The Dales Way. Terry Marsh
Чтение книги онлайн.
Читать онлайн книгу The Dales Way - Terry Marsh страница 6
Название: The Dales Way
Автор: Terry Marsh
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Книги о Путешествиях
isbn: 9781783626083
isbn:
Walking times
How long it might take to walk 10 miles with a pack varies from individual to individual. Naismith’s Rule (1 hour per 3 miles, plus 1 hour for each 2000 feet of ascent) is purely a guide and needs adjustment to suit each walker’s personal abilities; not everyone can maintain Naismith’s targets over an extended day.
For this reason, the walking times given are already an adjustment of Naismith’s Rule based on my own experience; they are intended just to give an idea of how long you may need to be walking. Of course, the times given make no allowance for any kind of stopping – photographic, refreshment or otherwise.
Rivers
Beside the Wharfe, near Cavendish Pavilion (Stage 1)
Occasionally reference is made to the true right or true left bank of a stream or river; ‘right’ or ‘left’ refers to the direction of flow. So, if you are walking up the left-hand side of a river, with the river flowing towards you, then you are walking on the true right bank. Turn to face the way the river is flowing, and you’ll get the drift.
Maps
This guide comes complete with its own 1:25,000 map booklet, and contains a separate 1:100,000 overview map, which is ideal for tracing the route.
Should you want to explore more widely, perhaps while taking a day off, OS covers the route with three Landranger maps: numbers 97 (Kendal and Morecambe); 98 (Wensleydale and Upper Wharfedale); and 104 (Leeds, Bradford and Harrogate). These are to a scale of 1:50,000.
To complete the Dales Way with OS Explorer maps, you will need numbers 297 (Lower Wharfedale and Washburn Valley); OL2 (Yorkshire Dales: Southern and Western areas); OL30 (Yorkshire Dales: Northern and Central areas); OL19 (Howgill Fells and Upper Eden Valley); and OL7 (The English Lakes (South-Eastern area)).
Weather
Britain is meteorologically sandwiched between moist maritime air and dry continental air, a combination that creates large temperature variations and atmospheric instability. As a result, many (and sometimes all) weather variations can be experienced in just one day. That said, there are often prolonged periods of stable weather that make recreational walking an utter joy, and, being farther inland away from coastal influences, much of the Dales Way has an easier time of it. However, the proximity of high ground does tend to create local micro-climates at times.
Weather forecasting has much improved in recent years, with the best forecasts on a day-to-day basis being provided by regional television channels. The Met Office has a downloadable weather app (www.metoffice.gov.uk), which is available from iPhone’s App Store (https://itunes.apple.com), and Android’s Google Play Store (https://play.google.com/store/apps). There are many very good non-Met Office apps also available for iPhones and Android devices.
Waymarking and paths
Dales Way signpost
The Dales Way is well signposted and waymarked throughout its length, even in some of the more isolated spots. The entire route follows established public footpaths, bridleways or local roads.
Health, safety and emergencies
Fit, healthy and experienced walkers accustomed to long days on the Dales and Lakeland fells will encounter no difficulty in tackling the Dales Way. For anyone else, it would be foolish even to think about setting off without having previously done a deal of rough walking ideally with a pack heavier than might be required for day use, even if you intend to use one of the pack-carrying services. Getting yourself into condition is neither an arduous nor an unpleasant process, and every walk done in preparation will make the experience and enjoyment of the Way all the better.
Conditioning does not only extend only to your physical condition. It is vitally important, for example, to avoid wearing boots that are not ‘broken in’ or clothing that has not had the chance to lose its newness. Comfort on a long walk can be critically important; discomfort can be painful if allowed to go on too long. If you feel blisters coming on, or your boots start rubbing around the ankles, make sure you attend to the problem sooner rather than later.
The police, fire service, ambulance or mountain rescue can be reached in an emergency by dialling 999 or 112. There are few mountain rescue teams operating in the regions covered by the Dales Way; the appropriate one can be contacted on the above emergency numbers.
Phones and Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi internet access is increasingly available in cafés, pubs and hotels throughout Britain, but it is by no means universally available, and may not always be available in B&Bs.
Mobile phone signals are restricted in coverage and often erratic – especially away from main urban centres, where you may not be able to get a signal at all. You can check your own service provider’s coverage on their website, but the reality is that you will not have a signal or connection along many of the open and remote stretches of the Way. Remarkably, signals from some distant transmitter can be picked up in the most unexpected locations.
ALL ABOUT THE REGION
Geography
The River Wharfe at High Mill (Stage 1)
The geographic profile of the Dales Way is quite simple. It connects two significant valleys – Wharfedale and Dentdale – before wriggling through southern Lakeland to the shores of Windermere.
The Way sets off through the upper valley of the River Wharfe, soon leaving behind the urban setting of Ilkley, and not reaching a town of any note until Grassington, and even that is essentially a large village rather than a town. The section from Addingham to the source confluence at Beckermonds is known as Upper Wharfedale and is characterised by small, isolated settlements, of some antiquity. Beyond Buckden, the ongoing valley is known as Langstrothdale through which the Wharfe continues to its end at the confluence of Oughtershaw Beck and Green Field Beck, at which point purists will argue that the source of the Wharfe is not this confluence, but the highest point of either of those becks…and they are welcome to try to find it!
Beyond Beckermonds and the hamlet of Oughtershaw, little remains apart from scattered farms as the route climbs to meet the Pennine Way and a Roman road high on Cam Fell. A brief hiatus ensues as the Way crosses into the head of Dentdale, and a far more wooded landscape largely following not the River Dent, as might be expected, but the River Dee.
Dent, Sedbergh and Staveley are the principal settlements, and re-introduce a measure of urbanity but in a rather superficial way, as if they accept their role as the lifeblood of the surrounding farmlands.
Once Lakeland is reached, the Way does endeavour to find a route that makes the most of the undulating landscapes, avoiding settlements before skittering downhill to burst rather unexpectedly into Bowness-on-Windermere.
Geology
Limestone СКАЧАТЬ