For my birthday walk I chose part of the Ribble Way from Settle to Horton in Ribblesdale so this morning Tom, David, and I set of for Carlisle where we met up with John and Martin and we took the train from Carlisle to Settle which is one of the nicest rail journeys in England. Not as nice as the West Highland Line but very good and it had some spectacular views. The journey started very well with David opening a Bottle of Champagne brought back from his holiday in Portugal so we celebrated my Birthday Walk with a paper cup of Champers. On arriving at Settle we set out on the 8 mile walk up the Ribble Valley to Horton In Ribblesdale where we planned to catch a return train to Carlisle 5 hours later. We had planned to have a bar meal at one of the several pubs on the route. The first pub at Stainforth was closed on a Monday. The 2nd pub at Helwith Bridge opened at 2.30pm on a Monday so as it was 1.30pm we headed on up the valley and arrived at Horton in Ribblesdale to find the pub there stopped serving meals at 2.00pm and it was now 2.30pm and we had 90 minutes left before the train left. We soon found a small cafe about 250 yards from the pub and they served us a lovely bacon and egg meal accompanied by the largest mug of tea you have ever seen. The moral of the story is to change our walking day as Monday seems to be the day many pubs close or make sure in advance they will be open. A very special day in excellent company and good weather.
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