Our last views of the Dales

This sign means that the roads are really curvy.

Maybe the “Cracked Pots” need this one (what do you think ladies)!!!!

“HELP….what do we do here!!!!!”

Today is a holiday in England……Bank Holiday (the second “Bank Holiday” this month). I have finally figured out that they call EVERY holiday “Bank Holiday”, even if it is to celebrate another purpose. Unfortunately, the weather is cold and threatening to rain. The news is saying that it is 17 degrees C (30F) COLDER in London today than it was a week ago!!! The locals are amazed at how strange the weather has been this year.

We had planned to spend several hours in West Burton at their village festival that started at 1:00, and we were looking forward to seeing a Maypole, Falconry exhibition and Morris Dancers (men wearing bells and dancing with sticks). However, we realized that it was going to be REALLY cold, windy and possibly rainy, so we regretfully decided to head back to Oxford.

As we left our B&B, we spent a few minutes talking with our hosts (Steven & Julie) and also with Barbara and Larry, another couple that we had met at breakfasts each morning. Over the mornings, we had raved about the sausages that we had for breakfast, and to our surprise, Julie brought out a package of them for us to take home for dinner. It was so sweet of her to do that for us. When we drove out, we felt like we were leaving our family behind. It was a wonderful place to stay and we would highly recommend it to anyone traveling this direction.

We drove over the highlands one more time, stopping to take yet more photos, and then took as many small roads as we could find to get out of the Dales. It was a sad occasion when we finally met the M1 Expressway and had to join the throngs of people heading South.

The biggest difference that we found in Yorkshire, as opposed to the rest of England, is that the people there are friendly. They smile when they talk to you and they ALL want to talk and to learn where we are from and what we think of the Dales.

We loved the names of the pubs that we saw, including “The Green Dragon”, “The George & Dragon”, “The Hogshead”, “The Forrester’s Arms”, “The Bay Horse Inn” and, our favorite, “The Fox and Hounds”.

The town names were equally quaint, and it was fun looking at road signs showing mileage to Leyburn, Winksley, Ellingstring, Aysgarth, Newbiggin, Gammersgill, Askrigg, Ripon and Reeth.

Driving in Yorkshire was an experience as all of the MAJOR roads are only two lanes wide…one each direction. Then you get onto some of the minor roads and they can be only a narrow lane. We laughed at one road…. we were talking about how narrow it was and then we saw a warning sign that the road was about to narrow again….we didn’t see how it could get smaller, but it DID. When you met a car on these roads, you simply pulled as far to one side as possible and squeezed both cars thru the hole. On one of the roads, they had painted striped lines in the middle of the “single” lane thus making it a TWO lane road. There were many one lane bridges, some of which had stop lights and others just showed which traffic direction had the right of way. We also came across many walkers out on the roads along with horse riders and, of course, sheep. This whole area is part of the “Yorkshire Dales National Park”, so the property is open to the public, even though it is privately owned and is still being farmed. It was not unusual to have to slow down for sheep to cross the road ahead of you.

We saw an amazing array of warning signs, including ones with horses, cattle, tractors, and even “elderly people”. There were also some that simply had an exclamation point…..never did figure out what those were for, but I am sure that they were important!!!!

Stop lights were interesting because the yellow light shows twice during the light cycle. The first time is in the same manner as ours…..as a warning that the light is about to change to red. The second time it shows is when the red light is about to change to green, so you can go ahead and start if the way is clear.

Most of the villages had public car parking areas, but you had to “Pay and Display”….. buy a ticket and place it on the dashboard.

This Yorkshire trip has been a wonderful experience and the fulfillment of a dream for Michael and I that started when we first began reading the “All Creatures Great and Small” series of books. This has been a marvelous 5 days!!!

The drive back to Oxford was uneventful…which is a good thing!!! The only time that we got lost was coming into Oxford, but I saw a highway sign that mentioned a street that lead onto “High Street” ( by our house), so we simply followed that into town.

The roads here are named with the letters “A”, “B”, and “M”. The “M” indicates that it is a major divided expressway, with the A’s and B’s indicating smaller roads. The national speed limit on the Expressways is 70 mph, but most people were doing 80 to 90 mph.

They have “Services” areas about every 30 miles along the Expressways. We stopped at one and found it to be a very interesting place. There is normally a petrol (gas) station to one side, and a large building that contains bathrooms, a grocery-type store, a restaurant or two, an entertainment area (video games) and places to sit and relax. The parking lot was full and everyone seemed to be enjoying their rest stop.

We got back to our house about 3:00 and spent the rest of the day answering emails, posting the blog and washing clothes.

Brewing Vats at Black Sheep Brewery

A beautiful Church that we found along one road.

The sheep laden walk up to Jervaulx Abbey

The beautiful Abbey ruins.

