Travelling Down That Lonesome Road(Ricky Skaggs) - A Short Hop from Hayfield,Derbyshire to Pudsey,West Yorkshire - 4th August 2016

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After such a large dinner last night it really doesn’t seem right this morning to be going down to the dining room for a full English breakfast. Thank goodness they spread the breakfast time out from between 8.30am and 10am.We are going to leave it until after 9am before going down for breakfast this morning to give more time for last night’s dinner to be digested.

The full English was just that with black pudding, baked beans etc etc, the works!Very tasty but filling. We certainly won’t need much for lunch today if anything at all.

My cousin Rhona lives in Pudsey which is located between Leeds and Bradford and we will try and get to her more suburban location by skirting the other large town of Huddersfield which lies just off the M62.

The upper part of the Peak National Park is steeper than the lower area and the landscape tends to be a bit more barren.

We had the GPS set on the shortest route which we have found often leads to a mix of back roads to take you to your destination by the shortest possible distance and therefore not always the widest of roads.

The A624 out of Hayfield took us up to the summit of the road as we climbed out of a valley and there was a fabulous vantage point that we stopped at for some wonderful views back down the valley towards Hayfield where we had spent the night.

Things had started out OK this morning and it seemed we would stay the other side of a series of dams that are the water supply for the major cities of Manchester, Leeds etc and avoid the busy road north from Manchester that was carrying a lot of large trucks.

Then things changed and we drove across the top of one of the dams and joined the main road, the A628 with the trucks. Thankfully this lasted a very short distance and the GPS took us off to the left and onto a narrow road the A6024 and up the hills towards a very tall communications mast, the top of which was lost at times in the swirling cloud from the near gale force wind. This was taking us towards Honley but not before we passed directional signs to more of those colourful English place names in this case all associated with the word ‘thong’,Upperthong,Netherthong and Thongsbridge.How these locations ever got their names is beyond even trying to imagine!

Heading down from the summit of the road the wind appeared to die away somewhat although it was probably as much to do with being in the lee of the hills and sheltered from the westerly. This wind was starting to remind us of what spring will be like when we get home through October and November.

We had been hoping to avoid both Huddersfield and the busy M62 and the GPS was doing a good job until she took us into an industrial part of the city and the idea of continuing on the shortest route became less attractive as that route now appeared to include traversing the city.

So we did the switch to the fastest route which took us quickly to the M62 and before we knew it we were in Pudsey and the streets became slightly familiar from our last visit here three years ago.

It was wonderful to meet cousin Rhona again and as in the past we had that tinge that we wished we had been able to meet more often in the past and had discovered each other when we were both a lot younger.

She had a salad lunch ready for us and we were thankful it was something light after last night’s pub meal and the full English breakfast of this morning.

Rhona’s daughter Fiona and husband Tom called over from Wakefield shortly after we arrived. It was the first time we have met them but now we have added another relative to the ancestry chart that we have met in person.

Cousin Iain (Rhona’s youngest brother) and his wife Chris travelled down from Long Preston in the Yorkshire Dales to visit in the afternoon. Our short stay had clashed with a trip they had already arranged away from tomorrow but we spent a good part of the afternoon catching up. We do see and talk to Iain a little more often than Rhona as he has Skype. Rhona doesn’t have a camera on her desktop computer and we hope her family might buy her a present of one soon and help her install it.

Later in the afternoon we all took a short stroll down to a fruit and produce shop near Rhona’s home as Fiona and Tom needed some meat for their dinner and it was a chance to see some of the local produce they sold including cheeses and meats.

Gretchen always checks out the kiwifruit that are on display just to make sure that if they are presented in a Zespri box that they have the Zespri label on. There have been a number of instances during the BBA travels that she has discovered fruit with the Zespri label in a Zespri box and she will take the shop assistant to task if she gets the opportunity.

Today though all was in order, well almost!

Apparently they had just got the NZ fruit in from their wholesaler but still had a couple of Chilean kiwis to sell from what they sold previously. Gretchen gave them a friendly reminder just to make sure that we Kiwis like to see our fruits correctly presented!

Later, after the others had headed home to avoid rush hour traffic Rhona drove us up to the town centre and we took a stroll around the park to stretch our legs.

Dinner was our favourite, roast beef with Yorkshire puds.It was just as well we had worked up a bit more of an appetite after the walk.

Then friends of Rhona that we had met previously Wilf and Brenda called around. Like Rhona and her late husband Eric, they had been owners of a Post Office/ store for many years and have been very good friends. We spent a very enjoyable couple of hours putting the world to rights and talking about a wide range of subjects. We must say that having the extra company of relations and friends we have been enjoying since arriving in England and starting off with Jean, Stella and Janet has been great.

Tomorrow Rhona has a tour of some local sights planned and to end the day dinner at a local fish and chip restaurant. Time for more mushy peas.....we shall see!

PS:It was a lonely road at times to Pudsey as we drove up and down hills with the wind swirling all around us.Enjoy on Youtube.

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