on uphill out of town onto more open Elslack Moor, stopping for DIY 11ses at the top, Pinhaw beacon. Panoramic views all around, Earby and Barnoldswick to the North West and Gargrave to the North.

The whole group at Pinhaw beacon

Looking west from Pinhaw beacon

A gentle descent off the moor through more sheep country and what seems to be a rare dairy farm (I mean rare around here) at Brown House Farm took us into Thornton-In-Craven. I assume that this cattle grid has just been concreted in and this apparent abstract sculpture is to remind people and vehicles to avoid.

Brown House Farm sculpture installation

At Thornton-in-Craven Roger and Philippa had to leave us, as they were walking back home via Earby to pick up their car. We will hopefully see them again tomorrow for a final group meal at Malham.

After a further undulating mile or so north from Thornton-in-Craven the Pennine Way meets the Leeds-Liverpool canal and follows alongside it to East Marton. The Leeds-Liverpool canal was built in the white heat of the industrial revolution to carry heavy goods between the seaport of Liverpool and the inland cities of Leeds and Bradford. As with most English canals it's now largely filled with leisure craft and a few riverboat dwellers. There's a rather nice double decker bridge where the A59 crosses the canal. The bridge had its top deck added to avoid the A59 dipping down too much at this point.

Double arched bridge at A59 canal crossing

Since it was only just past 2pm and not raining we took the chance to sit outside the Abbot's Harbour cafe for a late lunch/early cream tea.

Leeds-Liverpool canal at East Marton

From here Jonathan and I only had another mile or so before we stepped off the Pennine Way to tonight's stopover at Newton Grange, a couple of miles south of Gargrave. This is a rather grand B&B in a restored country seat - surely too grand to have been a farmhouse originally.

So Eric, Sean, and Saffie parted company from us at this point, and continued onto Malham, another 8 or 9 miles from here. We'll hopefully see Sean again tomorrow night for a final group meal (he's staying there 2 nights) before we finally go our separate ways. I'll try to find out how he and Saffie get on later. Fingers crossed that his blisters don't stop him from finishing the whole Pennine Way. I have a feeling that Eric is going to be exactly 1 day ahead of us for the rest of the Pennine Way, so we'll be keeping an eye out for a lone figure heading down the wrong path10 miles in front.

If you would like to donate to the MND Association, please visit http://www.justgiving.com/PhilipJAWhite