Blogs from North Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 8

I usually like the idea of Scarborough more than the reality. As I watched the rain lash down on the front of the bus, I suspected today was no exception. It was Easter Saturday and the weather should have turned by now. Instead the clocks might have changed for summer, but nobody had told the man in charge of global temperatures. The rain turned to sleet between Whitby and Cloughton and snow was forecast for Bank Holiday Monday. The start of the school holidays had prompted my decision to buy an All Day bus ticket. £8 and you can catch any Arrivabus in the North East. The area between Newcastle and Scarborough was now within my reach, although the timetables will force you to spend literally all day on the bus to achieve that distance. The ... read more

Last night I had stayed and eaten at my favourite pub in the entire country and possibly the world, this had been a real ‘look forward to’ moment for me; I just hoped the pub was still as great as I remembered as I had gone on about it to the rest of our group on more than 1 occasion!! Luckily as soon as we arrived and had settled in I realised the pub was just as great as I remembered luckily the rest of my group especially the American contingent seemed to agree with me. The portion sizes were still huge though so quite a bit of food was left over at our evening meal, even Pete was turning down food and that hardly ever happens!! The next day we stepped outside to be presented ... read more

Waking up today I was discouraged slightly by the chance of wet weather I guess it had to happen eventually as we had so far been very lucky in recent days with bright sunshine and it being quite hot. We started with very windy conditions but dry at least, we had a walk up to the accommodation where 2 of the Devon girls had stayed which was a sharp uphill climb! From there it was again sharp uphill which saw me struggling from the off, I was as usual last in the group and falling further and further back. Once home if I come across another hill in my entire life it will be far too soon! Plodding on the ascent just seemed to get steeper and steeper and I got slower and slower, it's pleasantly ... read more

Well it has to be said that the town of Richmond was a pure delight, we visited an excellent chocolatiers called Mocha had a walk around the town then retired to the pub we were staying in for an afternoon of relaxed drinking and chit chat. A guy Pete had climbed Kilimanjaro with called Ken Topham had driven up from Saddleworth to have a catch up with the hubster, he seemed like a nice guy with a lot of patience; possibly how he managed to survive sharing a tent with Pete for so long!! Waking up the next day I was starting to feel really good and ready for the hike ahead, we had 14.5 miles to cover across flat and downhill farmland which was again another dramatic change from the rolling hills and dry stone ... read more

We had stayed at a fantastic place the previous day called Butt House in Keld as such I was well refreshed for the day ahead. Sadly shortly after starting off I was feeling quite ill and had a poorly tummy for ‘womens’ reasons! I was loving the walking through rolling farmers fields and alongside a beautiful river, due to the scheduled poor weather we had taken the low route. I was struggling not because of the walking which was great and easier than what had gone previously, but my stomach was not playing ball. The weather had once again been kind to us with it being dry and occassionally warm, leaving the beautiful village of Keld we were heading for Reeth about 11 miles away. I quickly decided that I would have to bail at the ... read more