Day 45: Baldersdale – Stainmore Forest – Bowes Moor – Tan Hill – Keld

14.9 miles – Milky-blue skies, lemon-blancmange sunshine, breezy, overcast later

I spent almost all the day on moorland; it’s wild and beautiful… perhaps it’s that I’ve had so much of it on my walk, perhaps it’s that I had slept badly last night – whatever the reason, it just didn’t enchant me as it should.

The morning was a long, gentle climb to Tan Hill, where you can find the highest pub in England; “The worst pub in England,” a blunt Yorkshireman I passed added. A little unfair, I think; overpriced, yes, unimaginative choice of beer, true, but it was well-kept.

The afternoon was a slow descent from Tan hill into Swaledale and the village of Keld. The further I walked, the more the initially eventless moorland opened into deep, picturesque valleys.

The very best bit was right at the end, where I pitched my tent next to a stunning waterfall alongside the tent of Matt and Mary from Brighton, who are walking from John o’ Groats to Land’s End, and whom I had met at their pitch in Baldersdale yesterday, and who had passed three times today.