Captain's Log

The Cabin Boy's Knickers

It was around 6 months ago that the Cabin Boy lost her knickers near the summit of Drumaldrace. I’ll not repeat what happened to you now, although you may want to read Losing The Cabin Boy’s Knickers On Drumaldrace if you want  a step-by-step account of the whole sordid incident. Back in May, it had been a misty, drizzly day and we were within a stone’s throw of Drumaldrace's summit when our path was blocked by a sign saying that we should not go any further due to it being the ‘ ground nesting birds season.’ It was frustrating to be so close to bagging another peak on our Dales 30 Venture, but nature always comes first. We’d made a respectful retreat. 

6 months later and we were ready to go and finish the unfinished business on Drumaldrace. Our plan was to set off from Hawes and follow the Pennine Way southwards. There’d be slight detours from the national trail in order to bag Ten End and Dodd Hill Fell. Once we’d reached the Roman Cam High Road, we’d leave the Pennine Way and make our way along this ancient track to Drumaldrace. Ground nesting birds permitting, we’d traverse the summit of the hill and descend down its northern slope to Hawes. It was in fact a high-level horseshoe walk around the Sleddale valley and judging by the OS map, we would get some expansive views from the lofty, broad ridges of the hills. 

Hawes And Gayle

There was a nip in the air as we made our way down Hawe’s high street to join the Pennine Way. The national trail took us up through an area congested with stone-walled houses to the church where we then crossed a field tiled with some flag stones. This brought us into Gayle; a neighbouring village to Hawes. A little more street walking and a field hop delivered us to the outskirts of Gayle and the start of our journey proper. As we watched three donkeys munching on a bag of feed that had been strapped to a farm gate, a woman walking a dog approached us along the lane. She started chatting and told us one of her donkey anecdotes. Apparently she had been walking along this lane one misty Christmas day, when two donkeys with Santa hats appeared out of the fog, led by some children. ‘It was a surreal experience!’ she confided in us. It seemed an unlikely one to me. I asked her if she had partaken of the Christmas spirit in a rather more literal sense, before this miraculous sighting.  She seemed a little affronted, sniffed and said that she’d not had a drink at all before seeing the Santa capped donkeys. I thanked her for her story and wished her a sober Christmas. Some field hopping brought us to Gaudy Lane. I’m not sure what’s gaudy about it since it seemed quite tasteful as far as I could see. At the end of the lane, the Pennine Way sign directed us from the road on to the fell. Our climb was about to begin in earnest. 

Ten End

To be honest, the climb up to Ten End was gradual and didn't seem to take much effort. As we got higher, the views opened up. Northwards, we were blessed with a view over  the Wensleydale valley to the massive twins of Great Shunner Fell and Lovely Seat. It was a gorgeous day; the sun was out, but there was still that chill in the air that is so pleasant when walking. Ten End was a bit of a plateau and we walked past its summit before I realised and we had to backtrack quite a way to bag it. I’d looked at the OS map and wondered whether the area might be suitable for a wildcamp. Not a chance, Well, not unless you wanted to camp on top of a dingy. The area was littered with tarns and boggy ground. I was surprised to find the few rocks marking the summit hadn't sunk into the bog. We made our way back to the Pennine Way and continued on our journey southwards. There were plenty of shake holes near the Pennine Way, some of them quite deep. Eventually we came to the West Cam Road track and this gave us easier walking to our next objective which loomed ahead of us: Dodd Fell Hill, another Dales 30 peak. 

Dodd Fell Hill

Dodd Fell Hill turned out to be much more of a gigantic beast than I'd expected. It really covers quite a large area. The OS map didn’t show any tracks leading to the summit from the West Cam Road. Given how boggy we’d found it on Ten End, I decided to get as close to the summit as possible along West Cam Road, before branching off on to the fell, taking the most direct and  shortest route to the summit. In fact, we managed to pick up a very vague track going up Dodd Fell Hill’s western slope, but it eventually disappeared and we ended up making our own way up to the top. It was a heathery, boggy affair, but we got there in the end. The summit had a trig and so was easy to spot on a day like this. You’d probably need a gps on a bad weather day since it really was an expansive, featureless plateau up there. Surprisingly we did find a few vague tracks setting off from the trig in  various directions and we took one that appeared to be going back to to the West Cam Road. The vague track turned even vaguer as we progressed, but we eventually made it back to the safety of the West Cam Road. Dodd Fell Hill definitely deserved some respect. We continued southwards along the track until we got to the junction with the Cam High Road. This was our turnaround point for the day. We’d now leave the Pennine Way and head  towards Drumaldrace along this Roman Road.

