Caught the 10am bus back to Ponden Reservoir. Walked along the road from the bus stop until we picked up the Pennine Way Path. The path is again slabbed and leads us up to Top Withens which I can't resist taking a "P" against. A strike back for all us English Lit O Level failures! We walked on with the feeling of a Job well done. The weather was reasonable and the walking relatively easy along the slabbed paths.

We stopped for an early lunch in a very picturesque little valley beside a babbling brook (probably the Bronte Babbling Brook). Andie and Ian came along about 15 minutes after we arrived which was quite a surprise as they had left an hour before us. It turned out that they had detoured to the Bronte Falls (Fools). They took a couple of pictures as this would be one of the last times our paths would cross and went on their way saying it was too early for them to stop for lunch. They were very rigid with the times that they stopped for breaks. Dil jokingly said that we would pass them later sheltering behind a dry stone wall in the pouring rain as they munched on a sandwich.

We passed them later sheltering behind a dry stone wall in the pouring rain, they were munching sandwiches. That was the last time our paths crossed. We walked on climbing the hill then descending into the Hebden valley across the way from us was the Monument atop of Stoodley Pike which we had to climb before descending to Mankinholes and our B&B for the night we crossed the road, the river, and the Railway line and then started climbing up through the forest towards Stoodley Pike. The going got harder as the gradient increased. We reached the Monument and climbed up inside to get to the viewing platform, taking some pictures of the vista set out below us. We walked along the ridge and then descended down to Mankinholes and our rather luxurious B&B for the night.

Cross Farm is a huge (extended) farm house. We are greeted at the gate by an Old English Sheepdog and Mrs Hancock. Inside the house is crammed full of antiques. We are shown to a room with two beds in it, one of antique oak. We empty our backpacks, devastating the room in our own inimitable fashion. A quick shower and then it’s a mile walk to the pub for a meal. The food was fine except for the deserts which were quite disappointing. We hadn't bothered with deserts very much but the pub had signs all over the walls about their home made deserts. Unfortunately they lied, they were rather poor shop bought deserts. We walked back to the Farmhouse and sank into our beds. We wanted an early start in the morning as we had a 20+ mile journey the following day.