Dave Byrnes' Adventures

Land's End to John O'Groats - 2010

Overview     Planning     Schedule     Map     Diary     Pictures
Day: 029
Date:

Monday, 31 May 2010

Start:

Flouch

Finish:

Marsden

Daily Kilometres:

29.2

Total Kilometres:

914.9

Weather:

Overcast and hazy all day, cool in the morning and mild in the afternoon.

Accommodation:

Hotel (£49)

Nutrition:

English breakfast; ham and cheese sandwich and salad for lunch; fish and chips and creamed rice for dinner.

Aches:

Right shoulder still sore, right knee a bit sore and left little toe very tender.

Pictures:

Here

GPS Track:

Here

Journal:

It turned out I was the only person staying at the hotel and, I suspect, there was no-one else there at all last night.  The same surly cook from last night, even more surly for having to get in to cook breakfast for a lone resident at 8am, got me some breakfast and I left at 9am with the idea of reaching Marsden for the night, without knowing exactly how far it was.  I was guessing 30km, leaving me about 20km tomorrow to get to Hebden Bridge to early enough to pick up my mailed maps, find somewhere to stay, and meet Keith at the station.

The early walking was easy on a cool overcast morning, firstly across some low moors (sheep and lambs everywhere as usual) and then along a rail trail which was also the Trans-Pennine Way.  It was a Bank Holiday Monday and there were a few walkers and cyclists about.  The scenery was pleasant, without being spectacular, but I could tell I was heading towards some big hills.

I passed Dunford Bridge around 10:30am and then climbed to cross the wall of the Winscar Reservoir which had numerous warnings about hypothermia (no chance of me going for a swim), before gradually climbing into the Pennines.  The grades weren't too onerous and, as I got higher, had views in many directions of stone-walled hill farms rising steeply from valley floors up the sides of huge hills with moorland on top.  Here and there a village could be seen as well as some larger towns in the distance.

I enjoyed the pretty scenery and relatively easy walking, reaching the village of Holme about 12:30pm and finding the pub for lunch.  As often happens, several people came up to me in the pub and asked me where I was walking to and were pleasantly inquisitive.  The pub was doing a roaring trade with lots of tourists including quite a number of walkers.

From there, my route climbed even higher into the Pennines along some really nice tracks, giving good views all round.  I think there must have been some kind of event on because a number of small groups of walkers, some unfit, some with kids who'd obviously had enough, were coming in the opposite direction.

At the crest of yet another big hill, my route joined the Pennine Way for a short distance.  I'm going to be seeing a lot of it in the next two weeks.  A couple of kilometres later, my route diverged to follow and old aqueduct high along the side of a reservoir for an hour.  It was spectacular, if a little narrow and steep-sided in places.  Near the end, I met a mountain-biker coming the other way.  I commented that he was more daring than me, and he replied that he would be taking it easy and had done it before (my heart would have been in my mouth for some parts).  Anyway, when I arrived down in Marsden an hour later looking for a hotel, he rode towards me up the street and gave me a thumbs up.

The descent from the aqueduct to Marsden was long and fairly steep and my left little toe and right knee were complaining by the time I reached the bottom of this medium-sized industrial town (I passed a big derelict mill on the way in).  I passed a hotel which looked a bit pricey but couldn't find anything else in the town centre, so checked in and confirmed it was pricey.

The room is nice and, for a change, my internet bandwidth seems to be good so I took the opportunity to add my daily walking GPS maps to all of my previous days' hiking.  You can see them for the individual days here, and I hope to add a map to this journal page each day for the balance of the trip.

ADVENTURE LIST

 

Round Ireland
(2016)

Hume & Hovell Walking Track
(2013)

Via Alpina
(2012)

Australian Alps Walking Track
(2011)

Land's End to John O'Groats
(2010)

Round Oz Bike Record Attempt
(2009)

Round Oz Bike Record Attempt
(2008)

Round Oz Bike Record Attempt
(2007)

Australia Tip to Top MTB
(2006)

Adelaide to Darwin MTB
(2005)

Sydney to Melbourne MTB
(2004)

Three Peaks Race
(2004)

Appalachian Trail
(1986)

Alpine Track
(1983)

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You can email Dave directly at dave@davebyrnes.com.au or subscribe to his Adventure Blogs here.

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