I set off from Haworth alone by bus to rejoin the PW at Ponden. My walking companion Ian of previous days had long since made an early start after being dropped off back off on the PW by his father, and skipping a section he’d done often before. We agreed to meet up that evening.
Once again it rained nearly all day, as I walked across mostly moorland and sheep grazing land. As the guidebook says of this section, ‘…a grey day may lie ahead over moors and mires …but by evening there will be green fields … (and in the next section) … the best of the PW will brighten any gloom…’
A text message from Ian indicated he was so far ahead of me I was unlikely to catch up with him at this rate.
I reflected on my daily rate of progress. I had only been covering the 12 to 16 miles (20 to 25 kilometers) recommended by the Official PW guidebook. My walking pace was faster than others, especially uphill, in spite of my heavier back pack which included camping and cooking gear and food. Most of the other PW hikers I was to meet were either having their gear transported for them or they only stayed in pubs and B&B or hostels and had no need for camping gear or food. Mine comprise well over half my pack weight.
I was however surprised to find how much my blisters and sore tendons slowed me down later in the day. I came to realise that it was a combination of the pack weight on my feet and their saturated condition: I’d had to cut holes in the side of my new boots to ease the tendon pain. Water poured into my boots at every puddle and left my socks un-cushioned, and the skin on my feet wet and soft – perfect blister conditions.
I decided to walk beyond the pretty hamlet of Thorton-in-Craven, the recommended end of a relatively short section and pressed on to the larger town up ahead of Gargrave.
Though the scenery became more like the Yorkshire Dales and finally I came to a lovely canal and nearby pub where, in spite of my muddy state had to stop for a water, a coke and a cider in quick succession. I shuffled off along the canal to Gargrave with my tendons screaming and a worrying soreness in my groin, signs of infection from by blistered feet.
