Pennine Way Day Five - Haworth to Malham

Distance: 23.5 miles
Ascent: 975m
Weather: warm and sunny
Things on Sheep: one bucket, two birds hitching a ride
Swimming cows: 1
Sit downs: just the one very short one

Cow pat / rock dualities: one (ew)

Feet: hot and a bit dirty (ew)

Herons, bunnies, peacock, little lambs, bullfinch, field fares, dive bombing lapwings, fly-by squawking curlews, gulls, oyster catchers, little goats, herded some geese, got herded along with some sheep.

Had a comfortable night's sleep at The Old Silent Inn, untroubled by ghosts. In the morning, we noticed a certificate on the wall which said the place is officially haunted, according to that The Paranormal Association of Britain or some such.

We were later than planned setting off, due to breakfast being late. Our very convivial host was no where to be seen anyway, and we were not convinced that his being busy with the farm was entirely the reason.

Ickornshaw Moor was boggy, but really pretty. The wonders of sunshine. Although you'd expect somewhere called The Sea to be a bit wet...

Walked through Ickornshaw village, where many of the stone house seemed to have fallen down and the people taken up residence in huts. The residents also seemed to be mostly geese, chickens and goats.

The country turned from south Pennine moorland to hilly farmland of the dales. More cow fields and country lanes. We had a brief sit on a bench and had some lunch, and met a couple of Dutch walkers having a sit down right in front of a gate who are also doing the Pennine Way, although they are doing it properly and camping. Poor buggers. Just after we left them, we went through a small muddy field with some cows, the cows were a bit frisky and seemed nervous about which way to go. Some went up the hillside to go crashing through the trees at the top of the field, but one seemed a bit indecisive and hung around at the back of the group, until it panicked and rushed off through the reeds, and then had to practically swim to get out. There was a bit of mooing and much splashing, it made it out ok, thankfully.

We went a short distance along the Leeds and Liverpool canal,  stopping to pay a small fortune for ice creams and some more water.

The last part of the day,  about 7 miles after Gargrave was along a pretty riverbank. We saw lots of curlews and ducks. The landscape becomes noticeably rockier and then we were into Malham. They are having a strange safari event at the moment,  including a huge model of giraffes in horse drawn carts.

We are staying at The Buck Inn, which has good beer and fine Yorkshire puddings.