East to West Photos: Day 16

Mon 4 April (0755-1510)
Distance: 17 miles (Tot: 274) (Kilnwick Percy to Wellburn)
Ascent: 3000'!
Weather: frosty start with high cloud, then cloudy, showers from 1pm

There were quite a few days on this trip when I mentioned rain in the weather reports, but with some extraordinary luck there were only three days when it rained enough to really warrant use of full waterproofs. This was the only day during the first five weeks that fell into that category, and even then it was only an hour and a half of rain during the afternoon.

Long before that rain started we had a bit of a titter at the header on this sign as we both agreed that we’d never seen a cow with its dogs!

We assumed that this field full of colourful flags (I know you can’t quite make out that it was a field full of colourful flags, but it was) was aimed at bird-scaring.

It was as we walked down this sunken lane that the rain started and after a few minutes we were both digging into our bags for our waterproofs.

It seemed more than a little odd to have a sign at a field entrance to say that the field wasn’t suitable for motors. In fact, you might assume that someone had turned the sign around and that it should have been perpendicular to the road. A look at the map confirmed that it was correctly placed, as the left side of that field is, in fact, a by-way. We followed the by-way and didn’t encounter any motor vehicles (or any vehicles, or any people, for that matter). 

Kirkham Priory did deserve a visit, but the rain was really coming down as we passed which we didn’t find to be conducive to having a poke around some ruins. From the empty car park, I don’t think they had very many customers that day!

“Can you smell garlic?” asked Mick as we passed through some woodland a short while later.

Regular readers may know that I have an issue with people pitching three feet away from us when we’re the only tent in an empty field. This is our tent, pitched six feet away from the only caravan (there were no other tents) in the whole of a quite sizeable field. In our defence, it was very windy, there was no other shelter, and we had already ascertained that there wasn’t going to be anyone at the caravan whilst we were there.

The original post for this day can be found here.