How often is it when everything that you want from a walk is encompassed in the walk that you do? It’s rare…at least for me it is. Say for example Pendle Hill, I like a stiff climb every so often but I also like to be able to fly along a stretch of relatively flat land – you don’t get much of that in the Pendle region. Example number two Rivington Pike: I like a good view of the scenery that I am actually in, for the most part of the Rivington walks that I have done – the great scenery that you get – is of everywhere else!
Yesterday we went to Ingleton in order to do the “Waterfalls” walk. At first I objected to us paying £10.00 in order to park and walk but now, having done the walk – it’s almost worth double the price. For the amount of safety railings (and you DO NEED these or else for all off the edge of some of the paths!) and steps that have had to be built, the grounds staff and the fact that you are pretty certain to get parked, it’s really worth it!
The “Waterfalls” walk has everything, short but (in some cases) wickedly steep stretches where nutters like me can bomb up them and then spend the next few minutes hyperventilating, good long flat stretches, fantastic views not only of the immediate environment – waterfalls aplenty, but also of neighbouring Ingleborough – it isn’t on most walker’s top five list for nothing; it’s a stunning giant of an hill (actually as it’s over 2000′ it is a mountain!). The “Waterfalls” walk also has spots where one can take in refreshments – which is not only a sound revenue generating idea; it’s an important thing to do (we seldom take in enough liquids in our daily lives let alone whilst out on a walk).
There’s a real sense of this being a ‘family’ walk, there is no part of it that a reasonably unfit person can’t get ’round! Of course some of the uphill parts although not long, arduous stretches, would prove potentially lethal to anyone suffering from an heart condition or in recovery after heart surgery; but for the rest of us there was nothing that would have one thinking to one’s self ‘I’m never coming here again!”. The temperature yesterday was a factor in that it was like summer! I mean by this like the summers that we used to have where one could see the sun in person – not a photograph to which we longingly refer!
All in all it was a great day out – we took rather a long time to do what is essentially an undulating 4.5 miles walk but it was fantastic to have Chris back in the swing of her photography, this walk was not short of opportunities for her to hone in her skill again after what has been a long bleak spell.