Day 4 of my Journey up North and the weather was pretty shabby.
It is time I mentioned that my achilles finally gave up the ghost about April this year and I had to stop all running, any long walks and I'd rather lost a lot of my fitness. I also decided it best not to mention to my physio that I had plans for a rather active excursion! These plans had not included Pendle Hill but it was there at my feet, well I was at its foot, so it would have been rude not to go.
Pendle is a hill but it's about as high as a hill gets before it becomes a mountain, being just shy of 2000ft.
Given my injury and my propensity for falling on these kind of walks, having gone down hard on both Snowdon and Ben-Nevis, I wondered how sensible it was my going up alone. But there one or two walkers around so I set off
I was rather banking on a cup of tea before I got going but the couldron said no.
Historically, the Pendle witch trials are important and interesting. The trials were well documented, the accused were not allowed to defend themselves, although some pleaded guilty and admitted they were witches, 10 were hanged.
I decided to go up the challenging steps and come down the less challenging sloped path. I usually am good at up, it's down that is my slippery down fall - literally.
I have a feeling this cairn, part way up, is something to do with the scouts.
Despite the mizzle, the views weren't bad.
I made it to the top
stood for a ponder
And then down.
I was rather pleased with myself, then I looked at the wall than runs bottom to top and had a bit of a think about the person that built that. Imagine going to work at the top and realising you'd left your flask at the bottom, my mind wandered...I needed a cup of tea.
And part way to Ilkey I found it.