Dales Way - The cows and info

Some advice, if you ever intend to do this walk prepare beforehand, the cows along the trail are cunning and will sneak up on you without any warning! Not quite as intimidating or ruthless as the infamous Kinder Sheep but you do need to keep an eye on them.

As this was the first time Liz had walked long distances on consecutive days and the first in many years for me we embarked upon a fitness training regime based around Alfriston in East Sussex - for no particular reason other than the place looked nice when we drove through once. By accident rather than design this proved to be ideal. Plenty of routes so you can build up from easy 7 mile days to the 20 mile plus we were doing by early June.

And as a bonus Alfrison boasts one of the best cafes in the south - Badgers Tea House where we were looked after with big cakes and endless pots of tea after all of our long walks.

We used Brigantes to transfer our luggage from day to day, in retrospect we both took more than we needed due to the luxury of having it carried for us but this did mean that we were prepared for any eventuality weather-wise. Felt very sorry for the old guy having to move the bags each day though!

Due to the heat Liz ended up using more socks than anticipated and had to restock (re-sock?) at Grassington.

During the day we rarely eat whilst walking, a chocolate bar and our SIS energy drinks manage to keep us going and this was much the case on the Dales Way. We bought sandwiches once and carried them around for 2 days!

We managed with the evening meals available locally, either in pubs or cafe's, however both being vegetarian the choice was not as good as we find at home. Best evening meal en-route at The Dalesman Sedbergh.  ( Castle Green Hotel, Kendal not eligible as it is technically of route )

One thing we did notice though was the high prices of eating out along the route, pubs offering basic lunch menus at around  £6 or £7 for a main meal each, in London we can both eat out for that!

The route is easy to follow except for one or two sections - especially at Cam Houses, check for diversions before you go by looking at the Dales Way Association website. The Dales Way is a good route to consider for your first Long Distance Path, over easy in places but ideal for newcomers to long distance trails.
 

 Day 1 >