Sunday 20th October 2019.
This weeks walk involved catching the 9.45am train from Skipton in North Yorkshire to Dent in Cumbria, then walking over Great Knoutberry Hill to Ribblehead station.
The train journey is on the well known Settle to Carlisle line, which is a 73 mile long railway line in the North of England. The route crosses remote scenic areas of the Yorkshire Dales and the North Pennines.
What a great way to get into the Dales without the HASSLE of today`s needing-to-go-faster motorists. You can enjoy the spectacular view of the Three Peaks, Penyghent, Ingleborough and Whernside and a ride across the Ribblehead Viaduct. The next stop is where we got off at Dent Station, stress free and ready for our walk.
Time of arrival at the station was 10.30am. When we do our walks off the train Daniel has to approximately time the walk for us to hopefully to be at certain places on the route, and the time allowed for each stop and rest periods, for us to catch the train back at Ribblehead station at 4.30pm. The route Daniel plotted was an 8 mile walk. The weather forecast for the day was wet in the east and dry in the west and we seemed to be on the edge of the cloud and could see areas of the landscape having showers.
We start the walk walking up Coal Road to meet the path that takes you around Great Knoutberry Hill. As our route was to the summit of this hill we left the path and followed a very faint path to the top, and the summit cairn was found very quickly. The wind on the hill was very breezy and the temperature cooling our lunch was eaten sat against a wall out of the wind with the view of the Three Peaks.
After the summit the walk followed due south all the way to Ribblehead, traversing over the lovely limestone hill of Wold Fell which was the nicest part of the walk - imagine walking on dry green tracks after all the rain we've had!
We descended to Newby Head Road for a little rest before a short section on the Dalesway and some very wet and muddy fields to join the B6255, the excellent road between Ingleton and Hawes. Plenty of Sunday traffic, but not as much as we have seen in previous weeks with the weather being less good. Another mile on saw us reach Ribblehead Station with 10 minutes until the train appeared - perfect timing!
