It's this way...

That's the first 3 miles of A Dales High Way waymarked - only another 87 to go!

That's not quite as daunting as it sounds. We're not planning to pepper the route with little blue and yellow arrows, far from it. In fact there are whole tracts of the walk where there won't be any markers at all. Across the Howgills for example, there's a six-mile ridge walk which relies entirely on the walker's navigation skills without even a drystone wall to follow. 



A Dales High Way crosses the Howgill Fells



And that's what we hope people will like about the route. A Dales High Way is not a wilderness walk but it does take walkers high into the fells from the market towns and villages where they've spent the night - hopefully enjoying some northern hospitality. Fells that none of us want to see covered in hardware whether it's waymarks or wind farms.

The route is not an easy one, there are steep climbs every day and if you take in the summit of Whernside the total ascent equals climbing Mont Blanc. As well as not wanting to add to plethora of waymarks in the Dales already we're worried that too much signage can send out the message that this is a stroll. I once walked a well known National Trail that was waymarked at every bend and turn. By day four my guide book was still in pristine condition in my backpack and my navigation reduced to symbol-spotting. Disaster struck! A multitude of paths and no signpost. Which one to choose? Just four days and all my hillcraft had left me, so soon and yet so deskilled. Don't tell the Duke of Edinburgh anyone!

No, all we want to do is to put up enough waymarks to occasionally reassure walkers that they're on the right track. Oh, and to make the embarrassing slightly-hungover-after-a-night-on-the-Black-Sheep search for the way out of the village in the morning, a thing of the past

Happy Birthday Dales High Way

Tony and I left home in September 2007 to walk A Dales High Way for the very first time. We'd walked it all before of course - every single step had been gone over a hundred times. Paths had been selected, rejected, altered and rejigged but we'd finally got there. We took a week to walk the 90 miles from Saltaire to Appleby in lovely autumn sunshine and we returned in the wink of an eye on the Settle - Carlisle railway. That was 4 years ago. This year we decided to do it again but this time in reverse - from Appleby to Saltaire. We did it in three sections and we finished it last week - again in glorious sunshine. You can read my account of the trip at http://daleshighway.blogspot.com/2011/10/settle-to-saltaire.html

Me and Jess on A Dales High Way last week

The end is nigh

David King, Dave Shaw and Roger Clarke arrive home

Last week I joined these three lovely chaps for the last few miles of a 210 mile walk. Two of them, Roger and Dave had walked from New Lanark in Scotland to Saltaire in West Yorks on a route of their own devising. David, the 3^rd musketeer, provided sterling service as a baggage carrier, accommodation seeker, occasional walker and general cheerer-upper when the going got tough.

All three are keen historians and wanted to celebrate the two World Heritage sites of New Lanark and our own Saltaire by attempting, in their own words,

“A 200+ mile walk/run/stroll/limp through beautiful countryside, reflecting on the lives and achievements of Robert Owen and Titus Salt. Was it worth it? Yes! Do it again? Yes! An increased appetite for walking? Yes! Nice meeting other travellers along the way? Yes!”

Roger happy to be back in Yorkshire

Also coming to the end of his own personal journey is Mike Brockhurst, the Walking Englishman, who has just 100 of his 1,000+ miles to go and is expecting to reach the Lizard on Aug 9^th. Remarkable.

Mike Brockhurst - the Walking Englishman

All these walkers worked out their own routes, picking bits of established paths and veering off as the mood took them, altering the way to suit the weather, the terrain and anything they fancied seeing along the way.

And that’s how it should be. One of the joys of walking, especially multi-day walking, is the freedom to go where we want, when we want and not be judged.
 
So, in answer to the person who asked why we called our route “A” Dales High Way not “The” Dales High Way. It’s because the route in the book is only one way to go –  alter it, add bits, take a detour - but above all, make it your own.
 

My best buddy

It's 2 years since I first wrote this and 9 since we went to the RSPCA and came away with a little scruff-ball we called Jess. She wasn’t our first choice. Oh no, we’d got our eyes firmly set on another – a sweet little puppy with take-me-home eyes – but when I knelt down to say hello, Jess jumped onto my knee and she’s never got off.

Jess 10 weeks old

She was the oddest looking pup – huge head, short legs, bent nose and when she walks her back legs wander along a good six inches to the right of her front ones. She looks like a bendy bus or Slinky from Toy Story. She’s also the happiest little dog I’ve ever known. Every day’s an adventure, everybody she meets is her friend. She's walked all of A Dales High Way, the Dales Way, the Cleveland Way and many many more. She's shared tents, slept in the van, kipped under the bed when B&B's would let her and in sheds when they wouldn't - in short she's been everywhere that we have. Until this week.

This week, for the first time, I went walking and left her at home. It was a very sunny day, we were going high onto the fells with no access to water, she's getting on a bit now and she's a hairy dog who hates the heat - need I go on?

I know it was the right decision but boy did it hurt.