The Great Malham Adventure
Malham is in the southern Yorkshire Dales, and is a bit of a Mecca for walkers. Just getting there proved to be an adventure, with Tim from TomTom taking me down roads of ever-decreasing width. I’m now an adept at squeezing into tiny passing places, although the enormous cattle truck whose driver refused to back up was a bit of a problem!
I arrived at Malham at around 11am and found the spacious National Park carpark, where you can park all day for £3. There’s also a gift shop and information centre, and the most important feature – toilets! In the village are pubs, tearooms and a walking gear shop or two.
I was planning to cram 4 famous highlights of the area into my day’s walking, so I set off with a will to follow the Malham Beck along the Pennine Way.










Leaving the Pennine Way, I followed the path to the left towards a wood. This leads to the first beauty spot – Janet’s Foss. These woods have tales of fairies associated with them, and you can see why – all moss-shrouded boulders and darkling pools.
Janet’s Foss itself is a waterfall with plunge pool beneath, where farmers used to wash their sheep. There was not a lot of water as it hasn’t rained much recently, but some of the local “youth” were hopefully fishing in the pool. At least it was cool and shady!

The path after the waterfall soon leads to a road and turning right, I reached an ancient bridge with a catering van parked alongside – nice touch! Round the corner and on the route of my path there was a camping site – not so nice, as the tents got in the way of my attempts at scenic photography!

This path leads to Gordale Scar, an amazing geological feature with tumbled rocks and another waterfall, this time the Gordale Beck. Lots of people make it this far from the road to admire the waterfall, which must be wonderful when more water is around. However, the path continues up the waterfall and onwards. I must admit I quailed a bit when I saw the climb ahead, and sat down to eat my lunch and study the map for an easier way round. There wasn’t one! I watched young, fit people haul themselves up the rockface and older ones struggle to get their feet up high enough to gain the footholds. Oh dear! My short legs were not going to be an advantage here! I sidled up to the foot of the climb and tried a few possible routes up, but couldn’t stretch far enough. A woman around my age was having trouble coming down, and this made me even more determined that I wasn’t going to give up and go back. So I fiddled around for ages, trying this way and that, until at last I saw my way – a series of handholds and footholds that I could manage. Up I went, with not a thought for the fact that usually I shy away from heights and precipices. When I made it to the top of the climb (and to be honest it wasn’t far!), I felt so elated, I just wanted to shout “Yes!” at the top of my voice. Sadly there were no cheers from below.
A stiff climb followed over scree and then steps, to the top of the gorge. Then it was easy, level walking for about a mile to a road. I took a bridleway instead of following the road and made my way to Malham Tarn, where the cows were having a paddle.

After Malham Tarn I re-joined the Pennine Way to make my way to Malham Cove. The path picks its way through massive escarpments and rocky formations on the way, until suddenly the path turns right across the top of the Cove, and a magnificent view opens out in front of you.
The landscape here is sculpted into amazing shapes by the passage of an enormous glacier. It’s an example of a limestone pavement, with deep cracks or grints between the stone where rare plants find a niche.

After pausing for a while to admire the view, I took the path down to the bottom. This consists of rather crumbly steps that wind their way down the edge of the cliff. I met people coming up who had obviously come a different way, because they were wearing high-heeled sandals and carrying handbags – brave souls!

There must have been the most incredible waterfall over the cliff while it was being formed – it must have been comparable to Niagara Falls. There are plants clinging tenuously to ledges, but I don’t know whether anyone tries to scale this one – not me, certainly!
All that remained was a leisurely stroll back to Malham village, downhill all the way. I was thrilled to see a pair of peregrine falcons swooping around and hearing their strange, plaintive cry.
An icecream from the shop made a perfect end to the day. And I’m still feeling smug about my rock-climbing feat!



One thing that I have noticed about my pedometer is that it does not record steps taken when picking your way over very uneven ground, so I think my step count for the day, at 19889, was an underestimate. I noticed the same thing when walking the gorges in Crete. Still not bad though!

The Bourne Adventure
Sunday was dull but warm so I set out on an 8-mile walk starting and ending at Bourne Woods. Although it's only a few miles away, I've never been before. The walk is No.29 from Walk East Midlands from the Ramblers Association. And whoever said that Lincolnshire is flat? This walk had quite a few hilly bits!
The car park at the woods is free and there's a catering van there at the weekends, although I didn't try it. I set off in a westerly direction and walked to Scottlethorpe, a really tiny village. On the way I saw Ivy-leaved Bellflowers on one of the verges - a lovely shade of pale blue. Once again I met an electric fence across the path - why do people feel that they have the right to just stick these up wherever they like? It usually seems to be horsey types.
I continued on to Edenham, where there's a pub that does lunches. I had my picnic with me, so I carried on, looking for a shady place to sit and eat. I ended up by the side of the road in a gateway where the grass was shorter - not very nice!
It seemed a long old haul from here back to the western edge of the woods. It was a relief to get under the trees. The paths are really well maintained and there seem to be lots to explore, so I'll come back another day. There are a number of sculptures placed throughout the wood, but I only spotted three - one broken, one rather nice carved bollard-thing and a living willow maze.
The woods belong to the Forestry Commission and are also looked after by the Friends of Bourne Woods. Apparently there are some ponds which I will visit another day, with kingfishers and herons to be spotted (possibly!). There were lots of families and people with dogs out for a stroll - usually I don't see a soul when I'm out walking. I did feel quite smug to think that I'd walked 20174 steps - well over my target of 9400.

9 miles and still standing!
Sunday was a surprisingly good day for walking, despite the very high temperatures. I planned to walk from Brigstock to Stanion and back via Geddington Chase. This is a walk from Walking Close to Rockingham Forest by Clive Brown, another in the Walking Close to... series.
I parked at the Fermyn Woods Country Park, which charges £3 to park all day. I was a bit alarmed by the car I parked next to, an old VW - its fan was running full tilt although the owners were nowhere in sight, and it was throwing out intense heat. I wondered whether I would come back to a burnt out wreck!
The first part of the walk through Brigstock is uninspiring, on a housing estate. Once in the fields, the path was fairly easy to find, although one of the stiles was broken (must report that). The path runs beside Harper's Brook for a while, then strikes off across cropped fields. You can see the spire of the church at Stanion for much of the way. I had a bit of a problem just coming into Stanion - someone had put an electric fence around a paddock and cut off the path from the stile out of the field. I had to limbo through the fence - not good for my bad back!
After some more field tracks and paths, I came at last to Geddington Chase and the shade of the trees. I stopped to eat some lunch here. A noise in the trees made me look up - there were squirrels in the tree tops. It reminded me of the advert where the squirrels are after the nuts!
The tracks through the forest are on wide rides. Once I turned on the return leg to Brigstock, I found myself on a lane called Clay Dick - no idea why! Parts of this are sadly very badly damaged by motorbikes (I think!) with huge ruts and hollows, some still muddy even after weeks of no rain. I did spot a Fragrant Orchid - not sure about the identification, as I didn't smell it at the time!
I also saw a tree that looked like something out of Lord of the Rings!
I was very hot and tired when I got back to the Country Park, but thankfully the teashop was still open and I had a bottle of cold water (I'd long since finished all mine) and then a pot of tea and a scone - lovely!
That lot netted me 24450 steps. I'll bank some of that for the rest of this week - no time to get out at lunchtime as my appointments are back to back.