My packed lunch.. which I ended up eating in the van on the way home anyway.
Trail to Cave
Dales meant 'valley', as you can see.
^.^ Y
The hike starts to get difficult here.. rocky, but not muddy yet.
Caroline & Me
Me & Chang (having difficulty in balancing!)
spot the peeking sheep!
Marie taking a picture for all of us
The mountains beyond.. which we will be climbing.
Cold & windy..
After this I didn't have a chance & didn't felt like taking my camera out to snap any more pictures. We were making our way up Ingleborough Mountain, which is the 2nd highest among the 3 peaks at Yorkshire Dales. It was so so windy higher up in the mountain! Even the drizzling rain became heavier as you reach the top. The whole way up was challenging because if it weren't rocks, it was more mud. And more steep rocks to climb. Not to mention the wind trying hard to blow you off the cliff too! O.O
Halfway up and the lower part of my body was already soaking wet. Thanks to May's good waterproof jacket my upper body remained dry inside. :) But it was still so cold and slippery and tiring at times I needed to just stop for a while, take my breathe, and continue on. By the time we reached the top (and I was the last one there. Haha!) I was so hungry and cold but didn't feel like eating much. Everyone was freezing! There was a heavy fog all around us. If you were around 25 meters away you would completely disappear from view like in those magic shows.
We were ducking against the wind at a stone wall to have our lunch. Some people were smart enough to bring hot coffee along, imagine how nice it is to have hot coffee when the weather was all stormy & chaos around you! Some hiking owners brought they're dogs along, and the dogs were soaking wet too! It was fun to see dogs running around up and down the mountain as if it were nothing.
The stone wall at the peak of the mountain.
(This picture was taken from Google. Trust me, it looked NOTHING like this when we were there. This photo must have been taken on an exceptionally fine, sunny, sunny, warm, calm day.)
I wished I had on good hiking shoes. I used my trainers the whole way and was in danger of spraining my ankle with every step I took. When I walked it felt like dragging small buckets of water, squishing water out and then absorbing more water again. Luckily Bernard was kind enough to wait for slow pokes like us since the others were already far ahead in front. >.<
The first thing I did after we got back in the evening was buy a bottle of wine, have a long hot shower, heat up my bolognese and have my dinner ;) Time for recovery!
Must-dos if you want to feel comfortable while hiking:
1) Make sure you have a good waterproof jacket. Mind you, waterPROOF. Not water-resistance.
2) Have good hiking shoes! (unless you don't mind splashing around in your trainers with risk of spraining your ankle)
3) Make sure your jacket has a hood.
4) For girls, be certain it is NOWHERE near that time of the month. (huhu.. I kena jackpot T.T)
5) Put your precious belongings in plastic bags.
6) Bring waterproof gloves.
7) Bring hot chocolate. :D
8) Have determination! (you have no choice actually, force yourself to climb up and down with the group or die halfway up. No kidding)
2 comments:
Haha, thanks for bringing me along. U are so good at hunting for things to do! Wow, it was a really nice experience. Thinking back again, it was scarrryyy, going hiking without any preparation at all. ..
Haha! Your welcome ;) Ya, I had no idea hiking would be that hard core O.O What to do la.. we're so blur.. at least now we know ^.^ hope u had fun~
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