...nothing but footprints

It's true what they say.  When you're having fun time just flies by.  Even though I'd made a conscious effort to stay mindful of the present moment (and thereby, I hoped, slow time down), all too soon I found myself sitting down to breakfast on the penultimate day of our Dales Way journey.  It couldn't possibly be day six already.  Could it?  After checking out of the Dalesman Country Inn we made our way along the side of the main road to Kendal, calling in at the local Spar shop to buy sandwiches, crisps and chocolate.  Once again this would be another day without any pubs or shops along the way.  As we left the shop it began to rain, just a gentle drizzle but enough to send us dashing across to a nearby bus shelter to put on our waterproofs.  These were quickly removed though when, after we had only walked for another hundred yards or so, the rain stopped as quickly as it had started. We met up with the Dales Way again by the banks of the Rive...

On the morning of our fifth day on the Dales Way I awoke with a sense of eager anticipation.  I was about to tick an item off my very humble bucket list - to awake to a view of the rising sun illuminating the western slopes of Whernside.  An uninterrupted view of wide open spaces, the Ribblehead viaduct and Yorkshire's highest peak.  I leapt out of bed, threw back the curtains and blinked.  I could barely see beyond the end of the pub's beer garden.  Where was Whernside?  Where was the viaduct?  The wide open spaces?  All had vanished beneath a thick blanket of saturated, dense cloud; our room window dappled with raindrops. My disappointment lasted for all of a few seconds.  We'd had a great time at the Station Inn - our room, the food, the staff - all had been lovely.  A missing tick off my bucket list simply meant we'd have to stay here again one day.  And that was certainly a prospect to savour. View? What view? Breakfast ...