13/04/16 - Day 3 Yorkshire Dales Inn Way - Askrigg to Reeth

Previous days on the Inn Way - Day 1, Day 2
Distance - 13.5 Miles
Geocaches - 3
Pubs - 4

"I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day - Frank Sinatra"

Getting Going

We awake at the White Rose Hotel to a room of steam.  The heating system has completed a super job of drying out our clothes.  Which is excellent news, as we have to put them back on and go out in the rain again.

Breakfast of the week is consumed.  Think yesterday's - but with additional fried bread.  Our research shows that Askrigg was the place where "All Creatures Great and Small" was filmed, with the Kings Head the setting for the fictional local.  We pop down to have a look in the daylight before heading off.

All Churches Great and Small - Askrigg Church

The Walk


Every journey has its nadir and today's walk could be ours.  It's raining.  Again.  And we have a 1 in 4 gradient climb on the road to Muker to get out of Askrigg and up onto the high ground of Askrigg Common.

That extra fried bread is really helping things.

The Road to Somewhere - Swaledale

We leave the road at Oxnop Scar and unlike yesterday, at least we have views.  And a couple of geocaches.

A cross country descent provides some entertainment - the entertainment being can we stay on our feet?

Descent into Swaledale

We get to the Ivelet Bridge to find the road closed to traffic by engineers laying fibre optic broadband cable.  We shouldn't have problems uploading photos tonight.

Ivelet Bridge - A Rainbow in Stone

We've hit Swaledale - with the River Swale the fastest flowing river in England.  It's a nice walk along the valley floor, with Neil pointing out various animals - jet black rabbits (not seen before), lambs with umbilical cords still attached and in an ultimate sight of cuteness - a brand new lamb that has just been born - guarded by its mother next to a drystone wall.

All this puts a smile on our faces along with the fact we are at Gunnerside at 12:15pm for the first pub of the day - the King's Head.

Swaledale

King's Head - Gunnerside

Askrigg Gold - Liquid Lunch today

Half way down our pint and we are joined by a couple of gentlemen ramblers.  They are completing the Coast to Coast path.  With a Rhodesian Ridgeback called Chester in tow.  Good rambling chat prevails until we leave at the same time.

We thought we were in for an easy afternoon following the River Swale all the way to Reeth.  This is where Chester is going.  However, we have read the map incorrectly and rather than stick on the valley floor we are back up the hills on the other side to have a look at the lead mines.

Climbing up to the lead mines

The elevated position does provide us with a comedy view of our rambling mates trying to lift Chester over the stiles.  In horse racing parlance, he refused.

I'm not going to lie to you blogfans, the afternoon walking is not great.  The lead mines are not quite featureless - we can see Reeth in the distance.  It just doesn't seem to be getting any closer.  Probably because three days with the 10 TC strapped to my back have made my trusty Meindls feel like a pair of deep sea diving boots.

Neil tries to repair my mood by reading off the menu from tonight.  He is one of those organised people that look at it in advance and decide what they want before they get there.  I must admit, a night off the pies sounds good and they have one ethnic dish - Moroccan Lamb with couscous.

With dreams of a non-potato based tea, we plod on, until we lose the height and aim towards the recently repaired suspension bridge.

At Last - Dropping down from the Lead Mines to Reeth

Built in 2002 to replace the former - smashed to bits by a tree in the floods of 2000

A final geocache as we enter the village and a discussion on which street is best to find our hotel - the Buck.

The Buck Hotel

The Buck has everything required to restore our moods - from a boot tray in the room for our soggy footwear, to a man installing a router outside our room so we can get better WiFi, to five different real ales on.

We decide to hit the bar immediately.

A New Discovery - Copper Dragon Best

I honestly thought I would never turn down Timothy Taylor Landlord over anything but I have to say on balance, the Copper Dragon pips it here.  A wonderful pint in a week of wonderful pints.

We are joined by Chester's owners - Chester has gone to bed tired.  Or he is still trying to get through the stiles.  We are also joined by a rambling couple who have a wicked sense of humour.  Much hilarity ensues as we determine that the lady rambler has been calling Youth Hostels - YeeHars - having seen the initial YHA emblazoned on the side of the buildings.

After Neil has got half way through the real ales (no loyalty, that boy), we shower (separately, it's not quite been a week) and come down refreshed, in good spirits and ready for the subtle spices of our African cuisine.

Our waitress arrives and you know what is coming.

They're out of the Moroccan Lamb.

This is what happens when you look at menus in the morning.  A re-adjustment is required but at least we order mashed, rather than chipped potatos.

Food consumed, we head off to check out the other two pubs - side by side against a lovely square in a vista that hasn't changed for the best part of 300 years.

Kings Arms and Black Bull Behind

Front Door of the King's Arms

Both on the Inn Way, so worthy of investigation.  We stay in the two until 10:45pm, with the King's Arms our preferred.  They were playing 50s rock and roll, which Neil was singing along too with some considerable gusto - until I brought the mood down by explaining that the lyrics to "Tell Laura I love Her" are about a man dying in a car crash.

We leave in darkness and entertain each other - Neil crashes into one of the benches outside the Kings Arms and wakes up with our first UDI (Unidentified Drinking Injury).  We arrive at the Buck and despite the relatively early time - it's completely and utterly in darkness.  Neil finds my attempt at getting the correct key in the outside door utterly hilarious.

In and up to our room.  Its been a long day and I nod off instantly to the frustrated sounds of Neil trying to log onto the new router's WiFi - which contains a complex password where the E's are replaced with 3's.

I am awoken 15 minutes later next to an empty bed, Neil giggling on the landing and a grumpy Landlord booming "My wife said there was a man in his pants trying to logon to the WiFi" in broad Yorkshire tones.