New Walks in Central Nottinghamshire ... and Beyond

Stage Eleven Start: Tan Hill Finish:  Middleton-in-Teesdale Distance: 17 miles Total Distance Walked: 137 miles It says something about the relatively mundane nature of the walking on this stage that I can recall very little about it without the aid of a diary, which I had by this time neglected to keep.  Therefore this post is quite short. The first part of the day was walking across the heather of Sleightholme Moor.  It was fairly flat and uninteresting but fortunately the weather was as obliging as it had been on the rest of the Way and there were few difficulties.  Apparently this part of the walk can be unpleasant in wet conditions but having coped with the moors at the start of the Pennine Way when we hadn't been "walk-fit" these seemed easy enough on springy turf. The afternoon was a little more interesting in fields but I can't remember much about it.  We stayed in Middleton-in-Teesdale at a B & B following four nights under canvass.  I don

Start:  Hawes Finish:  Tan Hill Inn Distance: 17 miles Total Distance Walked: 120 miles At this point I stopped writing up my diary while I was doing the walk so my recollections are purely from my memories. We left Hawes and crossed fields for a mile until we reached the village of Hardraw.  There we took a short diversion off the Pennine Way to visit Hardraw Force, the highest waterfall in England at a height of 96 feet.  To reach it we had to go through the Green Dragon Inn, where we paid a small entrance fee, and walked along a path to the Force.  This was one of those rare spots on the route where other people were around and it was quite busy along the path. The waterfall itself was quite impressive in altitude, although not so much in volume.  We had been very lucky with the weather in the week or so we had been walking.  There had been some low cloud on Black Hill and it had been very windy at times but I can't recall having any rain of note the whole way.  The

Start: Horton-in-Ribblesdale Finish:  Hawes Distance: 15 miles Total Distance Walked: 103 miles After a breakfast of raspberry yoghurt we decamped and set off at 9.10.  The first few miles were easy walking on a well-surfaced, quite straight road with Pen-y-Ghent's distinct stepped profile on our right and Ingleborough's flat table-top summit to the left.  The route climbed steadily but took a course between the really high country on either side. After three miles the Way went into more open paths and we entered wilder terrain and saw a baby sparrowhawk.  We walked alongside Cam Beck and idled away some minutes watching a piece of foil drift along the Beck.  The ground became wetter underfoot on Cam Fell and at 12 we stopped at Cam End for lunch. The next notable climb was of Dodd Fell.  Although there were many of these hills on the Pennine Way I don't recall any of them being very arduous.  My father set a sensible pace and along the way told us stories of h