Meeting up at Settle railway station

Walk Leader:         Doreen Viney

Number on walk:  13

Distance:               18 miles

Weather:               Dense hill fog, rain, gale force winds

It would be nice to say that all the people who turned up at Settle for this walk enjoyed crisp autumn weather with fantastic views of the glorious countryside between Settle and Malham but unfortunately this was not the case as for 90% of the walk we were in really thick hill fog and saw nothing!

However, we soon warmed up as we set off on the steep climb out of Settle up Mitchell Lane but when we reached the top of this we were in hill fog all the way round Sugar Loaf Hill and then all the way to the Malham road where for a short time we could actually see something. Leaving Malham we made our way to Janet's Foss which was a real sight to see (in fact, the only sight to see!) and we were lucky to see a young man go down on one knee and propose to his girlfriend in front of the waterfall, a proposal she accepted with an audience of walkers applauding them. Soon after we had our lunch stop and for a short time it looked as though the weather was going to play the game with us for the afternoon.

This was not to be though and it got worse and worse as we made our way across Prior Rakes to the Water sinks area near Malham Tarn. Given the amount of water already there and more coming down it would take a long time before it sank through the ground. The walk back to Settle was really hard work - gale force head winds, rain and dense fog meant the only thing we saw was our feet on the ground until we reached the road near Langcliffe where we turned left and, for the final 1.75 miles, we could actually see something.

Although there was a lot of good banter and laughter on the walk, I was glad to finish and, I suspect, so was everyone else - it had been a real grueller of a day!

Doreen

To see the photos of the walk please press Here ( the camera was put away shortly after lunch as it was too bad to take any more pics)