Pounding the Pennines: Day 4 Hebden Bridge to Ponden : Wuthering Sights

Hebden Bridge to Ponden 10 miles in 4.5 hours

I think it would be fair to say we hit the 'hikers wall' last night climbing up to Badgers Farm after a really long day walking. I don't know what happened over night but the gods were kind and gifted me a functioning knee today which I am most grateful for! We had our brekkie with Pounding recruit Ray, at Miriam's farm. Although the eggs were splendid I am concerned that dad and I are going to start clucking and sprouting feathers at this rate. Now Miriam has a lovely farm house and we had a smashing night sleep (which I think helped with recovery) but our host was only a wee lady so the exposed beams in the eaves 4.5ft high posed her no problem. Thank goodness they were padded as we constantly walked into them, instead we learned to walk around bent over double, at all times.

We started off at 9am, pleased in the knowledge that we had a comparatively shorter day than the previous three. We started off early as to avoid the worst of the weather during the ascent up to the moors. Now there is no denying that there has been a lot of rain and a lot of rain makes a lot of mud. We plodded our way through farm land to the bottom of Clough Head Hill, we then started the ascent to Bronte country starting at Heptonstall Moor. The wind was up and the rain started to come in so we joined the thousands of Pennine Way walkers before us and took refuge in what is said to be Emily Bronte's house. Bit of a 'doer upper' as it was lacking in a roof, but offered sufficient wind break to enjoy Miriam's cheese and pickle butties.

Coming off the top of Widdop, we were back to bog hopping, slab stomping and the perfected 'tap and trod' technique. The terrain improved somewhat as we descended to Walshaw Dean Lower Resevoir. Now I don't know whether it was my competitive streak or complete lack of coordination..but for whatever reason, Dad had two tumbles in the bank and I wanted to catch him up. So coming down from Wurthering Heights, one minute I was up and the next I was star-fished out on the ground. Absolutely no idea what happened, as I didn't even have time to out my hands out..which of course means landing on my face. I rolled over and with one hand checked my face for blood and the second checked my waterproofs for holes...cleared on both fronts! I escaped totally injury free thanks to my cap and durable outers!

Ponden House and all it's quirky delights were just around the corner, this was such a lovely day in terms of distance and time. We had a cup of tea and retired to our treasure trove off bedroom!! Looking forward to seeing the Hattons shortly for tea!

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Hebble Hole