Ilkley to Burnsall: Day 1

We said goodbye to our hosts at the delightful Osborne House after a hearty breakfast, hoping to visit Ilkley again someday. The weather was perfect, with sunshine and comfortable temperatures in the low 60s. The trail led us out of town, and our first stop, 6 miles in, was the town of Bolton Abbey. The magnificent ruins of Bolton Priory did not disappoint, and we lingered and had lunch. The trail followed the River Wharfe, with lovely views every direction. We stopped at the Fairfield Quaker Meeting House, which was built in 1689 and no longer functions as a place of worship but just a well-maintained piece of history. We arrived in Burnsall and checked into the Red Lion (not to be confused with the US hotel chain). We were ready for a good night of rest after our 16-mile hike.


A few observations about the delightful local people:

—They’re friendly. Almost without fail, they greeted us as we met them along the path. This contrasted with our experience back home, where most people are wearing earbuds and don’t acknowledge other walkers.

—They are overly optimistic when it comes to times and distances. This extends to their signage. We’ve learned to double whatever estimates they give us.

—Their definition of “flat” does not match ours. A flat path here involves many ups and downs. Day 1 of this hike is billed as flat—but it’s not.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Preparation

Image
After our first long-distance walk in 2022 on the Hadrian's Wall Path, John and I knew we wanted to return to England for another "tromp." We reread James Herriot's books last year ( All Creatures Great and Small and others he wrote about his life as a country veterinarian in the Yorkshire Dales) and settled on walking The Dales Way. It's an eighty-plus-mile trail that begins in Ilkley and ends in the Lake District at Bowness-on-Windermere. We'll have six days of walking. This time, we're excited that our brother and sister-in-law, Chuck and Susy, will join us. We'll stay at B&Bs and inns along the way, and a sherpa service will pick up our luggage each morning and deliver it to our next stop. As with our last trip, Maximum Adventure has set up our lodging and other logistics. We have been training for this walk for quite some time, only rarely missing a day. Most days, we've walked or hiked at least 3-5 miles, alternating long flat walks with...
Read more

London to Ilkley

Image
The four of us met at our hotel in London on Saturday afternoon. Chuck and Susy’s nonstop flight on British Airways from LAX had been quite a bit more luxurious than our rather basic trip on Iceland Air, which had a short layover in Reykjavik. But we can now say we’ve been to Iceland, if you’re the kind of person who counts airports (which I am). Finding the hotel in London on foot after getting off our train was a challenge for John and me, and more so for Chuck and Susy, who arrived before we did and spent a frustrating 90+ minutes hauling their bags around the greater King’s Cross station area before finding the hotel. Google Maps does not always live up to its billing. We were all exhausted at dinner last night but happy to be here together. After a wonderful night of sleep, we boarded the first of three trains today, with the ultimate destination of Ilkley. British trains are a genuine pleasure. We saw a mix of city and countryside and navigated some tight connections on our r...
Read more

Ribblehead to Millthrop/Sedbergh: Day 4

I woke up early this morning after a fitful night of sleep where I’d found it hard to settle down after yesterday’s intense hike. I told John I wanted to take a rest day with Chuck and Susy, and he agreed it was a good idea but hoped to walk the next leg himself anyway.  Our thought was to take a train to the little town of Dent, not too far from our destination, and enjoy the town a bit before finding our way to our lodging in Sedbergh via taxi or bus. We were at the  station waiting for the train to Dent when one of the people working there pointed out that the Dent train station is four miles outside of town, with no way to get to town other than on foot. More importantly, there was no easy way to proceed on to Sedbergh, as the bus going there runs only once a week (yesterday, of course). How about a taxi? “Oh, you won’t be getting a taxi in Yorkshire,” he said. According to him, folks are very reluctant to part with their money—“A Yorkshireman is just a Scotsman deprived o...
Read more