Yorkshire Dales - road trip...Hawes, Richmond (to be continued)

 

Woke to a very different day. The weather forecast said "fleeting showers" followed by "light rain".

After breakfast, Heather and I wanted to explore the village some more

First stop was the church which is directly up behind our cottage.

The entrance gate, with a lamp over and the moors behind. We are in Swaledale (valley of the river Swale) which is quite a narrow dale, others are wider, so the moors are close here.

A simple church

with an appropriate stained glass window,

old hymn books,

well loved, fresh flowers on every windowsill. Note the angel formed out of folded pages of a hymn book.

An old treed cemetery

with the moors close by.

The church was built in the 1500s and prior to that the village dead were carried to the neighbouring village for burial, down "Corpse Way" (it took 2 days),

We went looking and found the start of the "Corpse Way" footpath

guarded by the local sheep. So many different breeds. Local sheep have a black face, short curled horns behind the ears and speckled black and white legs.

Cottages in the village still have lovely colourful gardens with roses, dahlias, daisies, cyclamen.

Next to the pub is the Woolen Store

full of hand knitted sweaters, vests, scarfs, socks, hats...wool hats, purses...all so beautiful.

Then next door to that

The Art Gallery in the old school

full of beautiful paintings, prints, pottery, wool felting, sculptures, cards....all too pricey for us.

Across the street, a little used, phone box.

Across the single lane bridge (most are single lane) an overgrown path lead to

the pound, where loose animals were penned and their owners had to pay the local lord to get them back.

Heather's sister Judy was to travel with us but health issues meant she could not get insurance, so her picture is traveling with us, here on the mantelpiece in the living room.

 

Well that took care of the morning and we had a quick lunch before heading off on our planned itinerary.. ...Hawes and Richmond.

I just got back from the pub too tired and full to finish this. I will have to do it tomorrow.

Yorkshire Dales - walk around Muker (Old Norse for small cultivated field)

 I woke at 3am, 7am my time, and spent an hour talking myself into going back to sleep and listening to the river across the road, bubbling and babbling.

 

The view from my window in the morning. A little frosty overnight.

 I woke finally at about 9:30 and felt great, ready to tackle the world. Heather and Don had been up for a while and had found out that the village store was not open until later and the farm selling eggs didn't have any, so they begged sugar and milk from a neighbouring B and B. They had bought croissant and cheese from Paris, so that was breakfast.

We could not believe that we had been gifted with a beautiful sunny day. That was not forecast.

 

We walked up through the village

and followed a footpath sign out

 into the countryside.

The footpaths were well signed

and the first part had a narrow stone pathway with signs requesting that you walk single file to preserve that grass to be hayed for winter fodder.

I took nearly 150 pictures today and picking what goes on the blog is proving to be very difficult.

Everywhere we looked there were stone walls and little stone barns with the moors rising up behind.

Of course there were cattle,

sheep

and horses.

There are weeks worth of footpaths just around Muker and we are only here for 4 days.

Over a wooden bridge to the other side of the river

Female Chaffinch on the path. We also saw Red Kites soaring in the updrafts.

The path took us through gaps in the stone walls with wooden gates. They seemed to get narrower and narrower, perhaps expecting use to loose weight rapidly as we walked.

It rained all day yesterday on our drive from Manchester to the Dales and the walking was soft and the fields very green

but it is fall and the trees are starting to turn yellows and browns

and the Bracken is bronze.

Don providing an assist to Heather, getting over a stile.

We met a number of other walkers, some with dogs, some using phone apps to find the routes.

We just followed the well worn path and the signs,

walked out for an hour and then turned back.

We felt we deserved lunch at the tea room.

We had coffee, sandwiches,

scones with jam and clotted cream,

sitting outside, in the sun, with all the other walkers.

Although the village store had some interesting products (we bought a selection of Yorkshire brand crisps including roast lamb and mint flavoured) we did need to find a grocery store.

We took a jar of jam to the lady at the B and B who had generously given us milk and sugar. She was gardening, pulling up her Dalhia's to store for the winter and let us pick some of the flowers.

With me behind the wheel we headed over the Buttertub Pass to Hawes, where stocked up with breakfast and other staples.

Home and I took a short walk to get pictures of the river that I heard last night

and some of the distinctive local sheep.

Heather's TV. She had never experienced a front load washer before and was mesmerized, constantly checking on it.

Dusk and we headed to the pub. According to Don, our other accommodations are not as close to a pub so we are indulging ourselves in pub dinners while we are here.

Having eaten so much for lunch, I thought I would have a light supper, so ordered two appetizers. Well that didn't work put - mushrooms in a garlic cream sauce and potato skins with melted cheese and a salad was another huge meal.

On the way home... a beautiful night sky and, a first for me,

a hedgehog.

Yorkshire Dales - arrival

The Air Transat flight left a little early, I got about 4.5hrs sleep and landed to drizzle (surprise, surprise) in Manchester. While waiting at the carousel for my luggage I saw Heather and Don waiting for theirs at the next one (their plane had been late and mine early) so we were able to got together over to the rental car village.  Enterprise was a bit messy and tried 3 different cars before they found one that was manual and had a working GPS (called a Sat. Nav here.). Don drove (I didn't think I had had enough sleep to focus on driving). Up the M6 and everything was fine, then on to an A road into the Dales. Don enjoyed the narrow roads, hairpin bends, single lane bridges and moving over for oncoming cars. He later confessed to being terrified but riding high on the adrenaline. I navigated and willed the car to be narrower and Don to drive slower (but kept the latter to myself).

We arrived at our accommodation for the next 4 nights, The Arches, at around dusk.

In the village of Muker.

We had not seen a grocery store so headed straight to the pub

Andy, the owner/bartender.waiter, was really chatty and welcoming.

The menu was extensive

the beers and wine very welcome and the meals were delicious. Heather and Don even shared a jam rolly polly with custard for dessert.

 

We were all in bed by 8:30 (1:30am my time) tired out.