Day Six: Sedbergh to Ribblehead

Distance: 16 miles
Weather: warm and sunny
Critters seen (aside from the usual): bunny, vole, stoat, alpaca, squeaky dog, loads of fish (at least fifteen), oystercatchers, dippers, a kestrel and a buzzard (again being harrassed by crows.)

We had a good night's sleep at the Bull Hotel, had a nice breakfast and then were pretty impressed when they knocked £8 odd off the bill because Rob's steak dinner hadn't been cooked as requested last night.

We left Sedbergh down the road, over a bridge and then turned off up a path at Millthrop and then there was some up, through fields, as we headed over towards Dentdale and the River Dee.

We followed the river all way along the valley to Dent, acquiring a splinter on the way, and stopped for yummy cream teas at the Stone Close Tearooms in Dent. Here the splinter was removed, which was good, although gouging out out did hurt and it's on the knuckle next to the one I mangled earlier in the year which is still a bit bruised. Anyway, enough of me moaning.

From Dent we followed the banks of the River Dee again and the Deepdale Beck for a while. These rivers are quite interesting, as they change from wide slow moving, fairly deep rivers to gurgling streams over rocks, to empty rocky riverbeds with no visible water at all and back to wide slow river again in the space of a mile, all because of (apparently) the limestone riverbed. There were quite a lot of birds about, mostly chaffinches and crows, but also some river birds - and Rob claims he saw a goldfinch too.

A brief refreshment stop was made at the Sportsman in Cow Dub, where I saw a vole - and Rob saw an authentic vole hole. From here we followed the road by the Denthead viaduct and up on to the tops. The moorland path was dry and rocky and hot as the breeze had dropped by then. There was a skylark soundtrack and some bunnies out enjoying the afternoon sun. After a few miles and a bit of good map reading, the path meets the busy road to Ribblehead viaduct and the Station Inn, our stop for the night, which might have been worse but the verge was nice and grassy and we even saw a stoat.

The room at the Bridge Inn is pretty small, but we've had baths, massive dinners and are now enjoying a glass of wine and a sit down.