Dales Way 2018

To be honest, I was lucky to be back in the UK at all during 2018.  I had suffered a herniated disc in my back in May when I moved to my new house.  Moving my stuff took two (smallish) truck trips; the first trip was done by my nephew and I, but the second I did alone, so all that lifting had done me in.  I had then returned to Canada to work for a year a few weeks prior to the U.K. holiday but my back was still not getting any better despite physio visits and daily exercises/stretches.  So, I made the call to cancel my U.K. trip and proceeded to do that.  Within days my back came right and there I was facing another month of the oppressive heat of the Toronto summer which, to be honest, I couldn’t take.  So, having taken a loss on cancelling my flight, then paying more for another last-minute one, I made new plans, albeit somewhat different to what I had intended.  The original itinerary was supposed to be Dales Way, Wainwright’s Coast to Coast, reverse walk the Cleveland Way (but carrying everything I needed as I couldn’t find baggage transfers in a reverse direction), Wild Edric’s Way.  I thought that the Coast to Coast was too strenuous for my current physical situation, so the new plan was Dales Way, Cleveland Way, Shropshire Hills.

Click on any of the sections below that you are interested in, or alternately start with the prologue and just work your way through.

Prologue Burnsall: Arrival in the U.K. and then on a day-course on map reading and compass use

Day 1 Burnsall: Finally starting the Dales Way from Ilkley back to Burnsall

Day 2 Burnsall to Kettlewell: A short hop over the hill

Day 3 Kettlewell to Outershaw: Along a lovely section of river (pity about the motorists)

Day 4 Outershaw to Dent: Where I cross the Pennine Way

Day 5 Dent to Kendal: During which I get totally lost, I mean “misplaced”

Day 6 Kendal to Bowness-on-Windermere: A short stretch ending in a tourist infested town