Over Cam Fell
Walking through a parched yellow springtime, we left the River Wharfe's dry bed and crossed the high point of the Dales Way.
The 874 bus took us all the way from suburban Leeds to quaint Kettlewell, where we disembarked to begin the next stage of our family walk along the Dales Way. Our journey had cost the four of us – two adults, one child and one dog – just £7. For this, we had spent two hours trundling hypnotically along increasingly narrow lanes hemmed in by drystone walls. At one point near Bolton Abbey, the driver had to completely remove one wing mirror to squeeze his vehicle through a stone archway.
From Kettlewell, we were on foot. We eased our bus-stiffened legs into the rhythm of the path, ambling along the valley floor to the village of Buckden and a picnic lunch by the river. It was the last settlement of any size on our two-day route. We'd spend the rest of that day walking up the dale to stay overnight in the hamlet of Oughtershaw. The next day would take us over the high and wild Cam Fell before descending to Ribblehead and the train home.
By Yockenthwaite it was mid-afternoon, and the River Wharfe had run dry. Sparse March rains had starved the watercourse, and we climbed down and walked on its skeletal stone bed. Only the chill of the wind reminded us that this was spring, not late summer. England had received only a fraction of its usual rainfall and upland areas like this were tinder-dry. Climate change is making summer droughts more likely, but this seemed terribly early.