Day 33: Diggle to Badger Fields farm (Hebden Bridge)

Good news is I am staying in a fantastic B&B at Badger Fields farm, just north of Hebden Bridge.

Bad news is both my camera and Ipod have stopped working. Despite being in a plastic bag, in the pocket of my "waterproof" jacket, they must have got too wet. Therefore there are no pictures of today and won't be any more until I can buy a new camera :(

The weather is atrocious and has been all day.

The B&B in Diggle was nothing to rave about. It belongs to a very sweet elderly couple who are deaf and had the TV turned up to unimaginable volumes and then had to shout at each other (with terrific Yorkshire accents) to be heard. About 10 pm I heard Sarah go downstairs and very politely
ask them to turn the TV down. The bed was awful too with enormous springs sticking up in multiple locations. But they made good poached eggs and I like the name of their village, Diggle.

It was also odd because the elderly landlady kept on commenting on the weather and how warm it was and failed to note that it was bucketing down with rain and blowing a gale. We kept on hinting about a ride up the road until I finally came out and asked them. They kindly obliged for a small fee.

It was a long steep road to rejoin the Pennine way so we were very glad of the lift.

I spent another day walking with Sarah who was good company. She used to be a lawyer but has just recently been ordained into the Church of England. Come September she will be a curate in the parish of Chipping Camden and will then be tied for years to come. Sounds very scary to me but I wish her all the best and admire her for following her "calling".

Today the Pennine way took us across the M62 motorway and I found it quite thrilling to cross the bridge with the roar of traffic and civilisation below. It was such a startling juxtaposition to the moorlands and our life on the path.

We walked on, across more desolate moorlands accompanied by the usual squall and deluge, to the high point at Blackstone Edge and then down to the A58 crossing our fingers that the White House pub would be open.

Amazingly it was open and was serving up food. After we had settled in with sandwiches, soup and plenty of hot tea, our three Yorkshire lads with the dog showed up and we compared notes yet again. I rung up Badger Farms and booked myself in as I was definitely not camping in this.

Pubs are wonderful places and you can see why they have survived through the centuries and are so ingrained in the British culture. Always an island of comfort, an oasis of dryness and warmth and as predictable as the atrocious weather. Walking only short distances across the moors makes you yearn for a pub.

It was about 17 miles today. I seem to capable of longer distances now. Although it still hurts, so I suppose you just do what you have to do.

Badger farm is lovely and comes highly recommended for Pennine Wayfarers. Very homely and the landlady obviously takes pride in what she does. We were greeting with a big pot of tea and chocolate cake. Dinner was incredible with tasty home grown veggies, mashed and roast potatoes, a delicious home made cheese flan, all washed down with a glass of red wine. We even had a pudding of chocolate browny and ice cream.

A quick update on Curt and Ivan as I have just received a voice mail from them. They couldn't get a flight out of Gatwick, so they rented another car and drove back to Jills. They then drive to Birmingham and took a flight to Dublin, Ireland where it looked most promising. But no luck there either. They ended up having to buy full price tickets back to Salt Lake and scrap the buddy pass. What a palaver! Lesson learnt. No buddy passes in the summer.

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