Distance: 12.5 miles
Weather, sunny intervals, warm breeze
I posted my postcards and bought lunch and supplies from the Spar which was an excellent store with a great selection of bread, pastries, pies and savouries of which I bought a goodly amount. It looked like it was going to be a balmy summer's day. It was a mile to Hardraw across fields with stone causeway paths crossing the River Ure (which was low). Hardraw was a pretty Yorkshire village with stone cottages, flower filled gardens, a bridge over the river and an old church. I spotted a dipper as I paused on the bridge. I wasn't sure if I was going to visit the waterfall behind the Green Dragon pub and my mind was made up when I arrived at the ticket office to find it closed and not opened until 10:00am.
As I walked through the village, swifts were swooping and diving low just above me as they fed their young in their nests under the eaves of the old school building. It was a magic moment as I usually only see them way up in the sky and today they were almost within touching distance and in large numbers.
I left the village via a stony walled path and so began my ascent of Great Shunner Fell. It was a long steady climb with superb views in all directions. Gert and Sonia, the Belgians, were behind me and then overtook me as I stopped for a break. Another couple motored on by fully laden with heavy backpacks. I eventually reached the summit and the views were amazing. In fact, I could just make out the Lakeland Fells in the far distance to the west. The Belgians and the other couple, who were German, all arrived with me and we celebrated reaching the summit with a selfie. We all knew how lucky we were to have good weather and to be able to see the view on top of this fell which is usually wet and misty. The young German couple had recently emigrated and were living in Preston. They wanted to explore England and they thought walking the Pennine Way was the way to do it. We all parted at the summit and made our individual journeys down the fell to Thwaite.
After a long, steep descent I reached Thwaite and headed straight for the tea room where I found my European friends all enjoying scones and tea. I soon joined them.
Now it was just 3 three miles to Keld and I thought it would be easy. First I took a wrong turn out of the village and found myself on the path to Muker so I retraced my steps and found the correct path. The paths out of the village were beautiful as they passed through meadows full of wild flowers and butterflies. The correct path went steeply uphill (Kidson Hill) with lots of rabbit warrens and dead rabbits. The path was narrow and rocky and it was very hot as the afternoon wore on. At a farm, I turned up a walled farm track to be confronted by 4 cows. I was hot and weary so I just said, "excuse me ladies" and walked between their swishing tails and followed the track without a backward glance.
The next stage to Keld took me a long time. I stopped a lot to sit in the shade, have a drink, a snack and admire the views of Swaledale which were amazing. I could see Crackpot Hall which was the old Lead Mining complex which I remember from the C2C walk. The path was difficult - rocky, steep, narrow with tree branches and bracken in the way. I eventually arrived in Keld and found Keld Lodge which was my accommodation for the night. I was soon showered and changed and enjoying a ginger beer (with lots of ice) in the lounge.
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