Day 14 - Dent

Distance Walked: 16km, Actual Time Taken: 4h 45m, Estimated Time Taken: 4h 45m
Ascent: 533m, Descent: 596, # Times Lost: 0
Beer: 1 pint Wainwright Golden Ale

Well today the weather was absolutely horrible.  When I got up it was solid grey cloud from one horizon to the other, with no view to speak of, and rain predicted from 11am onwards.  On the plus side, it meant there was no temptation whatsoever to climb Whernside which is one of the famous Three Peaks here in the Dales.  While the ascent and descent didn't look as bad as the descent from Ingleborough yesterday, with this weather it would be cold, wet and windy with no view to make it worthwhile.  Below is a picture of Whernside from the turnoff on the path.  Trust me, behind all the cloud there is a peak about 500m up.

I said they were predicting rain from 11am.  They were almost perfectly right.  I reached the 6km mark and started the ascent for the day at 11:14am, just as the rain was starting.  It didn't let up for the rest of the day.   Up on the moor, the wind was so strong the rain felt like hail, it was hitting me so hard.  At times, I was glad of the hiking poles as it meant I wasn't blown over.  At least, I had the rain mostly on my back or coming from the side.  I did encounter one miserable couple going the other way - into the wind poor souls!

I was covered head to toe in GoreTex but it can only do so much and by the time I reached Dent I was soaked to the skin and everything in my pack was wet.  My left knee had also gone on strike about 4km from the end and was refusing to bend.  I arrived at my destination for the night, the George & Dragon, very bedraggled and sorry for myself.   Sadly I got there at 2:30pm but my suitcase didn't make it until 4pm.  

When I said everything in my pack was wet that includes my wallet, both phones (local & home), my kindle and my GPS.  The phones and kindle were ok, but I don't think my wallet will ever be the same. Scarily, my GPS refused to turn on.  I couldn't believe the one thing designed for hiking use would die when all my other electronics kept working.  Fortunately, it was just that the batteries had died about 2km from the end of my trek.

I had dinner at the George & Dragon.  For starter I had wild mushrooms with goat's cheese on brioche.  The mushrooms weren't wild.  They weren't even flightly.  The were just staid mushrooms from the supermarket but otherwise it was Harmless.  For main I had a lamb hot pot and was entertained by a man at the neighbouring table complaining about how he hates Christmas and how it is the worst day of the year.  You get up when it's still dark, you spend hours cooking, you then eat food you don't particularly like, then spend more hours washing up, finally you can go out but it is dark again and everything is shut anyway.  I was tempted to lean over and tell him to come to Australia for Christmas.  Everything is still shut but at least it is (usually) warm and sunny on Christmas Day.  For dessert I had a caramel apple pie.  They didn't do the caramel right.  They need to take it just to the edge of getting burnt so it has a bit of bite to it, otherwise it is just sickly sweet.  Only the Inn on the Lake in Glenridding has done caramel right.

And so to bed but not to sleep.  A group of people were having drinks and chatting loudly.  They didn't pack it in until 3am!