Friday - to Horton-in-Ribblesdale

Friday 24 June (0650-1200)
Distance: 14 miles
Weather: sunshine and showers
Number of faffs in first mile of the day: 7

Today we beat yesterday's record, by stopping for our first waterproofs-faff within five minutes of setting off. I'm sure that the rain didn't get so much as a mention on the weather forecast, but it was certainly the reality.

In spite of the passing showers, the cloud base was high, which was a big bonus as we didn't see anything of this leg of the walk in 2008. We had ascended into the cloud a short way after Horton and, if I remember correctly, we didn't come out of that cloud until after we left Gayle the next day.

The map had suggested to us then that we had missed some good scenery and good views and so it turned out to be. Quite how we missed the two separare pot holes, with streams falling down into them, last time, I don't know as they are so close to the path*. Today we had time on our side (having been overly conservative in our timings needed to get us to Horton in time for our train) and so both were investigated.

In contrast to the solitude of most of this week's walking, lots of other walkers were seen, particularly on the last leg down to Horton, by which time the sun was winning the weather battle and the day was warming up nicely.

Lunch at the cafe in Horton filled the rest of our available time nicely and now here we are on a train trundling back to Leeds.

The weather hasn't been great (and certainly not fitting for the time of year) but as always, we've enjoyed the trip. Of course, now I've set a precedent. Last year I did Horton to Edale; this year Dufton to Horton. It would be remiss not to finish the final leg from Kirk Yetholm sometime!

(*now I think about it, it's massively wetter underfoot at the moment than it was in 2008, so maybe those streams weren't crashing quite so dramatically into their pot holes to draw our attention to them back then.)
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