This Is Drivel

flashback – The Pennine Way ’86

I took a week of leave to hike the Pennine Way while I was stationed in the United Kingdom.

the rocky, rolling hills of the Yorkshire Dales; a road bounded by a stone wall is int he foreground; many fields separated by dry stone fences stretch from the middle ground to the background; leafy trees dot the middle ground; a rocky cliff rises in the background; the air is hazy, giving the background a washed-out look
The bottom of every valley in The Dales is farm land divided up by dry stone walls.
a dry stone wall stretches across the foreground; a hill rises in the middle ground; a second dry stone wall stretches across the top of the hill in the background; the farm field between the walls is covered in short grass; the sky is overcast
To get from one field to another, you have to climb over the tall stone walls, which are often straddled by wooden styles. Or, in this case, you would climb the built-in stone stairs and step through a gap in the wall.
a stone tablet inscribed with the name HAWKSWICK; the upper right corner of the tablet is broken off; thistles and tall grass grow around the base of the tablet; a dry stone wall rises in the background
The name of a local town, Hawkswick, is carved into a stone tablet which stands by the side of a road. The dry stone wall behind it and the thistles growing around it made a tableau I couldn’t resist photographing.
a valley deep in the mountainous hills of the Yorkshire Dales; grass grows in the foreground; the sky is partly cloudy; shadows of the clouds mottle the faces of the dales
It’s truly hard to appreciate the scale of the Yorkshire Dales unless you’re taking in the scene with your own eyes. What appear to be gentle rolling hills are in fact immense mountains, their hardest edges worn smooth by eons of wind and weather.
a wall of limestone in the background; a gently-sloping valley covered in short grass in the foreground; fully-leafed trees dot the landscape
Malham Cove, a sheer wall of limestone 260 feet high. When I snapped this photo, a team of climbers in helmets and brightly-colored outfits were spider-crawling up the face of the cliff, but I can’t find them in this photo no matter how long I look at it. I can find two people walking down the path just left of the trees in the foreground, though.
a shear wall of limestone caps the top of a very steep hill; a few leafy trees dot the side of the hill; the sky is overcast
The east limb of the limestone wall of Malham Cove. I know there are people climbing that wall but I can’t find them now.
the foreground is limestone, pitted and cracked; farm fields dotted with leafy trees stretch away into the far background, many hundreds of feet below; the sky is broken clouds the color of iron
The view from the top of Malham Cove. Before I climbed to the top, I camped the night before at the farm seen in the distance.
pasture land strewn with rocks in the fore and middle ground; a single sheep browses on the grass in the middle ground; rocky outcroppings top the hills in the background; a bank of clouds looms over the hills while clear sky stretches overhead
If you look closely you will see the Pennine Way winding like a backwards S across the middle of this photo, disappearing between the hills in the background. Can you spot the sheep browsing in the pasture?
pasture land strewn with rocks in the fore and middle ground; a single sheep browses on the grass in the middle ground; rocky outcroppings top the hills in the background; a bank of clouds looms over the hills while clear sky stretches overhead
If you look closely you will see the Pennine Way winding like a backwards S across the middle of this photo, disappearing between the hills in the background. Can you spot the sheep browsing in the pasture?
a waterfall tumbles over a rocky wall into a shallow pool; to the left of the falls the rocky wall is covered in foliage
Janet’s Foss, a water fall on Gordale Beck (river) below Malham Cove. There’s no sense of scale here but as I remember it, it’s not very tall, maybe 10 – 15 feet.
a dry stone wall stretches across the foreground; a steep slope falls from left to right in the middle ground; a very steep cliff looms in the background; the sky is overcast
A narrow valley between two very steep dales.
Mallard hens beg for food at the tent of a camper in a farm yard
At the end of the day I would look for farms where tents were pitched in the farm yards, knock on the door, ask politely, and pay the small fee, usually a pound or two. If it was a popular place to camp, farm animals would often come to beg at the door of my tent.
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