Cam High Road

The Cam High Road was tarmac where we joined it. I bet the Romans wished they’d invented tarmac. ‘What did the Romans ever do for us?’ Well, the one thing they didn’t do was give us tarmac. It made for fast and easy walking as we headed for the distant Drumaldrace. Even so, it seemed an interminable plod. At first we skirted the southern end of Dodd Fell Hill and then headed along its western side. Slowly the Sleddale valley opened up to us on our left. One farmer in his 4WD and two trail bike riders were the only other users of that long stretch of tarmac. 

Eventually we reached a junction with the Hawes to Oughtershaw road and we started following this towards Hawes. It was only for about a quarter of a mile or so before the Cam High Road branched off to the right, away from the main road. Near to this spot we found a red cycle shirt for the West Sussex Wheelers  placed over the top of a wooden fence post. On it was written: ‘Michael Lawson RIP Chapeau.’ I did a bit of research to see if I could find out a bit more about the life of  Michael Lawson but I couldn’t find much other than his participation at West Suffolk Wheelers.  For those that aren’t familiar with the cycling world, ‘chapeau’ is a cycling term indicating respect for a fellow cyclist’s achievements (a bit like doffing your hat to somebody).

Drumaldrace

We were back to a rough stone track on the  Cam High Road now. A mountain biker struggled past us coming the other way. ‘It was bloody steep, that!’ he spluttered. I think he over egged it a little bit. The Cam High Road does gain a lot of height up to Drumaldrace from Bainbridge, but it is a gradual ascent and over  a long distance, so it isn’t too bad. The ‘ground nesting bird’ sign that had prohibited our last May’s summit attempt was no longer there and so we left the Cam High Road behind and headed off up to the summit. It wasn’t far away and within a few minutes we were standing next to the summit cairn. Drumaldrace has an alternative name of Wether Fell. I prefer the former; it has a bit more romance about it. Drumaldrace is thought to be a combination of drum (wooded ridge) and Aldrace, a personal name. There aren’t many woods around the top nowadays. We headed north over trackless fell and found our way on to a bridleway running alongside a stone wall. There was evidence of quarrying up here. Stone flags from here had been placed in Hawes, Hardraw, Gayle and Sedbusk. We’d probably walked across some of them already today. We followed the stone wall until we came to Flint Hill, our last high point of the day. All we had to do now was plod back downhill towards Hawes. 

Return To Hawes

There was a wonderful view to the east as we descended, over to the masses of Addlebrough, Melmerby Moor and Braithwaite Moor. The Dales don’t have the dramatic views of the Lake District, they just have grand, epic ones instead. The track dropped steeply down the northern slopes of Drumaldrace and we drifted back into field hopping again. At one point, some members of a herd of cows started taking an interest in us and made an approach. Fortunately, there was a small gill between us and they didn't fancy shuffling down its steep slope. They just ended up giving us a hard stare from the other side. 

The lady dog walker who had narrated the donkey story to us this morning was nowhere to be seen. No doubt, she was propping up a bar in a local pub, knocking back the Babychams and recounting her ‘donkey stories’ to any unfortunate tourist that was patient enough to listen. We met up with the Hawes to Oughtershaw road in Gayle. We paused on the bridge over Gayle Beck that offered a superb view of some cascades. The sun had disappeared behind clouds as we entered Hawes and it felt as nippy as when we’d set off this morning. 

It had been a tremendous day’s walking. Two Dales 30 peaks had been ticked and the Cabin Boy had for once managed to get through the day without losing her knickers.