Distance walked: 19.6km, Actual Time Taken: 5h 40m, Estimated Time Taken: 5h 30m
Ascent: 835m, Descent: 738m, # Times Lost: 0
Booze: 1 glass Sangiovese
Today the chatty taxi driver drove me back to Stainforth to head back out on the trail. Today's hike included climbing up the second highest peak in the Dales - Ingleborough which is 724m above sea level. The keen eyed will see that the highest point I actually reached today was only 700m above sea level. I got to the last little bit and it was a scramble up wet, slippery rocks and it was very windy up that high. Below is a picture of what the last 20m or so was like (I pinched this off the interwebs). I started going up and then thought "this isn't fun and going down is going to be even less fun and this is supposed to be a holiday i.e. fun" so I turned around and went back down. I doubt the view would have been materially different from those extra 24m up.
I'd climbed up from the south side but to continue my walk I descended towards the north. The guide book mentioned this was "hair-raising at first". I disagree. I think it was hair-raising the entire time! I climbed down around 300m over a distance of a little over 1km. It was steep!
I got to my destination, the Old Hill Inn, in Chapel-le-Dale at around 3:30pm. Unforunately, my chatty taxi driver couldn't come to pick me up until 4:15pm. His taxi (a people mover) seems to double as a mini school bus. Even more sadly, the pub was shut. They've given all their staff 2 weeks holiday! Fortunately, it wasn't raining. I have tomorrow to look forward to that.
Dinner tonight was at La Tavernetta in Ingleton (where I'm staying for tonight). The chatty taxi driver recommended it to me. Strictly speaking it just rates as Harmless but it was comforting, decent quality bistro Italian. I started with bruschetta with proscuitto and basil and then had the lasagna with a side salad with roasted vegetables. The lasagna was decent but the salad desperately needed some vinegar or lemon juice. For dessert I had tiramisu. The consistency and the ratio of marscapone to biscuit was right but there was no trace of booze.
The most entertaining part of the night was a man at a table next to me. He was a dentist and he talked endlessly to anyone who would listen or even who didn't want to listen. The poor waitress, who looked all of 18, had braces and he quizzed her about her dentist, her teeth problems, her braces and her treatments. He chatted to me, he chatted to people at the table on his other side. His poor dining companion kept ordering beer after beer. At one point the companion said to the waitress "you understand why I need another beer don't you?".
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