Start/Finish: NP car park, Clapham
Distance: 12.4 miles
Time Taken: 7.5 hours
Companion(s): One F, Yeti, Swampy, Nod2, Norfolkboy, Dunc, Flowerpot, Dot,
Strider, Yorksgal, HumperLumper, Sprout
Route Map:
B&B was really comfortable but, as usual, I was awoke at about 4.45am. Managed to stay in bed for another hour or so just lying still and thinking about the day's daunting task ahead of me. As the nerves were building up, I decided to make a cup of tea and then take an early morning stroll around Clapham before coming back to the B&B for breakfast. A few photos from the stroll...
The local shop was open so, I bought my water for the day and then headed back to the B&B for a full english breakfast. Maybe not such a good idea before a walk in my case :-)
Anyway, plucked up all my courage, and set out for the meet-up point for todays walk. Not far to go for this one as the start point was the car park only about 300 yds away from where I was staying. As I entered the car park I recognised a couple of faces from forum posts and, the meets and greets began. Eventually, we were all assembled and introduced and the walk began. At this point my worries on meeting new people had dissipated and been overtaken by thoughts of whether or not I'd be able to keep up with everyone. Feeling totally full from the B&B breakfast, didn't fill me with confidence on my ability today but, hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained :-)
As seems to be usual with virtually every walk I do, the day began with quite a steep climb out of Clapham and we headed towards the tunnels leading up to the high ground on route to Robin Proctor's Scar. I took a few photos along the way...
On seeing this, a number of the group decided they'd like to go up and over rather than going round. Ahem..... I wasn't one of them :-)
I took a few more pics whilst we waited for the adventurers to rejoin us....
Continued on our way towards the Norber Erratics and then the Crummack Dale route towards Beggars Stile, Thieves Moss and our first break point at Sulber Gate. (I should thank people for getting me through my scary bit on this part! - a bit of an exposed path which had me living on my nerves for a bit!)
Time for a break and some more brilliant views...
We headed on our way again, and at this point, my photo shoot stopped as I needed all of my energy to get to the top of Ingleborough. [Thanks again to everyone who helped me out with this part - head down, small, steady steps and don't look up. I am slow but, I'll get there eventually! Interesting conversations helped a lot too ;-) ]
Made it to the top eventually - but no views as we seemed to be in a cloud. OMG, I'll have to do it all again now lol :-) [PS I'm sure I took a few more photos up here but it seems they've disappeared - definitely have to go back now!]
Now then, once you go up, you have to come down and, yet again, the camera didn't come out on this bit either. I would call this an easy route but a 'knee crippler' - paved, stepped, long descents do nothing for my knees I'm afraid :-)
However, we were now on our way to Gaping Gill - a good place to go if you want to be lowered down into a huge cave on a long bank holiday weekend....but it wasn't a bank holiday so we stayed at the top!
From here we headed down to Trow Gill on the last leg of the route. The descent of Trow Gill was a little bit tricky, but thanks again to Yeti for holding my walking poles (and not selling them on Ebay whilst they were in his possession lol!) as I needed my hands for this bit. It was a bit smelly at the bottom but who cares, I was just glad I made it down without injuring myself! :-)
Looking back to Trow Gill...
Ice cream and refreshment stop at Ingleborough Cave...
Followed by a lovely walk through the Ingleborough Nature Trail to make our way back to the car park at Clapham.
A grand day out - thanks to everyone for their help and support!
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