Pounding the Pennines: Training ends, the adventure awaits

Eight months after the decision to walk the Pennine Way, dad and I put our boots on for one more Pounding the Pennines practice together before the real deal in 12 days. We've stocked up on Bridgedales, plotted enough maps to wallpaper my front room and thanks to the incredible support from friends old and new - smashed our £2,000 target for Mountain Rescue! We have even featured in a couple of papers!!

The plan was to summit Pen y Ghent during a 10 mile circular which is 5k east of Horton in Ribblesdale, 2,277ft high and part of the Yorkshire 3 peak challenge. The Pennine Way links the summit to the village, so we will be revisiting this fell in a fortnight...after experiencing the scramble up to the top on the North side, I'm praying for kind weather again and NO wind!

Dad was navigating (temporarily) along the beautiful river Ribble to the North approach of the fell. The climb was sharp but not too tough, for about 4 miles. We picked up and eventually shook off a rather peculiar lady in Lycra who fancied herself for the SAS. I would reccommend anyone to walk this fell anticlockwise as the views were stunning over the Dales. We took a little 'off-piste' detour on the way back, to check out the Hull Pot which is a collapsed cave with two waterfalls, incredibly this is England's largest natural hole 91mtrs long, 30mts wide and 30mtrs deep. It literally comes out of nowhere, wouldn't like to stumble into that on a foggy day! The walk was successfully polished off with a pint in the Crown hotel, where the proprietors have plastered the walls with laminated "do's and don'ts"...see how many of those we can break when we sleep there in 2 weeks time!

Thanks for the support! Looking forward to blogging again in 12 days from Crowden!

River Ribble. Pedro navigating. View of Pen y Ghent.