Pennine Way 2000 : Day 3 : Standedge to Hebden Bridge

Follow me - it's a Short Cut

Nice views up here.

At least we don't have to go to work as we normally would on a Monday - in fact that is one of the good things about the walk, in that what we are doing is so out of normal experience that we are already starting to forget our lives back home.  Today at least the walk seems a little easier - we had been told that after the first two days things would improve, and it does seem to be true as after a brief climb out of Standedge we walk along the high moors (P1 & P2), the way is flat, and the going is actually pleasant.

I have rearranged the itinerary so that for the first week we won't do more than 16 miles in a day, using up our spare day in the process, so we don't have to worry too much about tomorrow.  The morning passes easily enough and we have a pleasant lunch break at the White House Inn (P3).

Are we having fun yet?

Some entertainment is provided by a moronic sheep that almost walks into a car, and nearly becomes the freshest, though by no means the only dead sheep that we see.  The value of a decent meal the day before becomes clear as we keep up a decent pace throughout the afternoon, until we get to within a mile of our destination.  Then it happens, the dread words 'short cut' are spoken, and poor fools that we are, we listen. 

There will be many pub photos.

It seems so simple, looking at the map there is a path leading straight over a bridge to the town, rather than the detour to avoid it that the way takes.  So we leave the way and plunge down a slope through some woods, quickly coming to a river - which we can't cross.  After seeming hours of struggling through dense woodland and leaping over crevasses, we finally reach a bridge (P4) and stagger into the town utterly spent.  But all is not yet over - after a fine mixed grill we have to walk on to a campsite, the local one having closed.  The next one turns out to be several miles away, and it is nearly midnight before we reach it...

Such hard work getting here.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.