We awoke this morning to rain and colder temperatures. We knew that this was predicted, so we had made some indoor plans for the day. After breakfast we headed to the town of Masham (pronounced Maasam), stopping along the road to take photos of rock walls, stone markers and churches. We were struck with the difference in the environment from yesterday, being in a valley area today. The steep inclines were replaced with rolling hills and much of our road followed a beautiful river called the Ure.

The clouds were ominous, so we headed to the Black Sheep Brewery. When we got inside, we found that the brewery tours were booked until the 2:00 tour, so we signed up for it and then headed back into the town itself. We walked around the town a bit and visited a Chocolate Shop and a Glass Blowing shop. There were some beautiful pieces, but we knew better than to try to get them home safely.

It started raining again, so we drove back to the Brewery and went inside to the restaurant for morning tea. Michael had a scone and coffee and I had a luscious slice of Lemon Meringue pie. Many of the locals were there for a typical Sunday lunch of roasted meat (mostly beef or lamb), Yorkshire Puddings, roasted potatoes, boiled vegetables (carrots, broccoli and cauliflower) and pudding. “Pudding” is the name given to everything eaten after the meal, much as we use the term dessert. It all looked wonderful, but we were still too full from our “Cooked English Breakfast” to eat it.

After tea, Michael walked around some in the town and took photos while I retreated to the car and spent about 45 minutes reading. He took some nice pictures of the local houses, churches and businesses. When he returned, we took the tour of the Black Sheep Brewery. The building was about 180 years old and had housed a brewery before this one. We saw all of the different stages of brewing the beer, including seeing what hops looked like (it is a green leafy flower). We also tasted some of the roasted barley, one of which had a distinct coffee flavor. I would like to coat it with chocolate….it would be wonderful!!!! This brewery uses only components and supplies that are produced in England and they are very proud of that fact. The current vats are round and made of stainless steel, but the original ones were made from 4 ft by 8 ft pieces of slate and bolted together into a square. One of the newest brews was made specifically for the 30 year anniversary of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”. It is named “Monty Python and the Holy (Gr)Ail….the (Gr) is crossed out, and claims that it is “tempered over burning witches”. Michael bought a bottle that had been flattened and plans to put it in his office!!!

We left Masham and headed to Middleham to visit yet another castle, but when we got there it was raining quite hard and the castle didn’t look all that interesting. So, we turned back around and went back to an Abbey that we had seen earlier in the day. It was called “Jervaulx Abbey” and was built in the 12th century. It currently sits on private property, but visitors are welcome to explore. They have an “Honesty Box” and request that visitors donate 2 pounds to the upkeep of the grounds. The walk up to the Abbey was populated with sheep although they were fenced out of the Abbey ruins. The ruins were absolutely beautiful and we were able to find many of the landmarks described I the brochure that we bought. We found crosses that were carved on the altar, a stone effigy of a knight who was buried there and several other tombs that were marked with flat stone slabs inscribed with crosses and chalices. It was a beautiful area and we had a wonderful time taking photos, even though it was raining for a good portion of the time that we were there. It finally started pouring so we sprinted to our car and turned the heater on high to warm our cold hands and feet.

We were starting to feel hungry so we headed back to West Burton and our favorite pub. Tonight we continued in the “pub fare” vein and Michael had “Pub Curry” with rice, papadam and chips (nice combination!!!). I had a Vegetable Quiche with chips and salad.

Some of the men from the pub were playing “Quoits” out on the village green. It is much like Horsehoes, but the “shoes” are a circle and not open on one end. There was also the usual dart board on the wall of the pub and the bartender and waiters were wearing tee shirts that boasted the dart teams that were sponsored by the “Fox and Hounds”.

We once again returned to our B&B and looked out our window at the beautiful Dales, but this time with a blowing rain in between us and the hills. We are hoping for sun tomorrow for our trip back to Oxford.

A view of the town of Hawes

Castle Bolton

We started the morning (just as yesterday) with a “Full English Breakfast” of fried egg on fried bread, fried tomatoes, sauteed mushrooms, ham, sausage, rack of toast, fresh fruit, fruit juice and coffee and tea. No wonder we didn’t eat again until after 6:00 pm!!!

After rolling ourselves away from the breakfast table, we hopped in our car and headed for the town of Hawes, only making one mis-turn in the whole trip. Of course, the trip was on 15 miles, so I guess that isn’t so good after all.

We found a public car park and walked into Hawes looking for an internet café that we had been told about. But, when I asked, I was told that it was only open on Monday thru Friday, so we were out of luck for checking email and posting onto the blog. On the way back to the car to get rid of the computer, we stopped in at a local craft fair. Michael went into the used book room and I headed straight for the arts and crafts. I had wonderful chats with 5 or 6 of the merchants in the rooms and ended up buying some jewelry, a folded paper greeting card, and 4 photo note cards. Michael found 2 books that he couldn’t live without, so we carried all of our treasures back to the car.

