Up On The Roof

LETJOG – Day 30: Wednesday 16 June – STARBOTTON to KELD (24 miles)

Today has been a proper walk, an epic nine-hour high-level hike, with three significant climbs totalling well over 1,000 metres of ascent, that will last a long time indeed in the memory. Not for these statistics, but for the views, sights and sounds, and, above all, for the ambience of the Yorkshire Dales and the moorlands that divide them. Cutting across the grain of this landscape, forever up hill and down dale, the weather was kind to me, providing a cool wind and high clouds to mask the most strident effects of the sun whilst preserving visibility. I varied the walk from my first-planned route to take in as much as possible of the high ground, with my reward a kaleidoscope of far-reaching and memorable scenes. Best described through pictures, no apologies today for the abundance of photos.

Of all the many fine regions of England through which I have passed so far on my LETJOG walk, I have to single out the Yorkshire Dales of Wharfe, Wensley and Swale as my favourite, though of course with a nod to North Cornwall. My one regret perhaps is that I powered through the region far too quickly, and I vow to return, once again, before too long, for some more amazing days of walking these Dales.