Lady Anne's Way 2019 Prologue

Saturday 12^th October 2019 Skipton

Not Skipton at all, but Brougham Castle from day 6

After being lazy, sitting around the Scarborough YHA, and not doing the planned final 2 days of the Cleveland Hills LDW that I had missed out on the previous year, I returned to Embsay, near Skipton, to the “B&B” I had stayed in back in early July; the house of Grant, an elderly guy living alone who smoked constantly.  I dislike cigarette smoke at the best of times, but the fact that he was a retired fireman made this doubly troubling.  I had not been looking forward to coming back to stay here, but I had not only pre-booked it, but it was the only reasonably priced place within walking distance of Skipton – at least the room I stayed in did not reek of smoke, even if the rest of the house did. 

Grant met me at the rail station.  I dumped my pack in his car but declined his offer to drive me to Embsay for a couple of reasons; I wanted to wander the streets of Skipton and get some food, and I wanted to avoid a smoked filled car trip.

It was just after 3 p.m. and I had not eaten lunch, so I went to the local Wetherspoons where at first I had a burger with chips, and then later ordered a pizza.  After killing a few hours there, I walked over to Embsay (for the last time) chatted with Grant for a while (trying not to breathe while doing so), then collected a few DVDs I had purchased online and had mailed here as they couldn’t ship to NZ.  I also grabbed a bag of things I had left here that I hadn’t needed.  I repacked my 2 packs ready for the larger one to be collected tomorrow, and the day-pack with the things I needed for the walk.

Day 1