A spectacular day, certainly one for enjoying the natural beauty of Yorkshire. So we drove wast about 60 miles to the western Dales, a designated AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty). The anagram includes "outstanding" because there aren't a lot of country vistas in Yorkshire that don't offer something to appreciate.
We targeted Ingleborough, a flat-topped fell on the western edge of the Dales and one of the renowned "three peaks." The three peaks (Ingleborough, Pen-y-ghent and Whernside) make up the vertices of a famous triangular walk, 24 miles long (not including the elevation gain) that fell walkers from all across Britain like to complete in a single day. And since walkers like to do it, fell runners also make it a destination. On Saturday, there was an annual race being held on the three peaks, with 1000 contestants. The fastest among them complete the circuit in just over three hours!
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| Descent from Ingleborough |
Though you wouldn't know it from the picture postcard blue sky in the picture, the wind, out of the east, was at gale force, gusting above 60mph. On the top, as we took in the views of the Lake District peaks to the north and the Irish sea to the west, we could hardly remain standing. And yet, there were all the runners, struggling up and then leaping from rock to rock downwards after checking in with the officials at the summit cairn. We shared their path for a couple of miles before peeling off to the south to complete, exhausted, our modest 12 mile single peak circuit.
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