Gary and his hammer....on top of the World!

Well perhaps not on top of the world, but certainly up high building a path on Pen-y-Ghent! Gary gave me permission to blip him so he could prove to his mum that he does work! Thanks again Gary.

This wasn't the sunniest blip I took today but sadly the blue skies did not arrive until we came back down Pen-y-Ghent. It was a lovely day out with Jen and Pete which we followed up with lunch at the cafe in Horton-in-Ribblesdale. As well as being a cafe it is where walkers who are venturing on the Three Peaks Walk clock in and out. If they complete the walk within twelve hours then they become members of the Three Peaks Club. I have completed it twice, once BC (Before Children) and once with a group of school pals to mark the promotion of Andy, geography teacher, to higher things in another school.

In the cafe I spotted a rather fine Three Peaks Club buff and those of you who know me will know that I have a drawer full of buffs! Apparently, they are only sold to Three Peaks Club members so, in lieu of a DNA sample, I had to promise to go through my scrapbooks on our return home to find our 33 year old membership cards and e-mail through my number. Thankfully they were found after emptying out assorted drawers and taking the stepladder up to the BIG cupboard. It does mean that my new buff is a limited edition only available to a select few hundreds of thousands walkers!

A perfect day ended with us all seeing our very first bee orchids but they are very special so I am not going to say where we saw them!

Ps Gary told us that the flags already laid on the new path further up on the summit were from Lancashire, horror of horrors! They came from Manchester mills and you could still see some of the markings where the machinery would have been bolted down.