Pen-y-Ghent and Plover Hill....

Waking up at 2am with Suilvan shaking in the wind and hailstones bouncing off the roof I was glad that the forecasters had assured us that tomorrow (23rd December) was going to be a good day.....

The original plan was Scotland - before encountering a forecast in which our best mode of transport would be an Arc, not to mention the exhaustion of my first term at a new school - loving it but tiring - and Claire having lots to do in her job as well..

So, plan B was mooted - head up to the Dales in Suilvan, check out his new leisure battery and the new upholstery and go for a walk - this also paid due respect to our (lack of) fitness levels....the above tiredness not helped by nearly a month of persistent rain in Oldham.

So, up we tootled on Tues afternoon, in the rain as per usual and some parts of the roads to Burnely were liking driving on water. Yet, we pulled up in Clapham to inspect the pub - it looked more than a little posh for our standards and so we tootled to Horton, intending to have a meal at the Crown and go from there.....excellent, apart from the minor detail that both the pubs in Horton were closed..The Crown was supposed to open at 6, so we had a cup of tea and some cake and waited -and it didn't....so we decamped to the Station Inn at Ribblehead - this has another advantage, a walled car-park that encourages camper-vans to stay - as long as you pop in for a pint which given the real-ale on tap is not a huge problem really...(and yes were were in the car-park when the wind was making Suilvan shake).

Only two more vans were in the car-park as we pulled up and went in for some food and beer -very nice it was too with a seat near the fire and some very nice food - Steak Pie for me and bangers and mash for Claire....and then to sleep..

Actually sleep was pretty good - so good in fact we woke up around 8am isn - oops - given it's the 23rd of December and daylight was rather short...

Pen-y-Ghent from the approach path.

 Given our slovenly start, and relaxed attitude as we had breakfast in the van and a second cup of tea - it was decided that Pen-y-Ghent would be a good choice; with the idea being to extend the walk in one of three ways, either by continuing over Plover Hill, or by exploring the three peaks descents and following the Pennine Way back to Horton. This should get some miles in with the ability to return when needed should we not feel up to doing as much walking as we'd like. Our last ascent of Pen-y-Ghent had featured so many people it was like Christmas shopping in the middle of Manchester, today, luckily was much quieter and more to our liking. Arriving at the point where the 3 peaks path joins the PW and begins the climb through the escarpment the wind was noticeably strong, not Scottish strong but still a noticeable factor - it was apparently gusting to 87mph on Cairngorm...It made the going a little harder but we still reached the summit and took stock behind the wind-shelter, with only 1 other couple for company - again a noticeable difference to last time when half the known universe was there.

We had a sandwich and consulted as to what to do next. Given the lovely day that we were experiencing, Claire opted to stay high and go along to Plover Hill - easily the correct decision. There is a wall between the two peaks - annoyingly the path was on the Horton side and therefore we got no shelter from the wind. I'd only done Plover Hill once before, around 25 years ago and coming from Pen-y-Ghent and back in snow, and so was unsure of what the path was like. It turned out to be boggy although not as bad as one might expect given the non-stop rain that this part of England has had for 6 weeks. There is a slight dip between the two peaks (more than between Helvellyn and Lower Man for example) and then a gradual re-ascent towards Plover Hill. Very helpfully, 4 walls converge at a spot near the summit and this helps navigation no end. We eschewed going to the actual summit (I had a vague memory of a small cairn but...)and elected to descend towards Foxup Moor, where we'd intersect the old drove road between Horton and Foxup which is now a bridleway - and probably a mud bath as well.

The only bit of the descent which looked at all arkward had a lovely constructed path down through the outcrops - a lovely bonus which helped a lot. The soaking wet grass was less good - this would be a superb fell-running round by the way - and I decided (not entirely voluntarily) to slide some of the way down the hill.

On the path under Plover Hill and Pen-y-Ghent

Upon meeting the Foxup path we got a very pleasant surprise, a dry and well constructed path which contours round under Plover Hill and then heads towards Pen-y-Ghent. The sunlight was crisp and clear and, although we were walking into quite a strong wind, the temperature was still ridiculously high for two days before Christmas.

The views out to Ingleborough were also excellent as can also be seen.

The path did deteriorate into something more like I expected it to as it went on, before improving again on the approach to Hull Pot and the junction with the 3 peaks path. All that remained at that point was the final descent into Horton that is the usual descent off Pen-y-Ghent, and a cup of tea at the van.

Looking across the moors to Ingleborough