River Aire

The Pennine Way runs through Malham and follows the River Aire on its east bank. This is the path that I normally choose, but the last time I was here I came across some uncomfortably curious cows and so I decided to give the path along the west bank a try this time. This turned out to be a pleasant alternative and took me past Aire Head springs which are the official rising of the mighty River Aire. There was a surprising amount of water gushing out of the ground. I wondered how long it would take the water to reach Leeds, the Vale Of York and then disappear into the sea at the River Humber.

At Hanlith, my alternative path finished and I crossed over a bridge to join up with the Pennine Way on the east bank. A few hundred yards along the path I started having a post traumatic stress episode when I spotted a bank of earth where I'd previously suffered an injury. A few years back I'd been running along here and while traversing this bank of earth I'd overstretched a calf muscle. The pain was so bad that I could hardly walk.  I somehow managed to hobble my way to the Town End Farm Shop near Airton where one of the workers in the shop kindly lent my his phone so that I could order a taxi to rescue me. Happy days.

Just a bit further along I came across a female runner jogging towards me. She'd got black knees and hands. 'I took a tumble back there' she told me 'it's a bit boggy.' I took a deep breath to tell her about my calf stretching incident, but by the time I was ready to start, she'd disappeared along the path.

Weets Top

I departed from the River Aire and the Pennine Way at Airton and walked eastwards along the road to the tiny village of Calton. From here I made a gradual ascent on to Calton Moor. As I'd hoped, the early morning mist was gradually burning off and by the time I'd climbed on to the plateau of the moor, I could see my next target, Weets Top over to the north. I have to say that Calton Moor wasn't the most interesting part of the Dales that I've visited. I could see high hills surrounding me, but these seemed quite far off. Now that I was out of the valley, the barrage of gunfire that had accompanied me all morning, now seemed a lot louder. It had been incessant over the last couple of hours with seemingly no pause for a break. I made my way across the moor deep in my own thoughts since there wasn't enough in the landscape to distract me. It seemed an eternity to reach the elevated ground of Weets Top and Hetton Common Head. On Weets Top a trig was tucked behind a stone wall. Next to the path was the rather impressive finger of rock known as the Weets Gate Boundary Stone.  This was sat on a rather inviting stone plinth and I took the opportunity to use it as a seat to have my lunch. After the monotony of Calton Moor, the view on the other side of the hill, over towards Gordale Scar and Malham Cove, looked positively exciting and it wasn't long before I made my way down to Smearbottoms Road <snigger, snigger>. A dozen teenagers had collapsed at the junction of the path with Smearbottoms <snigger, snigger> Road. Two mini-buses were parked nearby and a couple of teachers were unsuccessfully trying to cajole some enthusiasm into the group. I started descending down the road to Gordale Scar. I past a couple of laggards of the group as they plodded upwards to their comrades.  They both looked rather miserable.

Gordale Scar

There seemed to be chaos at the entrance to the path to Goredale Scar, with people milling about in all directions. A tea-cabin had parked up and there was a long queue of people impatiently waiting to be fed and watered. I joined an all-male group of scousers who were heading off towards Goredale Scar. One of them was smoking. It's amazing how fag smoke seems so pervasive nowadays; I felt I was struggling to breath. Gordale Scar really is an amazing place. Water bubbles up from the ground in springs and then flows into Gordale Beck. The cliffs overhang as you reach the waterfall at the terminus valley. It feels a bit like being in a cave with an open top. People were climbing up alongside the waterfall the last time I was here (see Malham Gordale Highs And Lows), but there was far too much water tumbling down for anybody to attempt it today. A large congregation of people stood in awe of this natural cathedral. The scouse smoker had lit up again and seemed to be gradually filling up the north chapter with smoke, and so I started heading my way back to the road. 

Malham Cove

The queue at the tea-cabin seemed even longer when I returned and I immediately diverted from the melay on to the well trodden path over to Malham Scar. The track gradually gained height and offered fine views southwards. I think this is probably the best way to approach Malham Cove since the huge limestone cliff appears all at once (well almost). It really is an amazing sight. I stood next to its vertigo inducing edge and started taking photos. I could see that there were quite a few climbers on it today. I headed off to walk around the edge. Thankfully, the limestone top was dry since it can feel like treading on wet soap when wet. Dozens of people were hopping across its crazed surface. I safely made my way across to the west side and started making my way down the stone staircase. 'ARE YOU ALRIGHT?' I looked down to a fellow about 50 metres below. He seemed to be looking at me. I looked behind me to see if the question was meant for anybody else, but there was nobody near me. I've no idea why he was asking me. Maybe I'd grunted or groaned subconsciously; not an uncommon occurrence when I'm descending steps. I gave him the thumbs up and smiled. This seemed to satisfy him and he continued on downwards. 

It was very busy on the tourist path back to Malham and so I diverted across the stone bridge to the less popular path on the east side of Malham Beck. It had been an excellent day. To be honest, any walk that includes Gordale Scar and Malham Cove will get top marks. The emergence of a beck at Airedale Head had been quite interesting too. The mist had completely cleared from the tops now. I bet it was still misty on Ovenden Moor though.