Leg 2 of Dalesway

This leg is Grassington to Kettlewell

The night before I had planned to Park in Grassington early enough to walk the 12 or so miles and then catch the last Dales bus back late afternoon.

The weather was pretty glum when I set off but my optimistic side said the day would probably get better. Parked in Grassington and got togged up.  The weather hadn’t improved but it hadn’t deteriorated either. 

So I confidently set off up through the village and the instructions were pretty clear.  As I walked along the lane I saw a path off to my left which indicated the Dalesway but my instructions said I could carry on and meet up with the Dalesway further along. Grand – I kept going it was a good path I was following so I wasn’t worried.

However after a while I kept getting a niggle in the back of my mind that I’d gone wrong – upt to my right I had seen a path over a wall but that didn’t look right so I kept on.  Wrong – eventually the path disappeared and there was no way out of the field at the other end. Nothing for it I had to turn around and re-trace my steps.  When I came to the path I had previously ignored I decided to go along it now.  The track was climbing up onto the moor until eventually an old derelict house appeared – at this point the path disappeared again – and now the there was damp mizzle and really low mist, I couldn’t see anything in front and decided it was time to admit defeat and go back to Grassington.

The weather had taken a turn for the worse now so I went in one of the cafes for a hot drink and sustenance.  On leaving the café and going back to the car park I called in the Information centre and bought a good all weather map.  On checking it out I’d been up to Bare House.  Lesson learnt – take a map. 

I will attempt this again – better prepared from today’s experience. I did manage 8 miles wandering around in the mist.