18/5/12 - Back to Life

Distance - 5.5 Miles
Walk from - Jarrold, Yorkshire Dales
Geocaches - 3
Onward Journey - 160 Miles returning home
Listening to....
.... Another excellent Radio 6 Mark Radcliffe
.... Sonia Snoring

Last Night
After a week of being alone, Sonia turns up on the train to keep me company and stop me going stir crazy.  So we did whatever any self respecting partners who had been apart for 6 nights.... cards, pool and a selection of melodies on the juke box.  Ate at the Listers Arms, fixed their broadband to the broad joy of our new antipodean chum and went back to Buck Inn to watch frenchies flicking boogers at each other.

The Walk

Malham Cove

A gem.  Originally, I was planning on going up Ingleborough, but with such beauty on our doorstep, it would be rude not to leave from our pub with the taste of yet another FEB on our lips.

Head down a short section of the Pennine Way, following streams until we meet geological high point 1 - Janet's Fosse.  A nice waterfall.

Smell the wild garlic

Janet's Fosse

This quickly leads to a wild campsite on the way to geological wonder number 2 - Goredale Scar - and the first cache of the day.  My guide book described the climb up the waterfall as an easy scramble that looks harder than it really is.  Sonia took one look at it from the bottom and said "there's no way we are doing that without ropes".  I wanted a better look.  It was quite intimidating and no way easy, however, I felt that if we could get up the first bit, the remainder would be fine.  So I go up first.  It was tough.  I can then hear sonia calling that "I'm too short".  She then promptly legs it, giving me the joy of coming back down the way I came.

Stuff your scrambling

Leaving me cragfast, and the fastest she's moved today

Quick replan of the route means we can have a much more sedate clamber up to Geological high point three - malham cove.  This is walking of the highest order and everything you imagine a ramble in Yorkshire to be about.  Simply superb.

Malham Cove comes complete with a geology outing and a teacher who seems to only be able to repeat the phrase "Boys, boys, boys" as he losing control of his charges.  We take in two more caches that require a slight detour and then head for the photo opps from the top.

We learned this used to be under the sea

Then a stiff walk down, admiring the tenacity of the OAPs who are coming up the other way, for more photos at the bottom.

Ground Level

Quick walk through the cows to get back to Malham.  Having done the two pubs, its time to hit the tea shop.

The Journey
Through Pendle before picking up the M6 and familiar roads.  And that's it, my week's adventure is over.  Drove 1050 miles, ate 7 cooked breakfasts, found plenty of caches, had some company and saw some of the best sights the country has to offer.

I'm off to plan the next one.