20.75 miles – 1,877ft of ascent
AW awoke to less rain than yesterday but the same gale force wind; the river was now ‘not five yards wide, but fifty‘. Again he had doubts about completing his mission and wrote a postcard to a friend about ‘a retreat with honour‘.
Around ten o’clock he set off to walk to Kirkby Stephen station at Waitby to catch the train to Settle but then had a change of mind and at Waitby pressed on. But he had another problem – three nails, christened Wynken, Blynken and Nod, in one of his shoes! They were removed later by a farmer’s wife as he had tea. His route was down the Rawthey valley and the 2008 route crosses it above Cautley and then shadows it on a path on the other side of the river to arrive at Sedbergh.
AW bypassed the town going through Millthrop (where the 2008 route meets and joins the Dales Way on its journey to Dent) and ‘a maze of narrow, muddy lanes‘ to Dentdale. His five miles to Dent ‘seemed never-ending‘ and it was ‘almost dark‘ when he arrived but he still made time to wander around the town ‘in amazement’.