A Shiver Down the Spine

The Ferrets at Gargrave, from L-R:  Garf (Precious Metal), Simon (Chimes), Steve (SteveG), Sue (Mrs Precious Metal), Kit (Mrs Clive), and Clive - with Del (Grey Wolf) taking the shot and Davey (Freebird) somewhere else - in the cafe maybe!  We didn't have Simon (Chalkie) at this stage as he had gone off back home beforehand.  We also had Stu & Lainey (Stuey) missing as they had a bit of a family accident problem to contend with.

This was one of those off the wall runs, a mad idea that takes route and finds a life of its own.  Have ya noticed how all the roads on the Pennines cross west to east, and none go north to south?  I wonder if you could go from somewhere northwards on the Pennine chain to the southern end of it, keeping as close to the highest line as possible.  Hmmm, well ..... ya can, but it don't 'arf make it a bit of a gruelling run .... nah .... an endurance event.  And so it became, and hence people were encouraged to join and leave wherever they fancied.  So, for this event we don't have a proper group photo, because we didn't have everyone together at the same time.

For Clive & Kit, Chimes, Steve and Chalkie, the day started with the meet-up at junction 10 at 08:00 for the blast up to Hawes.  This would have been pleasant, but uneventful, had it not been for an errant pheasant that decided, as these creatures do, to attempt a take-off across the path of Clive & Kit's bike.  According to Chimes, coming up behind, it looked like a clay pigeon shoot as the pheasant bounced off Clive's bike and shot a good forty feet into the air before thudding back to the road, as dead as though peppered with shot!  Had it lived, it would have been an invalid, as it left one of it's legs trapped in the fractured fairing plastic that it had just created.  Now, that ain't going to be cheap and easy to sort out!!!

The rest of the run up to Hawes was thankfully uneventful, and apart from a little bit of threatening mizzle early on, by the time we met up with Del and Davey, the sun was breaking through the clouds and the day was hotting up.  Chalkie left us to get back home for a previous commitment, and we then headed south straight up onto the 'roof of the world'. 

From Hawes we headed due south on a zigzag route taking in Wharfedale, Malham Tarn and Cove, and arriving at our last meet-up in Gargrave where Garf & Sue were already waiting.  

We had an unplanned snack/drink break here at The Dalesman Cafe & Sweet Shop - New York, Paris, Gargrave (mainly Gargrave), as the menu stated!  Steve soaked up some of the already hot morning sun .....

.... whilst Kit and Sue chatted ....

.... and Del & Simon did daft things for the camera (as usual).  Davey gave that wry smile of his, whilst Garf trucked on by.

From the stop at Gargrave the route, in order to keep as close to the centre line of the Pennine chain as possible, necessarily wove its way from one side of the hills to the other, down many minor roads and lanes, with a couple or three U-turns thrown in, sneaking its way between the major conurbations of West Yorkshire and Lancashire until we were skirting the western outskirts of Huddersfield.  Here, a short diversion was made to view the Scammonden dam, over which the M62 runs, and it was then back to the minor lanes and on to Holmfirth for the meal break, a long and tiring section completed.

After lunch, as progress was not as good as originally hoped, the lateness made it necessary for Garf & Sue and Del to cut off back home.  They had quite a way to go, and Del needed to drop something off at Stu & Lainey's on the way, so this left a smaller group to forge on over Holme Moss and down to Snake Pass.  However, before we cut east across Snake, the time meant that both Davey and Simon decided to cut off home from Glossop.  This left Clive & Kit and Steve to thoroughly enjoy the fully open Snake Pass (last Sunday it had been closed for repairs), and then the run down to a short break in Tideswell.

The last section of the route, from Tideswell south took us down to Monsal Dale, and the head that looks down into the ravine of the river Wye.  What a spectacular viewing point, and wonderfully equipped with a public house and beer gardens.  Shame we didn't have time to stop.  Once we got to the A6, at Ashford in the Water, having seen the last of the Pennine hills recede behind us, we were happy that we'd truly sent a Shiver Down the Spine, so we turned northwest and headed home.

Photographs courtesy of Clive

Page Updated

28/06/2008 23:54