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Day 3. Hawes to Keld. 13 October 2007 |
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If you've arranged to meet at 10.30 on a Saturday morning in Keld don't just
GoogleMap 'Keld', then print off the map off and set off. There are two Kelds, and I
picked the wrong one. I realised my mistake in time and arrived at 10.20. 11 o'clock came
and went, and I started to wonder if I was in the right Keld on the wrong Saturday, but
Andy arrived soon after and we set off for Hawes in his Landrover. We had planned to get
some sandwiches in Hawes to take with us, but as it was nearly midday we had fish and chips
instead, and then set off towards Hardraw and then Great Shunner Fell.
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Although the weather was overcast we had good views back to Hawes and the hills to the
south for the first few miles. But the top of the fell was in cloud and there was little
to see for several miles until we began to descend again towards Thwaite. I must say,
by about the five mile mark I think we were both beginning to wonder if we'd bitten off
more than we could chew. We told ourselves, as we always do, that next time we'll do a
bit a gentle training in preparation.
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We reached Thwaite, and a welcome pot of tea at around 4.30, and half an hour
later were heading up Kisdon Hill. The path soon levelled out as the route turned north
to follow the contour of the hill. The views back to Thwaite and over the Swale Valley
were magnificent in the fading light, but I was starting to think we hadn't left ourselves
enough time. Andy had more pressing worries. He suddenly sat down on the verge by the side
of the path and said something like, 'this is going to be a problem'. I thought that
the pain he'd been getting in his leg since about the five mile point had got worse, but
a moment later he was on his feet again and heading back towards Thwaite surprisingly
briskly.
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Years ago Andy had suffered from vertigo, and we'd always planned our walks to aviod
really steep drops, but this didn't seem to have been a problem more recently. Of course
the problem hadn't really gone away, it was just something that he'd learned to keep in check
with a bit of stiff-upper-lippedness. But as the path got narrower and the drop down to
the river below got steeper it became clear that the vertigo was going to win this time.
I thought that we should stop and consider our options before heading back. After all the
car was in Keld, so what would we do when we got back to Thwaite? But by this stage Andy
was clearly a man on the edge, and wasn't going to think about anything else until he was
safely back well away from the edge again. So for half a mile I stuggled to keep up
as we retraced our steps to relatively flat ground.
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At this point we decided that Andy would go back to Thwaite and I would carry
on to car park in Keld. But even as we set of in our different directions the light was
fading alarmingly, and twenty minutes later it had become difficult to pick out the route
of the path. I could see the signposts, but it was only by tracing out the lettering on
them with my finger that I could work out which way to go. It was about 7.00 p.m when I finally
left the Pennine Way and walked the short distance back into Keld to pick up the car.
As I drove to Thwaite I wondered if Andy had managed to get back safely too, so it was a huge
relief to pick out his smiling face in the headlights as I came round the corner into the village.
Back to Hawes and a very lively Saturday night, sharing the pubs with hundreds of rugby fans
watching Jonny Wilkinson beat the French in the World cup semi-final.
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