Walk Sancho, walk!

Having signed up to take part in this years Oxfam Trailtrekk event, it was only a matter of time that Team Llamas Not Included pulled on our walking shoes and did some training.  We had already been for an ill-fated night time expedition from Woodlesford to Leeds along the River Aire to test our head torches, but we needed to get some serious miles under our belts.

The idea was a simple one.  We would get up bright and early, make our way to Skipton, and walk to Horton in Ribblesdale following the Pennine Way.  We forgot, of course that this was the weekend that the clocks went forward, robbing us of an important hour of sleep before taking on the 40k walk.

Having left a car in Horton for the journey home, we set off from Skipton at 8:30am* along the Leeds and Liverpool canal towards Gargrave.  The rain had already started falling but, as Debs pointed out, "things can only get better".  I had a strong suspicion that she was going to be wrong and that things would get a lot worse, but we cracked on at a decent pace never the less, making a note to bring binoculars and a bird spotting guide when we take on the route again in August.

Gargrave came quickly and we were soon onto Stage 2 of the walk.  The Pennine Way was going to be our companion for the next eight and a half hours, although at the time we thought it would be closer to seven.  It wasn't long after leaving Gargrave that the rain got heavier.  This wasn't a problem to start with, but once we had cleared the tree lined farm track we also noticed that the wind had picked up and the temperature had dropped.  At least the route was easy to follow.  Crossing a couple of fields we found the River Aire, which was much smaller than we are used to, and followed it faithfully.

In hindsight we should have listened to the warning from the group that we passed about the state of the path to come.  We laughed off thoughts of difficult terrain, things could only get better after all.  We were of course wrong.  Not long after Airton we came across a quagmire that left three of us with sodden feet.  The icy mud flowing into shoes that still had 25k to cover was not welcome, but the first sight of Malham cove was, as it heralded the end of the second section.

I was in two minds about changing my sodden footwear as we stopped at Malham for lunch, in the end I chose to keep my wet but comfortable trail shoes on, saving a dry pair for the drive home.  I'm sure that this was the right thing to do as my feet would only get wet again later on, it did mean that my decision to use a 60 litre backpack instead of at 15 litre one was hugely flawed.  A lighter bag would have been welcome, but we live and learn.

We pushed on through Malham and set off towards Malham Tarn.  The higher we got the worse the weather became.  By the time we had reached the Tarn the wind was whipping up waves you could have surfed on and for the first time, we walked in silence, protecting our faces from the stinging rain, only glancing around to make sure we were all still together.

The trees at the Eastern edge of the Tarn brought welcome relief from the elements, as did the driveway up to the Malham Tarn Field Centre, but we were soon back out in the open.  My gloves were now as sodden as my shoes, but the wind was so biting that taking them off actually made me more uncomfortable.  My hands were either hot with pain or cold and wet.

Morale was sapping away as we climbed the barren Fountains Fell and again we walked in silence for what felt like hours.  The only conversation was about where we were and how far we still had to go which, as anybody with a 4 year old will tell you, is not a barrel of laughs.  Even the sight of snow failed to make me smile.  Normally I'm like a kid in a sweet shop whenever I see snow, but this just acted as a reminder of how cold and remote we were.

As we reached the summit of Fountains Fell two things struck me.  The first was that in front of me lay Pen-y-ghent, I knew that we only had to get to the other side of the ridge and we'd be in Horton and we would have completed the day's walking.  The second thing that struck me was the wind, like a hammer to the chest!  It had been bad on the way up, but the hill had been protecting us from the worst of the weather.  Halfway down, while battling the wind and the sodden path, the rain returned.  The rain soon changed to hail and I swore at the world.  I took some macabre solace at the though that I had been right about the worsening conditions earlier in the day.  The weather could have been worse, and now it was.

We crossed the official end of section 3 and pushed on without stopping, or recording our time, to the finish at Horton in Ribblesdale.  Having climbed Pen-y-ghent last year I knew the way from here and that offered some relief, we were tantalisingly close to the end.  We said farewell to the Pennine Way and crossed onto the bridle way that would take us down to Horton, or at least we tried.  The wind we had pushed against coming down from Fountains Fell decided to have one last dig, a final turn of the knife.  We already knew that we had been on our feet all day but walking down hill should not be more difficult than going up.

We finally made it into Horton in Ribblesdale 5 hours after we had left Malham and, to add insult to injury, the public toilets were locked.  We had taken much longer than anticipated but I'm putting that down to the weather.  Importantly we had made it to Horton before the sun dipped behind Ingleborough and within the cutoff time for continuing with the Trekk.  We were cold, wet, and tired, but we had completed the first 4 stages.

If it had been the actual TrailTrekk weekend we may well have called it a day at that point, such was the level of discomfort, but the weather in August should be much better and we won't need to carry so much thanks to the support of our crew and the Oxfam volunteers.  Which reminds me, we are undertaking the TrailTrekk to raise money for Oxfam, a very worthy cause.  Deborah, Dalia, Jonathan and I will be fund-raising up until the event but if you would like to help us rediscover some of our lost morale you can donate on our JustGiving page.

I think our next team building session will be in a pub.  A warm cosy pub, with a roaring real fire, and only a short walk between stages, not stages, pints.  I think we've earned it for now.

*all times are approximate