I’m still paying catch up with my blog posts, not helped by a few finishes along the way!

Two or three weeks ago I went with my friends to walk part of the Ribble Way, 73 miles from Preston in Lancashire along the route of the River Ribble to it’s source above Horton in Ribblesdale. Kathy is walking all of it over the summer, with various friends keeping her company along the way. We decided to do the Settle to Horton-in-Ribblesdale bit. It was sold to me as a nice gentle riverside walk of about 7.5 miles…hmm

It started off a lovely sunny day, we stopped in Settle for some supplies from The Naked Man Cafe, the couple next to me were laughing as I bought a sausage roll, a ham salad sandwich, a curd tart and a sticky bun, they seemed to think that was quite a lot! We went over the road to get some fruit off the market afterwards! We started our walk with one of our traditions, a sausage roll break, sitting on a bench by the river.

We walked along the riverside to start with, looking at the weir next to the old mill. You can just see Ingleborough, one of the Yorkshire Three Peaks, in the distance.

We enjoyed a bit of Yorkshire humour, there was no shadow so the sun had clearly gone in by then!

It was very pleasant walking along the fields near the river, it was very tempting to sit for a while by the old packhorse bridge at Stainforth. The limestone pavement you can see in the foregound is typical of the area.

We passed through the pretty villages of Langcliffe and Stainforth before we found the path going up a great big hill…so much for a riverside walk!

The plus of walking up is always the view, and with a steep hill we take lots of opportunities to admire the view! Looking back down the valley towards Settle we could just make out Pendle Hill (in Lancashire) in the distance.

I love seeing the field patterns with the old dry stone wall, the fields were still looking pretty green then.

Once we were over the very big hill (which had lots of false summits!) we came back down to the River Ribble, looking very calm and peaceful.

I was very pleased to see the old bridge at Horton and not surprised to see our fitbits reckoned we walked nearly 9 miles, not the 7.5 the guide book suggested! It’s all good practise for St Cuthberts Way in September!

I may have mumbled and grumbled a bit, but it was a lovely walk with great company!