A day in the Dales.

So my vacation is slowly drawing to an end but i'm pleased to say i can finally announce the closely guarded plans i've been planning with LL for the last couple of months, but that will follow shortly....

So i know i didnt type a blog to accompany the images from Blackpool but to be fair their wasnt a huge amount to put so i thought the images were good enough to be left up alone, i hope you enjoyed them.

So cracking on with the latest batch which are from as the title suggests a day in the dale's late last week. The weather wasn't that cracking but at the same time i'd wanted to head away into the country with Laura since i got back from that last contract.

So i got the chore of my early morning dental appointment out of the way and we headed out with the intended destinations of Malham Cove in North Yorkshire and also Bolton Abbey on the way back.

We reached Malham around eleven thirty and i was pretty surprised at how many visitors were there on a Friday, school/college groups as well as families.

The walk to the foot of the cove is around a half mile from the road, but it takes 10 minutes to reach the start of the trail. The hike, and it is a hike! up to the top of the sheer limestone cliff face well that depends how many stops you make, but it's well worth it on a good day. The views are stunning and if you dare the drop from top to bottom breathtaking.

Needless to say the walk back down is pretty much easy going and a lot less demanding than the other direction.

There are two other points of interest nearby, well a mile out in the other direction from Malham. You have Gordale Scar which is another cliff face, but not as open as Malham Cove, and also the pleasant waterfall Janet's Foss, the latter of which you can see images off attached to this blog.

So with the time now around one thirty, i'd been told my my Auntie and Uncle of a trail known as the Ingleton Falls trail which was supposed to be very picturesque, so with the distance on 11 miles anyways and already driving in the direction of settle we decided to head there.

now the cost of £9 for the two of us wasn't exactly good value for money (especially with us having to walk) but we weren't dissapointed and well the exercise did us good too!! The distance was around 4 miles, maybe just over but as you can see and hopefully agree the images speak for themselves.

The only thing i would say regarding Ingleton's trail is that if you do decided to go here, don't expect waterfall after waterfall as in total there are around 5 or 6, however 2 of these are viewable from viewpoints and aren't actually viewable, in particular Showy falls wasn't very forthcoming at all.

Still it was a good day and i managed to get some decent images and Malham is always worth whilst visiting whatever the weather. I would however like to return to Ingleton Falls after some heavy rain.

So the big revelations then.......

Well one or two people, close friends and family have known of certain plans to travel for the last couple of months now. The plans first came to the surface earlier this year when it was announced at work that cutbacks were highly likely at Fred Olsen Cruise lines.

As most of you know i took a trip over to South Africa earlier in the year (April) to see my good old friend Andy Gove. I was lucky enough to meet some amazing new friends (Cam & Hayley, Kyle and Wayne as well as a fair few others). Before i left i'd also met someone (Laura) who ya might say caught my eye.

So i asked Laura before i left if she'd like to come to New Zealand with me, which i'm happy to say she said yes to.

So we talked some more over the summer months and we managed (our two ships docked together) to meet a handful of times and talk some more and start outlining some plans, and then as the summer wore on we narrowed these plans down to recently when we came up with the (very) basic outline of our travelling plan which im delighted to say has now been booked.

here you go.....we travel from Sheffield on the Mega Bus (travelling in style) down to London on the 6th November, where we will be staying at the Sheraton (6th) near Heathrow airport. On the 7th we fly with Cathay Pacific at 1130hrs to Hong Kong. We land (8th) in Hong Kong where we will spend the entire day (Boo), after a day sleeping, browsing, and no doubt wifi-ing it up we then travel at around 1530hrs on to Auckland where we finally arrive at around 7am on the 9th (Happy days of 48hrs flying).

So thats about all we have planned in terms of getting to Auckland, we did however manage to score a 3 for 2 deal on nights in the Quadrant hotel (thanks to the good folks at expedia) which should allow us some time to recover from THAT flight.

The one major highlight (Thanks Mum & Dad (Julie & Richard)) is we will be flying from Auckland to Sydney on xmas eve and staying in Sydney until the 2nd January in the High Cross Lodge. It's gonna be amazing to spend New years in Sydney Harbour!! PLus it's Lauras birthday on the 29th December too!!

We return to Auckland on the 2nd January to continue working and travelling our way around the North and South Islands as well as hopefully exploring some of the outer islands. This is apparently where the true spirit of New Zealand (According to the dispatcher in Olden, Norway - she's a Kiwi not a Norwegian spouting of random information).

Well all good things come to an end but not until the 6th April next year so please make your xmas cards this year e-cards!!!!

thanks for listening, if you're interested in following the travels of Dave and Laura (LL) from here on in, click subscribe, and please, please, please leave some comments on the images which are appearing!!!

take care
Jd

Visited Countries Map

---

Part of trip: United Kingdom - Not actually so united anymore....

---