Hike Journal # 1: Janet’s Foss, Gordale Scar and Malham Cove

in #travel6 years ago (edited)

I did end up on a 10k hike yesterday but I was too tired to write about it, so this series of hikes will be interspersed with my Running Journal series and this is the first 'official' one!

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I have now been out of work for 3 weeks and really don’t want to go back. Of course I’ll have to sooner or later or the funds will expire but for now I am enjoying taking some time off, to spend time with @bingbabe and get fit running and now hiking.

I would like to introduce an app I have been using for the hike’s called iFootpath. It works on the Android devices despite having an Apple like name, and is not a free app at £2.

https://www.ifootpath.com/

What it does is let you download maps that use satellite GPS and overhead views so you don’t get lost. I’m finding this very useful to find interesting places I would have otherwise missed.

So today’s event was a 5 mile hike to Malham Cove in West Yorkshire. The map and information can be found here

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We arrived around 11am as it is an hour’s drive to the start of this walk. All the good ones seem to be in Yorkshire.

The weather was a little overcast, @bingbabe commented on it being a little chilly but I thought it perfect. There were some tourists around but not an abundance of them.

We were to do an anti-clockwise route that had three distinct points of interest. These are the title of this article.

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A walk past what seemed like a genuine smithy complete with clanking hammers on an anvil and then across a stony bridge was how we started.

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We walked though farmland on well trodden paths that form part of the Pennine Way. England does take care of its walkers and trails.

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There seemed to be abandoned old buildings and machinery scattered about quite frequently. How long is it since someone used this rusting apparatus?

The farmland gave way to woodland, and started and uphill climb. As soon as we entered this wooded area, the smell of garlic was everywhere, pleasant and fragrant.

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A stream churned on our right as we made our way up to the first place of interest, ‘Janet’s Foss’. This looks like a medium sized pond with a waterfall.

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Janet's Foss is a small waterfall in the vicinity of the village of Malham, North Yorkshire, England. It carries Gordale Beck over a limestone outcrop topped by tufa into a deep pool below. The pool was traditionally used for sheep dipping, an event which took on a carnival air and drew the village inhabitants for the social occasion.[1]
The name Janet (sometimes Jennet) is believed to refer to a fairy queen held to inhabit a cave at the rear of the fall.[1] Foss is a Nordic word for waterfall, still used in Scandinavia, and is presented in a number of cases in England as 'force'.[2]

Unfortunately it was full of tourists taking a dip, actually teenagers. No sign of any folk people or fairy’s whatsoever today. If I would have brought my dog today, he would have loved a dip in here.

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Leaving the woodland area, we came to a road, and then a trail to ‘Gordale Scar’. We didn’t know what to expect at this point as it just looked like the trail would end in a sheer cliff face.

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Gordale Scar is a limestone ravine 1 mile (1.6 km) northeast of Malham, North Yorkshire, England.[1] It contains two waterfalls and has overhanging limestone cliffs over 100 metres high. The gorge could have been formed by water from melting glaciers or a cavern collapse. The stream flowing through the scar is Gordale Beck, which on leaving the gorge flows over Janet's Foss before joining Malham Beck two miles downstream to form the River Aire.[2] A right of way leads up the gorge, but requires climbing approximately 10 feet of tufa at the lower waterfall.

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When we arrived, it was a sheer cliff face and there were some climbers trying to ascend the vertical face.

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I really don’t know how they get those safety jacks into the rock so high up. One minute this climber was close to the top, the next she had straddled down, the rope taking her full weight, no fear of falling then.

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@bingbabe started asking me to let her have a go at this. As if fell climbing isn’t enough, now she wants to start scaling mountains!

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Source

I suggested she started with something easy like this one; she seemed to think it might be a little tough to start. Perhaps after a few days training?

We had to double back from ‘Gordale Scar’ to the road and ascend a steep farmers field and navigate quite a lot of hard uphill climbing for the next mile or two.

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Malham Cove was the last thing to see, and it did not disappoint.

Malham Cove is a limestone formation 0.6 miles (1 km) north of the village of Malham, North Yorkshire, England. The large, curved feature was formed by a waterfall carrying meltwater from glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age more than 12,000 years ago. Today it is a well-known beauty spot within the Yorkshire Dales National Park. A large limestone pavement is above the cove.

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The view looking down on to this plateau of uneven rocks is quite spectacular. If under better light conditions I would have got some outstanding shots, but this was midday.

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The limestone ‘stones’ or rocks are quite uneven and you have to watch your footing. A slip between the cracks would be unpleasant as the crevasses are quite deep and some nettle ridden.

