Another walk on the Dales

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Friday 19th June
Another walk on the Dales
The weather has improved a little today from yesterday and so has my cold.Mind you being out in that chilling wind would have cleared the worst sinus or head cold!!!
With the black pudding and bacon from Tuesday market finished it was back to scrambled egg today.Heres hoping the Skipton market which we plan to go tomorrow has black pudding on offer somewhere.
Cousin Iain and his wife Chris called for us around 10am and we drove off in their Renault Clio to Malham via a rather windy and narrow road to Malham from where we would start our walk on the dales.
The weather was actually quite good for walking as the wind from the past couple of days had died away and although it was overcast the temperature wasn’t quite so cool as it has been.
There were dozens of people at Malham,mostly schoolchildren out for a days walk.
We set off across level farmland before joining a stream that eventually led us through a treed area to Janet’s Foss,which was a waterfall with a pool big and deep enough to swim in if the temperature was warmer.A foss for the uninitiated is a Viking word for waterfall and demonstrates that this area was occupied by the the Vikings hundreds of years ago.
The trail led steadily upwards and we stopped in at a spectacular limestone gorge to take in the view.The towering cliffs were creating their own wind which swirled around as we gazed up at the walls ground out during the ice age.
Then the path started to climb more appreciably and we were into paddocks with more sheep than there had been at lower levels.Every stone fence to be crossed either had a stile or a swing gate.The land is privately owned but the farmer has to allow walkers onto his property under the National Park agreements.Dogs are allowed to accompany their owners but they are encouraged to be on a leash.We can’t imagine any of this ever happening in NZ.
As we climbed further a RAF jet sceamed across the sky above us so quick that I missed getting the camera out to record the incident as I did yesterday.I wish the RAF would give me their timetable as it would make life much easier!!
Our pace slowed a bit as we reached Malham Cove and climbed across the limestone to find a sheltered spot to have something to eat and drink.While we were chatting away to Iain and Chris another couple sitting nearby recognised our accents weren’t from around here and introduced their friends who were from Christchurch.All this way and on an isolated spot on the dales and here were another 2 people from NZ!!
The village of Malham lay beneath us and the trail down was short and steep although very well laid out in steps.
From the bottom the view back up to the of the cove made people standing near the edge look so small.There were a group of people from the Royal Bird Society equipped with powerful looking telescopes and binoculars searching for falcons that nest and catch their food in the area.We looked hard but couldn’t spot any,shame.
With the time approaching 1.30pm we were all ready for lunch and it was decided that we would head down to the Premier Inn at Gargrave for the lunch special of 2 people for GBP9.Gretchen and I had steak and ale pie with chips which was a very tasty and welcome top up for the middle of the day.
Chris took us home after dropping Iain at Long Preston on the way to Settle so he could let their dog Alfie out.They had thought about bringing Alfie with them on the walk but he is 12 years old and they thought he might not be up to it.
We hardly needed feeding again today after the big breakfast and huge late lunch but eventually as the early evening rolled on hunger pangs came back again.
As it was Friday we decided on our usual of fish and chips.There were two chippies to choose from but we went for the one in the Shambles and ordered up a fillet of cod and chips for each of us.We skipped the mushy peas and gravy as our previous experience at Holyhead hadn’t been that great.
So with a traditional Friday night dinner in front of us and Coronation Street to watch we settled down to rest up and be ready for tomorrows adventures.

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Comments

[Rin]

Yesss...another excellent shot of Murray :-) And *drool* at the mention of the steak and ale pie...you really are discovering all my old English faves this week!!