Keith and I had a leisurely start to the day with an 8am
breakfast and then waiting until 9am to leave the hotel so I could
buy some maps and a new waterproof map case from an outdoors shop
nearby. We started hiking out of Hebden Bridge at 9:20am and
were soon on a beautiful path following Hebden Water upstream.
The stream was clear and babbling, there wildflowers all round and
lovely shady trees. We also passed a restored mill and several
mill ponds that were as calm as a mill pond. It was very
pleasant and we chatted as we walked along.
After a while the path began to climb a little more steeply and
entered hilly sheep grazing land and we climbed over the first of
many moors for the day, each with a valley to descend and climb out
of each time. The weather was superb and when we joined the
Pennine Way after about 10km, we were sharing the path with quite a
lot of other hikers. Because Keith and I knew we had quite a
long walk to reach Earby Youth Hostel, and because we had had a very
big breakfast, we decided to limit ourselves to snack stops during
the day to save time (and there weren't any pub stop options
anyway).
At one of our rest/snack breaks we were joined by a couple of
enormous pigs, family pets, I would guess, who were quite keen to
check out our rucksacks. It took all of my strength to push
one away with my boot while sitting down, and then they left us
alone and continued on their way across the hillside paddock.
The weather meant that we had great views from the moors in all
directions, and especially down into the green valleys with their
sheep pastures, stone walls, and historic villages. As they
day wore on Keith suffered in the warmth and, I think, for not
bringing enough fluids. Climbing all the hills was thirsty
work and it was his first day on the trail. There wasn't quite
as much conversation in the afternoon.
We eventually reached the hostel around 7pm and quickly showered
and walked down to the village pub. [While I was having a shower
last night at our Hebden Bridge hotel, Keith, who had just arrived
from London by train, went for a walk around town to find a pub
where we could have dinner. He returned to say he had found a
nice one about half a mile away. I said that there was no way
I was walking half a mile to a pub for dinner and we ended up eating
at the hotel where we were staying. Tonight, when we checked
into the hostel, the manager told us there was a pub where we could
get dinner about 200 yards down the road. Keith asked him
whether there was one closer!]
At the pub, we were joined by two other walkers we had met during
the day and we had a very pleasant evening chatting about hiking,
travelling and running for a couple of hours. The tanned
Aussie and the three sunburnt Englishmen!
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