23°C, warm milky sun with moderate SE breeze.
Woke and got the tent packed by 06.40.
A suitable place for breakfast wasn’t far away. The Moors are too dry to risk the chance of fire. Hence, water supply became a problem. I set off with 2 litres yesterday and finished it on coffee. The search for water required a change of route.
Eventually, tanked up, I resumes the route north following fence lines. The blanket bog is very dry and sinking in is unlikely. The next Summit was a sea of gulls, that seemed strangely out of place to me. I picked up a couple of helium balloons off the fence along here.
I collected 9 of these during this day. This particular one had printed ; Happy 9th Birthday printed in blue. What do parents think happens to balloons when their little one lets go of the cord? They end up in places like this. The helium is wasted too. There are better uses for that non-renewable resource. We can’t make helium, it slowly collects in gas pockets as a by product of radioactive decay. Our world’s stock has built up over billions of years giving us about 25 year’s supply. Idiot parents are throwing away this precious resource which is needed for medical services like MRI scanners. What a stupid, pointless product; you should choose which is more important- balloons or MRI scanners?
/Rant over
Next: head north on a loop towards the Trough of Bowland. This included another summit – Holdron Moss.
This trig point has seen better days. This just shows how deep and soft the boys are. Somebody built a cairn which I added 2 layers on top.
On reaching the Trough, a decision was made between the summit north or head along the road to cut the corner. I went up.
There’s quite a panorama up there but I was getting thirsty. I’d only had 3 litres all day. The water in the stream that runs through a sheep farm tasted very nice (after filter).
Part three; Langden Vale. This is a drinking water catchment, renowned because of the purity caused by the gritstone bedrock.
The return leg was a push because of impending darkness. Up on the moor needs compass work but mine let me down. I used landform clues to get orientated rather than walking on the compass. I took a slightly earlier descent into farmland as darkness fell. Passing one farkwas amusing. Their dogs were caged in the yard and were barking vigorously bat me. I could see 10 pairs of silver eyes shining in the torchlight.
That was a very long day and I really hoped to buy an easy meal at the services. No such luck.
Today’s data- 13.3 thousand calories.
Spirit of Turpentine 