Searching for Cathy's Ghost

Last November I made a quick escape, after getting my COVID booster and immediately before the announcement of the Omicron variant becoming a thing to worry about, to my favorite overall destination, the UK. 

This time I was hiking part of the Pennine Way, and stopping in at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate.  It was a tough decision between this and the Offa's Dyke Path in Wales, but once I realized that I'd be able to walk through Brontë country, even to visit the Brontë Parsonage Museum AND make it to a knitting event, the choice was obvious.

It was a little late in the year for a trip like this, but I don't mind the rain and honestly weather than Britons consider cold and awful is mild by Colorado standards. After landing in London and taking the train to Manchester, I had the very skeptical Uber driver drop me off on the north side of the village of Diggle, to start my walk.  It was damp and a little blustery, but heaven for me.  

Something about the wild moorland is just so beautiful.  A few miles in, I spoke briefly with a man who said he'd hiked the Pennine Way 12 times. Like my Uber driver, he couldn't believe I had come from the US to do this walk in November.  I could tell he also didn't believe me when I told him I live at 8500 feet, or just under 3000 meters.  

This portion of the Pennine way crosses the M62, via a footbridge that I am sure is sturdier than it seems.  I hurried across, trying not to look down at the cars and lorries wizzing below me.  

  

That night I stayed at the White Lion in Hebden Bridge, which is a lovely little village in the southern Pennines. The next day I went off of the route a bit, to visit an old mill, and rejoined the Pennine Way outside the hamlet of Walshaw.  In Walshaw I met a woman who insisted that I take a "shortcut" through a nearby farm.  I had told her I was heading to Top Withens and then to Haworth and was a bit lost as my map was unclear as to which of the unmarked roads led me to the Pennine Way.  Though I know that its acceptable in the UK, I always have a worry about trespassing, but I went through the gate she pointed to, ignoring the prickle feeling in the back of my neck.  After going part of the way that she had rather adamantly advised (to the point of being visibly irritated at my hesitation) I couldn't find a path through what was obviously boggy ground.  With my cell phone showing no service, I was very nervous about being lost, so I snuck back out to the road, hoping she wouldn't see me.  I had no desire to be found by archaeologists in a thousand or so years, and be known as the fat bog lady with the purple backpack.  Luckily a mile or so further on in the direction I chose mostly based on it not being visible from her house, I found a clear sign marking the Pennine Way again and pressed on.  

 Being late fall, it was rapidly growing dark, and I was grateful to finally reach the crest, and with it, Top Withens.  Now a ruin, Top Withens is said to be the inspiration for Wuthering Heights in Emily Brontë's novel of the same name.  It's certainly a brooding location, and I could well imagine Cathy's ghost wandering the windswept moor.  

Speaking of wind, we are experiencing 50 mph gusts in Colorado today with low temperatures  Despite a warm fire in the wood stove, my hands are freezing as I type, so I will continue this post later!