I could have, I should have, left early but decided to have another hot meal and stay until a full English breakfast was served.It was worth the wait!

I set off and the first 3 hours confirmed my decision not to grind on to Catterick Garrison in the storm the previous night. The weather was a lot better but the wind was set to be a block headwind all day.

It was mostly tarmac interspersed with gravel or rutted bridleways

The route took me past some bothies, one of which I had found shelter in on my first Dales Divide. I rode straight past it to make the one where Restrap were providing ramen and tea!

Then it was back out into the headwind and a big effort to make Dent. I came to a fork where, to follow the route, I should divert off road and climb up to Dent station. I was cold, hungry and could see the tarmac descent would take me all the way into the village. In retrospect it was not much of a diversion to the station and if I hadn’t been tired and cold and thinking straight I should have worked that out and completed the route but I didn’t. I allowed gravity to take down the hill and into Dent.

Both the pubs had no food or rooms but there was a campsite. I searched for someone to register with but couldn’t find anyone, so I pitched my tent and dug out a dehydrated meal of vegetable stir fry. Having eaten I climbed into my sleeping bag and fell asleep pretty quickly.