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The edge of the plateau gives way to a sheer drop and there is nothing to stop you falling over to an early death.

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Being prone to vertigo this is the closest I got to the edge. The people on the right of the picture (below) are pretty much on the edge.

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The whole area is quite large and very high up. The views over the surrounding areas are vast and extensive. You can see the path heading down and the trail that heads back to the village of Malham.

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We headed down this steep rocky path and found others coming up puffing and panting. I’m glad we did it the other way around. Some people descending were having problems too. The stones are very smooth and a slip while not fatal could be quite nasty.

At the foot of the cove, you can go to the sheer cliff face and look up. Its quite daunting but doesn’t really show up well on photographs.

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From here it was maybe another mile back to the village. It was busier when we returned and the roadsides where filled with cars. Arriving soon was a good idea.

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Considering we visited on Thursday late morning I can see that it would get very busy at weekend. Overall a good half a day out, now I need to find the next one.

All photographs are my own under otherwise indicated.


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You are in the old country...beautiful place. Both you and your significant other are physically fit. Like Trianthalon or something.
Be safe. I would get lost.

I think I'm more significantly 'FAT', but you almost got it right. TBH, I'm not that big.. just bigger than I ever have and it bothers me. My other half is the fit one, half-marathons, and a 12 hour hike for her tomorrow. I'm skipping that one.

Kinda jealous! That's a walk I've got my eye on - I really want to scramble up Gordale Scar (the waterfall, not the sheer cliff face!). Fantastic photos, and that photo of Malham Cove does look incredible!

Scrambling... is that climbing? I'm not up on the terms.

Scrambling is when you have to use your hands as well as feet to climb, but without a rope. And it's usually on rocks. It's fantastic fun. It can be dangerous, but everyone has their own limits of how much risk they're prepared to take, and there are certain scrambles that I would refuse to do - without a rope anyway. Gordale Scar (scrambling up the waterfall, not the cliffs!) looks like the type of thing I'd enjoy.

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I love national trust sites, you can't beat them! You have some beautiful pictures there, it is a shame you have vertigo issues, I love to peer over the edge of places like that and take pictures from the edge, you can get some awesome angles! :D Saying that, I will probably drop to my death trying to capture 'that image' one day haha Walking during the week is so much nicer as there aren't as many people and you can almost imagine being the only people on the planet! (Another of my favourite past times lol) Lovely post! :D

Thank you :), I'm doing all this to lose the pounds! but there are other advantages too... nice views..., country walks etc..., are you one to peer over the edge then?

Absolutely! Is there any other way to live life?! ;)

Nerves of steel.. I was like this but something happened when I grew up.. as I kid I was climbing huge trees... no fear at all.

Wow, some detailed report of your trip.. nice surounding and great pictures. I went to shopshire once (shewsbury)... seen some grass but nothing like this 😂

Its a bit of a journey to get to these places, but they are cool once you do. Will be doing more of them until I get some work then tedium will be back.

Does the app also include how much metres you are going up or down? That is something that I always really appreciate, knowing if you also have to go 1000m up or not :D

What a fantastic hike, loving the little creek and damn I didnt know England had such divers landscapes! Maybe I should put it on the to-do list in my mind, because this scenery really is the bomb!

I'm not sure about the exact elevations, but it does tell you if the walk is difficult in the form of boots. More boots is harder I think.

That is something at least. Yeah some official hikes have a category of how difficult that they are. Those standard are also different in every country.

I did a 'medium' hike in Italy a couple years back..after going steep up for hundreds of meters it ended up with traversing on ropes and so...not my idea of a medium hike :D

Nice shots! This looks like it would have been a really fun hike. My wife and I took a couple of walks this weekend, but we mostly got rained out, it was kind of a bummer. Looks like you had a great time though!

What a great adventure! I just left a comment on someone's post about the textures of food. Seems like you enjoyed many different textures of the great outdoors.

The photos were amazing. Thanks for sharing!

I'm taking it while I can, will be back to boring work soon.

Wonderful hike and beautiful pictures. Great to see its been picked up by @curie. How long did the hike take you? Do you take a picnic or do you stop somewhere? Looks like you are having a fabulous break from work, why not when the weather is so beautiful 😍

We had a cuppa and a sandwich when we finished, but no stops during the hike. I did record it with SportsTracker but didn't include this in the article.

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My calves are hurting a bit today after yet another run.

Blimey ... look at that altitude 😳 You made good time for the distance. Maybe build in a rest day here and there? I understand that is better for building performance than running/hiking everyday (for us poor mortals, anyway).

It is very high, coming down from the cove the decent is very steep. I do plan to do zero exercise now until Monday!

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