Saturday 18th July 2015
Yorkshire Dales
Tomorrow we are doing the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge. This is a 24 mile walk including the three highest hills in Yorkshire - Pen y Ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough, which works out at about 5,200 feet of ascent. Other than getting up them all in the first place, the challenge is to complete it in less than 12 hours. We think this is achievable but it is going to be hard work.
We are doing the challenge in memory of Claire's cousin Kate, who lost her battle with Lupus in January of this year at only 32 years of age. Lupus is a rare illness of the immune system that is both chronic and at the moment incurable. Although treatments have improved in recent years it can obviously still be fatal.
We are fundraising for Lupus UK, so if you haven't been pestered for sponsorship yet then you should prepare yourself. Or make it easy for yourself and go to
https://www.justgiving.com/thetallbirds and make a donation now to avoid any pestering in future.
We are staying overnight in the camper van in a layby a couple of miles away from tomorrow's start point in Horton in Ribblesdale. The spot is nothing special, apart from its proximity to our start point and the pair of Barn Owls that are swooping around the van in search of prey. Hopefully they won't keep us awake by screeching all night!
We got here at about 7.30pm and have had dinner and made our packed lunch for tomorrow, and are just finishing off a bottle of wine. The wine is purely to help us sleep better in preparation for tomorrow.
We are planning on getting up at 5am - I am not looking forward to getting Claire out of bed at that unearthly hour, but I will be reminding her that it was her idea if I have any trouble. Then a quick breakfast of croissants, hard boiled eggs, and coffee and on our way for 6am. The idea is to be home for a Dominos pizza feast by 8pm if possible.
We are trying to travel fairly light tomorrow, but it still feels like we've got quite a lot of stuff to carry. Now I've written it down it looks like even more.
This is what I'm taking with me:
Lightweight waterproof jacket and trousers
3 long sleeved upper body layers (of varying magical technical properties)
Peaked cap
Buff (a.k.a. hair control device/ear or neck warmer)
Down gilet
Fleece gloves
Spare socks
Head torch (hopefully this won't be needed!)
1 litre of water
2 cheese rolls
1 bag of mini cheddars
2 mini pork pies
1 scotch egg
1 scone (buttered and jammed)
2 mini peperamis
2 caramel digestive bars
2 cereal/granola bar things (emergency rations)
Money (for emergency food or taxis)
Shared items:
Water filter (so we can top up our water supplies from rivers and streams without dying)
First aid kit
Emergency survival shelter
Map, compass, knife
Mobile phone (with GPS mapping software)
Camera
Hydration salt tablets to mix with our river water
A selection of painkillers
Donation tin to rattle at fellow walkers
I had not intended to take the down gilet, gloves or quite so many upper body layers, but was shamed into it by Claire after some horror stories about people dying of hypothermia in July (or something like that). I will be using a 25 litre rucksack, which I don't think will be full, even with all that food in, so we are travelling a lot lighter than we are used to.
The weather forecast is not great, and we are expecting to have to start out in the rain. Hopefully it will clear up as the day goes on. We have given quite a lot of thought to footwear. The terrain is not particularly difficult (we hope), so we would prefer to wear shoes rather than boots, although boots are better at keeping your feet dry (even more so for me, as my shoes are not fully waterproof). We have both with us so will decide (quickly) in the morning. Claire will be taping her heels to try and prevent blisters, although I am risking it without, as my feet are usually pretty blister resistant. Hopefully I won't regret this decision.
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