We walked up the road to the Wensleydale Creamery and cheese factory, where we took a short tour of the history of cheese in this area and then into the working part of the factory. There were 6 large vats that were in the various stages of making cheese. The first vat started with the milk which is heated to a certain temperature to pasteurize it. Then several ingredients are added to help the cheese to form. Large paddles keep the mixture constantly moving during this process. After the cheese granules have formed , the whey is drained off, leaving the cheese in the bottom of the tub. It is then cut into smaller and smaller pieces, allowing more of the whey to drain off. Once it is mostly dry, it is packed into molds which are then pressed to condense the cheese and remove any last whey. I tried a few samples and found it to be a very creamy cheese with a wonderful light flavor.

We then continued our walk thru the town of Hawes, stopping at the Yorkshire Dales Museum and also going into a local pottery. We visited a rope maker, but were not able to see him making ropes by hand. However, we did get to see the machines that are used to make the nylon ropes. It was amazing to see how the ropes wound from 15 to 20 strands of nylon. There are 5 or 6 cones of nylon cord on rotating disks that circle around to weave a part of the rope. Then those woven strands pass thru another opening where they are woven into the final rope. There was one machine that was making a larger rope with a core of several large nylon strands and then being covered with a design formed by the smaller colored cords.

We got back in our car and drove to Castle Bolton, which is where Mary Queen of Scots was held prisoner. The castle was built in 1379 and didn’t look all that big and impressive when we were driving up, but it was amazing once we got inside. Much of it is in ruins now, but you could still see the architecture and design that went into it. We spent quite a bit of time taking photos from inside the castle, and then a bunch more at the top of the castle. The Castle gardens were also interesting with a large herb garden (Michael and I kept rubbing the leaves on our fingers and then smelling to confirm which herb it was). There was also a maze built from low hedges and it was fun to watch people trying to wind their way thru it.

We were starting to get hungry at this point, so we made our way to the “Fox and Hounds” pub in West Burton. We had greatly enjoyed our lunch from yesterday, and decided to check out their dinner menu. We arrived at 5:00 to find out that they don’t start serving dinner until 6:00, so we had a pint of ale and spent some time talking to Donna, who was behind the bar. We both decided to have typical “pub fare”, so Michael had “Fish and Chips”, and I had something called a “Cumberland Curl”. This was a sausage (about 12 inches long) curled in a spiral and placed inside the cavity of a giant Yorkshire Pudding. The whole thing was covered with brown gravy and was served with Chips and Peas. It was a wonderful meal, even if I did end up leaving some of it!!!!

We returned to our B&B, watched a movie and proceeded to stare out our window at the beautiful dales.

Cumberland Curl

The sheep speckled upper moorlands.

A good looking guy, a really cool fence and a beautiful view beyond.

Sheep Rustling!!!!

One of the many NARROW gates that we had to negotiate.

A view of the fields from one of the steep trails.

The good news for the day is that we didn’t use much petrol, which, by the way is 97p per litre. That translates to $7.37 per gallon!!!! The bad news is that we went on a 10 mile hike that you had to walk 1.2 miles on an approach to get to the start of the 10 miles, so that meant that we hiked around 12 or 13 miles today!!!

Julie (our host) gave us a newspaper article about a walk that goes around Penhill, through a couple of small villages and then back to West Close Farm (our B&B). We started out on a paved segment that was heading steadily upward, all the while wondering if we were going the right way. After about a mile, we realized that we had JUST reached the start of the walk, but were very relieved to finally know where we were. Our walk started at Penhill Farm which is a horse barn that keeps famous horses, including some that belong to the Royals.

As we walked along, we moved through several different environments, from river bottom, to classic Yorkshire Dales, and into the Moors. We saw sheep in every field, along with small groups of cattle. There were constant birds calling, with Pheasant and Partridge feeding in many of the paddocks. Rabbits were thick….some hillsides seeming alive with them.

Dry stoned walls laced the landscape, dividing the pastures and farms. These walls are made entirely of stones, with no mortar holding them in place. There is a layer of large stones at the base of the wall, with a layer of wide stones (called “thru stones) that go all the way thru the wall to give it stability. Then another layer of smaller stones is added, another layer of thin “thru stones” and the wall is topped with stones placed at a slant on the top. They are truly amazing to look at and to realize how old they are.

Ancient stone barns, some in ruins and some still in use, were scattered in many fields. It was fun seeing the sheep and cattle sheltering in front of them.

At one point we came across a group of sheep in one of the walled paths and they started walking in front of us as if we were herding them along. It was fun to see them all walking in a single file line, although we were concerned about the fact that we were herding them away from their paddock. We were eventually able to walk up beside them and they turned back again.

