For a change of scenery, during August I decided to pay a couple of visits to the White Rose county of Yorkshire, and in particular the limestone wilderness around Settle and Malham in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Malham Tops - 3rd August 2019 I had visited Malham a few times previously over the years, exploring the famous Malham Cove and Gordale Scar, but had never really explored what lay to the north, apart from a very brief visit to Malham Tarn. I decided to head to Malham Tarn, and the small car park there, which would be the starting point for my walk. It was Saturday lunchtime, and the car park was full, with day-trippers and a couple of camper-vans. There was a little ice-cream van parked up just across from the car park on a wide grassy verge, with a couple of cars parked next to it, so I joined them. From the ice cream van, I headed through a gate and onto a grassy path - part of the Pennine Way - which headed through some fields past some quite docile cattle, calves

  From Seatoller, I drove back north for a few miles following the road as it twisted between the verdant green fields of Borrowdale, and pulled into the National Trust car park at Rosthwaite, for a short lunch-time walk. Rosthwaite looking to the Langstrath valley I had visited Rosthwaite before - the last time was back in early March when the weather was nowhere near as favourable as it was today. That was the first time I climbed Castle Crag ( #178 ). It's the lowest of the 214 Wainwright peaks, at only 951 feet, but its a cracking little route to the top. I moved some kit across into my day-pack, and headed up through the village. I struck gold when I spotted that the Flock-In Tea Room was open, and nipped in to pick up some lunch. I first heard about this tearoom a couple of years ago from watching one of Julia Bradbury's shows on TV. She was also walking a route to Castle Crag, and recommended visiting this tea-room, famous for its Herdwick pasties. I had to pick one up,