This was one of the sunniest day's we've had. As optimists, we did bring sunscreen! Reading up on the terrain before starting out, we found there were two routes: the high one and the low one. The high one climbs up onto the ridge where all the strip mining of lead took place in the 19th century and the low route, in theory, gives wonderful views of the Swale River which is the scenic waterway through the Yorkshire Dales. So after many miles of hiking (officially 93 and in reality, well over a hundred), we decided to go the low road. Of course, the promise of walking in sight of the Swale River in no way explained the heights from which one might be viewing it! (Chant the Coast to Coast local advice mantra: Take the obvious path. It's easy. It's not very far. The worst is behind you.)
We started out by visiting the church in Reeth and praying we make it to the North Sea :-). From there we did indeed follow the lovely Swale River. If you don't count nearly breaking our legs on the slippery rock path down the river, it was nice and uneventful. We walked up to an old mine site where there was a old house called the Crackpot Hall (No, not Crack House, you silly Americans.) This was a farmhouse in ruins built originally in the 1600s with a big smelting area above it and a lead mine. It's basically a ruin now, but stark stone and really pretty. The large yard is apparently a latrine for rabbits. If I have ever seen as much rabbit scat in my whole life as was in that yard, I don't know it (and I used to own a couple of rabbits.) One of the nice things about this section of the walk was that there was some wildlife. Rabbits apparently really do what rabbits do in that region, because we saw bunnies everywhere. A disturbing thing was that we saw about as many dead rabbits as live ones. At dinner last night, a local told us they had most likely been poisoned. So if it is near Easter and you have a child, don't go up there or they'll be visiting their psychiatrist for years. And since this subtitled "grouse", we saw several of those and heard the report of shotguns while people nearby tried to kill them (more on that later). We saw a beautiful pheasant and a not so gorgeous groundhog. We heard there might be deer, but not for us. We did see a very amorous bull and a cow who was not in the mood for love. That was actually a pretty amusing sight watching the interaction...but hardly wildlife. Ms. Cow made sure of that!
We really were above the river a few hundred feet, but came back down to the town of Muker. Muker has the distinction of being a town that saved itself when the mines closed by developing the cottage industry of woolens which is still in business today and recently visited by Prince Charles to commemorate 30 years of knitting. (Oh to be a prince!) The woollens were actually very beautiful and artistic as well.
However, we bought cheese, another Yorkshire Dales delight. Then we climbed up over the river again and passed several "towns"--these places have people in them and houses, but they don't have so much as a store or even a nearby phone booth. (No Superman for you Ivelet, Blades, Gunnerside, Kearton, and Healaugh.) We wound through all of these spots and finally down to Reeth, a bustling town of perhaps two or three thousand people. We stayed at the Cambridge House--very nice and our host (and big-time cyclist) who looked to be about 60ish (and could be older) had already carried our fifty pound bag up to the second story. We had made arrangements to eat in a local hotel, the Bourgoyne, and were told well in advance that it might get loud as they had a "hunting party." Turns out, it's grouse season here in the UK and the consolation offered to us for dining with the "hooligans" (who were actually all lords and dukes and such-or so the waitstaff claimed) was that there was grouse on the menu. I had it and Paul had venison. I have to say I was glad I tried it, but it isn't a bird I would fly much out of the way for. It's about the size of a cornish hen and when it lies on your plate, you actually feel sorry for it. The hunting party was pretty well behaved...a bit boisterous at first, but then much subdued after many glasses of wine...an older crowd :). Overall, we had a nice walk on a lovely day, a very good B&B and very British game meal at the Bourgoyne. That is nothing to grouse about.
Paul's ponderings: Overall, this was a pretty easy day, although it did not turn out to be a "river path walk" as we thought. There was a bit of that though. So far, we continue to be very lucky on weather -- no rain today and quite warm. This month seems to be a good one to do the hike. We ended up with about 15 miles today, but the side trip into Muker probably added about two miles. Note to self: Think about your feet when you consider side-trips. The good news is we appear to be fairly well out of serious mountain walking now and just have some "hills" to deal with. Beer note: The Black Sheep Bitter is outstanding. Also, you rarely see game bird out on hikes in the US (at least where we live), so seeing pheasant and grouse is pretty interesting.
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| Pheasant near Muker |
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| Church in Muker |
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| Trail Marker Near Crackpot Hall |
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| Crackpot Hall (or what's left of it anyway) |
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| Butt House - Our lodging in Keld (yes, it's really called that) |
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