The weather was gorgeous, with a deep blue sky, interlaced with fluffy white clouds. We started off with lightweight jackets, but took them off almost immediately. At the tops of the moors, the wind was overpowering, but would drop in intensity as we headed lower down the slopes.

The foot path signs (labeled F.P.) were prolific, but it wasn’t always clear exactly where the paths were headed to or whether or not it was one that we wanted. We spent much of our time wondering whether we were going in the right direction, although the written instructions of the walk said that the path was “easily discernable”…..we grew to hate those words!!!! Fortunately, we met numerous extremely nice individuals who would point us in the right direction, however, we often went for several miles without seeing any one at all.

We dropped off of the moor (along a VERY steep section of the path) into the town of West Burton and stopped for lunch at the “Fox and Hounds”, a local pub. We both had toasted cheese & tomato sandwiches and then went next door to the shop and bought ice cream bars for dessert. We spent a few minutes sitting in the center of the village green and then started our walk again. We climbed again along a steep, rocky farm path and across “Thupton Gill”, an area filled with more pastures and heath. Heath is a cedar-looking plant that grows about 2 feet tall, with thin woody stems. It is apparently a good habitat for the Moor Grouse that the locals like to hunt.

After a LONG hiking segment, we walked back down in to the town of Carlton where the “Forrester’s Arms” is located. They were closed at the time, so we continued on down the road and back up another footpath onto Melmerby Moor. It was a wonderful sight to see the pavement road again and start our 1.2 mile trip back down to the B&B. We arrived at 5:30, making the entire trip about 7 hours. We chose NOT to walk to dinner, but instead drove back to the pub and had a wonderful haute cuisine meal (not exactly Pub Food!!!!).

OUR FIRST VIEWS OF THE YORKSHIRE DALES

We were awakened a little after 4:00 this morning by the street cleaners who were trying to clean up the debris left from yesterday’s celebrations. We finally got up and started getting packed for our Yorkshire trip. With much trepidation we entered the streets of Oxford and our fears were soon realized!!! We were following Yahoo driving directions and, although they were correct, they were confusing when it came to traveling around the round-abouts. Instead of telling you to enter the round-about and take the 3rd exit, it would tell you to go 10 yards on one street, 7 yards on another street and then continue on the street that you were actually trying to get to. At one point we finally had to stop the car and basically draw out the round-about to figure out where we were supposed to be.

Once we got out of Oxford it was a bit easier, but we were worried when we missed our first major intersection between highways. We were expecting a round-about and instead were supposed to exit on a normal highway exit. There was no place to turn around for 8 miles, but we were able to find a cross road that took us back to our missed road. We also could not figure out what the speed limit was…..the map book that I bought simply said that it was the “national” limit, so Michael called one of his colleagues who laughingly told us about the speed limits. We had sort of figured it out by noting the speed that drivers were going when there were “speed cameras” present. Apparently these cameras used to be hidden, but people filed suits against the government saying it was a breach of privacy so now the cameras are marked…..even on the maps!!! I was also told that many of them don’t have film, but you never know!!

We made the rest of the trip with very few problems, although we did call the B&B owner twice to confirm that we were going correctly. He graciously answered our questions and gave us additional directions as we went. We arrived at West Close Farm at 12:30 and were met outside by Steven & Julie Thompson, our hosts for the next few days. Julie made a pot of tea and they sat and talked to us about the area and made suggestions of things we must do, including a 10 mile walk thru the Dales which we will try tomorrow.

They told us of a pub about ½ mile down the road where we could get lunch, but they closed at 2:00 so we needed to hurry. I misunderstood the instructions and we ended up walking about 1/4 of a mile the wrong way and then figuring out where we were supposed to be. We hurried the rest of the way and had a wonderful meal at “The Forresters Arms”. Michael had Sausages and mashed potatoes, served with a hot salad of greens and brown gravy and I had a Parmesan Quiche with chips and salad. It was such fun to sit in the small back room that contained a mixture of tables, chairs, benches and even two overstuffed chairs!!

We strolled back to our B&B taking almost 100 photos on the way. The scenery is magnificent, as are the trees, paddocks, stone walls, cows and sheep. It was also fun to read the names of the houses along the way, including “Low Barn”, “Thistle Cottage”, “Ivy Cottage”, “Falshaw House”, “Gable Inn” and “Town Foot Farm”.

Our room at the B&B is wonderfully furnished and has a gorgeous view of the Dales from the window. We were both tired so we spent the rest of the day napping, eating junk food and watching tv, ending the night with an episode of “The Last Detective”.

By the way, daylight breaks about 4:00am and dusk is around 9:30, but it never gets a “night-time” dark. It makes for a LONG day. The comment from one person was “we pay for it in the winter because it is dark until about 9:00 am and then again at 3:00 pm”.