Village Manager Kevan reaches new fundraising heights

I’m Kevan, the Lark Hill Village Manager, and I was recently offered a chance to complete the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge with a family member who needed a support buddy. The offer was accepted, and approval sought for time off to complete which was supported by my line manager.

Research began, kit list drawn up and details on weather, accommodation etc were sorted in quick time.

The Thursday 3rd November came round quickly and after the Resident Association meeting in the afternoon I went home loaded up on chicken and pasta and collected Tim to make the drive to “settle’’ in North Yorkshire.

We arrived in the town shortly before 21:00 and did what every elite athlete does prior to an event, and headed for the nearest pub for a pint of real ale followed by a fish and chip supper which was absolutely delicious.

We made it to the accommodation for 22:00 dropped our bags off and introduced ourselves to the landlord across the road who invited us in for another pint or two before settling down at the accommodation.

I spent an hour packing my bergen and taping my feet for maximum comfort and damage limitation before hitting the sack and going to sleep.

Alarm went at 5:00, kettle on, porridge consumed, dressed and in the car for 05:25. Arrived at the car park and the beginning of our walk at 05:30 and left on time at 05:45.

It was pitch black and head torches helped us navigate to the top of the first peak ‘’Pen-Y-Ghent’’ (694 metres). We had to scramble a bit at the top and even climb over a steep overhang to make it but was pleased to get to the top in just over an hour.

Coming down the first decent was very pleasant, good under foot and was a fair distance taking in the lovely countryside, fresh air, animals including goats, cattle, sheep, chickens a few wild rabbits and some fabulous birds of many varieties.

We made excellent pace through the downhill and then the long straight to the Railway viaducts which were fabulous and were also met by several fighter jets flying in the area.

We stopped to change our t shirts and take on fluid and food at the bottom of the second peak.

We navigated our way through several farms and fields and onto the road leading to the final peak. Visually the last looked the biggest and the steepest and Tim did nothing to discredit how difficult the climb was going to be. Ingleborough (723 metres) was a steady grind up to a point when we were met with sheer rock face and a stairwell etched into the side of the peak.

It actually wasn’t so bad, and we took our time getting up to the top.

We met a handful of people on this peak which was the most we saw all day and stopped to chat briefly before taking our picture and carrying on our merry way downhill.

The third peak had the largest area at the top and we covered some flat ground to get to the marker, another quick picture and at this point Tim felt he still had chance to achieve a personal best so we hurried down.

10 minutes into the descent it started to rain and didn’t stop really, the climb down was rough under foot with lots of different make up of ground from wet muddy grass to hard rock and small stones, big stones and sharp edges that tested all the stabilising muscles and was tough on the bones.

Knees, back and feet suffered here, and the rain made everything very slippery requiring more focus.

As we arrived at the train station, we had about a kilometre to go and less than ten minutes to do it.

We ran most of the way round the village and arrived in the car park with 9 hours 38 minutes and 32 seconds on the clock beating Tim’s previous best by 90 seconds. We later found out we had walked an extra kilometre also which made Tim even happier.

We went back to the digs showered and changed, packed our kit and got on the road home. Unfortunately, it took 5 hours to get home due to Friday afternoon traffic but when we finally did we celebrated with a nice curry and a glass of red wine. I was in bed fast asleep with the hot water bottle for 22:30.