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Day 3. Hawes to Keld. 13 October 2007

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Home Edale to
Hebden Bridge
Hebden Bridge
to Hawes
Hawes to
Greenhead
Greenhead to
Kirk Yetholm