Zara and I both woke up to the noisiest Cuckoo bird that wanted to announce to the whole valley he was there. We decided to have a slow morning as we ate breakfast and packed away our tent. Today was our last day of walking and we had a short walk of 8 miles to Ribblehead train station.
There is a decent track from Nethergill farm to Swarthgill farm (I think they also allow wild camping there). Once past Swarthgill farm it was a boggy path and we were climbing up to the watershed that feeds a couple of the big rivers. It’s wet, empty land. But turning the bend we had a new sight to follow, Ingleborough.
We eventually come to Cam Houses, which is just a farm. This is where the climb to the highest part of the Dales Way starts. It’s a steep climb up to the Cam High Road.
We made it to the Cam High road and this high point is marked with a cairn. It was also the perfect place for us to take a break. It’s also good news for us as it means it’s all downhill now for the rest of the day.
We followed the Cam High road downhill. The Cam High road is great walking. It’s an old Roman road and you can get some good speed up here! The views are amazing of Ingleborough, Pen-y-ghent and as you descend further Whernside.
Once we got down the hill, we stopped at a bridge over a stream for our last break before the mile or so to the train station.
The last section was some road walking to the train station as we said goodbye to the Dales Way path. We had completed our planned walk and were feeling pretty good.
In our 4 days walking we have managed to complete over half of the trail and have some pretty easy walking days ahead of us in the summer when we come back to finish this trail.
The train back to Leeds was fairly easy, though it was a shock to the system seeing so many people again after being in some remote places.
http://hiiker.app/maps/planned-trails/dales-way-day-4-to-ribblehead-train-station–1351551277
Breathless Hikers 
Leave a comment