15.5 miles – floury-blue sky, molten steel sunshine, oozing, viscous heat (27 Centigrade)
It was already soldering hot before 9:00. I melted along, the clammy, humid day clinging to my clothes.
The cafe at Gargrave was shut and it was too early for the pubs; the pub at East Marton had closed down three years ago (although irritatingly still marked on the maps) and the cafe nearby was shut. Thornton-in-Craven offers the traveller no refreshment of any kind. the next two miles, without the help of tea or beer exhaust the hiker on a hot day, and all for the pleasure of a couple of miles of yet more eventless, flattish moorland.
WHY?
I had briefly been on a pretty canal after East Marton; that’s the terrain needed on what may prove the hottest day of the year…
…So you can imagine what hopes the pub at Lothersadale held for me, and after such disappointment they were fulfilled: fabulously kept beer and an invitation to camp in the pub garden.
One of the hardest days of the walk with one of the best endings!
