Handbag walking gets serious - part 2

On the second day of our walking weekend, we headed the short distance from our hotel to Malham, where we were joined by J, our third handbag walker. Many of the other people from the hotel were also in the car park preparing themselves for their walk – waterproofs, gaiters, boots, packed lunch, rucksack, sticks. Even V and J had waterproofs and sticks, which I felt was letting the side of the handbag walkers down a little. Me, I had my handbag and my pashmina!

This walk was a bit like déjà vu for J and I, as we did it on a geography field trip when we were doing our A level. It’s a bit scary how well I remember it! It was nice not to have to measure the depths of streams or the size of rocks*.

The landscape around Malham is stunning and varied, from Janet's Foss waterfall, to the drama of Gordale scar, and the waterfall that thankfully we didn’t have to climb this time, to the escarpment of Malham Cove and its limestone pavement.

We even had our own snacks – well, we had lime chilli and coriander corn chips, liquorice, a kit kat and oat and cranberry cookies.

It was pretty cold up there, however, so once we’d finished, we went into Skipton, treated ourselves to fish and chips for lunch, and I bought a ‘proper’ walking jacket. I think I did that bit the wrong way round! We are becoming scarily well equipped for these walks now.

*To this day I’m not sure how that helped me with my A level, but hey, I passed. I also vividly remember whinging about the long walk – this is not a new thing!