Pennine Ways

Cerian and I got back from our Pennine Holiday this weekend, the weather was great, sometimes too hot!

Our original plan was to walk the first 6 days of the Pennine Way, from Edale all the way up to Malham. Well over a 100km.

Upon our arrival in Edale on Saturday evening, the heavens had been open most of the day, and things were a little damp. After a couple of beers at The Nags Head we turned in for the night, and awoke to a sauna like tent! The day was the most beautiful we could of hoped for - so off we went.

Things started fairly easy until our rise via Jacob's Ladder up on to Kinder Scout. It was early in the day, but stinking hot already so we had worked up a good sweat. But we'd done steeper ascents before, and weren't phased - luckily things flattened out on the plateau of Kinder Scout.

As the day plodded on so did we. It just felt like it was getting hotter and hotter and we were only half way through the day!

After starting at about 9.20am we finally arrived at the campsite 9 hours and 22 minutes later - but we had made it.

(drag the map to the left to see the route)


Although slightly shorter than the first day, the second day wasn't looking appealing. But we had no other option, as there were no easy bus routes to the next campsite.

So we walked it anyway! It felt longer again than it should have, but after leaving Crowden we made it to Standedge in good time (we think! 7hrs 28mins).



After two long hot days we decided to give it a rest. Although the walking was tough and hot, the views and the journey itself were memorable enough to make things enjoyable. Nonetheless we took three days off and decided to relax and complete the journey to Malham as planned on the last day.

We spent a day in Marsden and explored the Standedge canal tunnel and town. The day after we made our way to Gargrave (via train), and spent a couple of days there walking along the Pennine Way, canals, and visiting Skipton and its castle.

As planned on our last day we walked the last 11km to up to Malham. After negotiating many fields of cows, bullocks and one horse - we walked up to Malham Cove and Gordale Scar. Both breathtaking natural wonders of yorkshire! If not Britain! Very impressive.



We finished the holiday with a fantastic meal at the local hotel, then shimmied over to the local waterhole and got a few pints down me! After a good nights sleep it was a sleepy train ride back home.

A great holiday, and very relaxing - we ended up walking about 100km in the end :-)

All the photos can be found here. Enjoy!