Cowgill to Sedbergh 12 miles
I was now leaving Yorkshire and entering Cumbria, although some of the locals still say they are in Yorkshire; they won’t accept the boundary changes. I headed towards the village of Dent and saw the Howgills Fells for the first time. This was an easy walk following the river again, but now it looked as though it might rain. When I was just outside Dent I met a walker coming towards me and we chatted for a while. I found out he was local, a retired policeman who, after moving to Dent from Blackpool, had spent many hours walking in the area. As we said our goodbyes he pointed me in the direction of a café which served good food and as it was lunchtime I took up his recommendation.
Lunch stop for a welcoming bowl of hot soup & a roll
After lunch it was on to Sedbergh, crossing meadows with wild flowers galore and I still hadn’t encountered any cattle. This part of the walk seemed to be a longer section as I felt I wasn’t getting any nearer to Milthrop & Sedbergh but then just over the hill
I could see Milthrop in the distance, and a cricket match being played.
Walking over a bridge I spotted a heron in the river so after a photo moment it was onwards to find my next B&B passing under the impressive Lune Viaduct.
It was here I met my biggest fear of the entire walk, CATTLE. I could see them in the distance so I stayed alongside the river. When I met a father and son going fishing, they enquired if I was on the Dales Way, so I asked them if they knew where Bramaskew farm was. “Yes,” dad replied, “go up top of hill past cattle, join the track then up to the farm you can’t miss it.”
I thanked them and followed the river but had to turn to walk up the hill. I was near a wall and thought this will protect me if I panic. As I was walking up the hill I noticed they weren’t cows they were bullocks and they had spotted me! With a little bit of quick thinking I turned around to walk away from them when suddenly there were two cows less than 20 yards away, so I had to think quickly again. I remembered what I’d been told, that if you make a lot of noise and wave your arms they will go away. This I did vigorously and guess what? They looked at me as though I had gone crazy and just carried on eating grass, so I now had to climb over the wall in to the next field where there were sheep, “I’m OK with this,” and breathed a sigh of relief.
Onwards up the hill when I saw the lady of the farm where I was staying that night. She was feeding the chickens and welcomed me saying that I must have gone off the track a little. I should have come the other way, pointing to where the cattle were.
The beauty of the farm is that it is actually on the Dales Way path.
I can thoroughly recommend this accommodation and, with a hearty packed lunch for the next day, it was well worthy off a stop over.