h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The original plan for the day before the Manchester Meet was to tour the Peak District with HappyDude, who lives there and who is another like-a-sibling to me (besides the whole birthday-twin thing (see Day 11)). About the time I was researching what exactly I wanted Happy to drive me to (and which train station to arrive at), he checked my itinerary and realized that I'd been talking about Friday, not Thursday, and so he was very sorry but he was unavailable and thus the very rare Happy-at-a-meet happened Though, as I pointed out, at least the realization came in plenty of time to change plans (and it didn't change either travel-to-accomodation or number-of-days-needed on the BritRail pass, because when I started planning the Peak District, I had already been planning to arrive in Manchester Thursday night and explore somewhere nearby on Friday while Alabaster was at her day job and Pastey was at Beer Nouveau.)

Fortunately, finding a new idea for a day trip outside of Manchester was quite simple. I'd brought up that I really like waterfalls, as an aid to those planning a driving route with me, a couple of weeks before Happy realized the calendar confusion. HonestIago told me about the Ingleton Waterfalls Trail, and I was disappointed to learn that the trail was the complete opposite direction from Manchester as compared to the Peak District. Once the Peak District was no longer going to happen (yes, I could've explored it on my own, especially as Happy had offered to give me tips for exploring via train, but the whole point of the trip was to meet and spend time with h2g2ers), I contacted HI to see if he was available on that day, and he was. So I started looking into trains and such, and learned that to take a train all the way to Ingleton isn't the simplest, but returning to Manchester would be even worse--if I recall, 4-6 hours traveling (round trip) and less than an hour in Ingleton. Yeah, no. Then HI pointed out that, while he was a new driver, he'd have a few more months of practice by the time I got there, and he could just pick me up in Leeds. So that's what we did. Having an hour long train trip on a route that has trains every 15 minutes opened the day up quite a bit, so we added White Scar Cave and Malham Cove to the itinerary, with the last being optional.

Pastey took me to the station, and off I went, texting HI to let him know when I'd be arriving (since the trains are so regular between Manchester Piccadilly and Leeds, we'd agreed on a range of times). By this time, we'd seen enough pictures of each other on FB that finding each other was simple. We got in HI's car, and away we went.

Now, HI regularly goes hillwalking, and has completed the Three Peaks Challenge. I'm fairly sedentary. I'd been joking with HI that *he'd* be feeling like he was just walking around the block, while I'd be stubbornly not complaining, as it was my idea... Turns out that HI is good about waiting up for someone that walks more slowly *and* has shorter legs. Though his distance estimating skills could use work

The waterfalls were definitely worth the 4.5 mile hike. They were even worth all the stairs--including the step that was half the height of my shin! Luckily, that was an upward step--going down that far into mud could've been fraught... I was very glad of the little snack hut about halfway along. I think that was the best apple juice I had ever had Walking the second half of the loop, before it descended back to the water and more falls, we could see our post-lunch destination, White Scar Cave. I believe I got a photo of it... *looks* Yes, I did.

After the Falls trail deposited us into Ingleton, we decided that the car was perfectly safe where it was, and we'd eat lunch before going back to it. HI had heard of a pub that did wonderful food (which turned out to be the other end of the village, or so it seemed), so off we went. When we finally got there, we learned it only had a 6 o'clock license, which meant no food until then, either, so we turned around and backtracked to a place we'd passed fairly soon after finishing the trail. At one point, HI offered to stop and rest a bit, but I had to inform him that I was running purely on momentum at that point, and wasn't sure I'd be able to get my legs moving again if I didn't sit for awhile first. So we went on. Lunch was had, legs were rested, and all was set for returning to the car and touring a cave.

It was good that we'd decided to do the trail before the cave--it had rained heavily, and the water in the cave hadn't gone down enough to open the cave until an hour or less before we arrived, so we wouldn't've been able to go in anyway. As we were waiting for the tour to start, we got raincoats on (HI's being a proper coat, mine being one of the several disposable ponchos I had in my pocket), and staff handed out helmets. The helmets were completely necessary--I heard the sound of helmet hitting rock a good dozen times from my head alone, and not all of them were because the helmet made my head's strike zone bigger. There were some beautiful formations in the cave, it being a limestone cave, and the waterfall was in full spate (as the ones on the trail had been). Rain gear had been a very good idea. I did have a hard time with the fact that no one was told to *not* touch the formations, as I'd been told on other cave tours, but I didn't feel it was my place to say anything, since the guide didn't...

After the cave, we decided to go ahead to Malham Cove. I'd forgotten that I'd told Tom that I'd call at 8pm my time, noon his, until over halfway there The drive to the cove gave me a chance to ride on very small country roads, with very different terrain to the ones on the way to Hever (no tunnels of beeches in the Dales ) HI estimated that the cove was about a mile from the carpark. In reality, it was about a mile to the sign that said 1 mile to Malham Cove... It was a beautiful walk, anyway, and I saw many Highland Cattle close up (more and closer than I did in Scotland, actually). We didn't climb, because I was close to worn out, and HI likes heights even less than I (I'm fine if I'm enclosed, with "enclosed" meaning at least a hip-high barrier, or if I'm at least half a body length from an edge). The time and the threatening sky were factors, too. It was good that I had more ponchos with me, as the one I'd worn in the cave had torn (they were about as thick as cling film, and very hard to get off, especially when wet), because it started raining, hard, just as we started back to the car. Poor HI had left his coat in the boot...

By the time I got back to Leeds station, it was nearly the time I'd told Tom I was going to call. Since the Friday calls were to be video calls, I needed good wifi. I barely got good enough wifi at the station to type a message to Tom to let him know that it'd be at least an hour, maybe 2, but he got the message, so 'twas OK. Once on the train, I texted Pastey, and Alabaster picked me up a bit after I arrived. I'd just missed Phil, as she'd given him a ride since she was going to the station to pick me up. At Beer Nouveau, I excused myself to call Tom, once I'd connected to the wifi and wandered down to the end by the vats, away from the seating. After a nice talk with Tom and the girls (including having PaperKid see if she remembered Pastey and Alabaster from when they'd been in the US, and showing Pastey and Alabaster how much the girls had grown),I talked a bit with a couple of the regulars that I'd heard about the previous night, and told Bald Bloke hello again. Actually, I take that back--BB was leaving just as I got there, I think...

Wow - that was an epic day for you... Glad you had an excellent time, though

I did. Slept *really* well, too

I figured out that we'd walked 10-12 miles that day (depending on how far we'd walked for lunch) which was a lot for me, but not so much for someone for whom 24 miles is a normal Saturday