A Bus ride and Waterfall walk, Hawes, Wensleydale

Now that I have finished my trio of Welsh posts, I'd like to follow that up with a group of three individual posts. As with the last series, the reasons will become obvious by the third post.

I have been loosely associated with a West Yorkshire social and walking group for some time, My friend, known to you as the Scarborough Sandcastle manager has a similar friendship to the people in the group. The Leeds link asked him to organise a Yorkshire Dales day event and this is the ... err ... timing challenges that he came up with. Apologies for the ordinary bunch of images but due to the snapshots, constant catch up and exhaustion of the day ... I'm putting a bit more effort here into the autobiographical writing style on this occasion, hope the variety holds it.

At the start of the day, I had my unfounded doubts on some unknown variables such as how many people would turn out for an early start so far from their usual stamping ground and was the day too ambitious ?

We descended with our cars in Leyburn and caught up with old friends before the vintage bus arrived from Ripon in mid morning. Thankfully there were enough seats for everyone.

It was a pleasant journey along some less well known roads through Wensleydale  from Leyburn in the East to Hawes in the west.

For those interested in the route here's a link for the current ...  Vintage Dales bus timetable

Not the most vintage bus in the fleet but reliable nonetheless !

Essentially the bus covered the tourist hot spots along the way such as Castle Bolton, Aysgarth Falls and a connection point with the Wensleydale Railway car park at Redmire (above). A suitable photo opportunity and a quick stretch of the legs while we waited for the arrival of the train from Leeming Bar.

On arrival at the Hawes Railway station car park, it was somewhat surprising to be greeted with the above scene considering that the railway currently terminates at Redmire.

Transport of the past going to places in the future !

On closer inspection, it turned out that this was a static exhibit realising the dream for the public of the hopefully not too distant future... I was left wondering whether in turn that would retire the vintage bus service for good.

The narrowest but longest shop award ... in my opinion

Readers may remember that I've been here before in an autumn deluge of rain ... (Hawes 2010)  and covered a few shots and history of the town including the rope makers. The weather was that bad on that day that I chose not to photograph the front door of the unusual Ropemaker's shop. Hope this redresses the balance.

Enough of transport and history, it was time to stock up on some packed lunch as there was no time to shop in Leyburn. We were inspired to pick up some local delicacies in this Butcher / Baker's shop.

Unfortunately though not everyone was welcome in the shop despite the longing eyes wondering what the contents of the paper bags were.

My friend and organiser for the day is known for his walks and to be fair the next leg of the journey was only a flat 4 miles (6.4km) round trip on flat terrain to a waterfall. The group of 9 people that turned out from the Yorkshire social group (plus myself, the organiser and another friend) had experience in walking and those that were just interested in tourism seemed to stay away.

Despite the short distance, there was always the thought in the back of my head about what time the bus departed at and whether or not this short distance was achievable or not. The scenery was quite pleasant anyway crossing over the fields.

It wasn't long though before we arrived at the toll point of The Green Dragon Inn.

13th century Inn

The land to the rear of the pub which includes Hardraw Force is maintained by the owners of The Green Dragon Inn. A quick look at the website reveals that the fee has increased with inflation to the princely 2014 sum of £2.50.

Hardraw Force at the end of a short wooded ravine walk is reputed to be England's highest single drop waterfall. Visiting here on a school geography trip when I was about 14 years old, I remember walking behind the waterfall on a ledge. Sadly today with erosion, water spray, slippy rocks, Health and Safety, that is no longer possible or even inviting for that matter.

Time for lunch followed by a communal dessert sample of Yorkshire Curd Tart that one kind person bought in the shop earlier.

... and enough time to sample the delights of The Green Dragon before the walk back to Hawes.

We made good time and had about 30 minutes spare to have a quick look around before the bus departed. It was an opportunity to catch anything I missed or couldn't take because of the weather on the previous occasion. Come to think of it, I've never ever been here on my own before to look ... and wait ... for the best shots, it's always been a rush !

As I didn't have the time to lose myself in what I was doing I opted to retake the shepherd sculpture in the middle of the street.

 It is apt to mention at this point that the Tour de France cycle race has an opening leg in a foreign country and this year part of that is in Yorkshire. Le Tour passes through Hawes on July 5th 2014 en route to Swaledale at the northern end of the clockwise Dales circuit.

The bus journey back to Leyburn between 3 and 4pm seemed less memorable than the outward one partly because we were covering the same ground in reverse, but more importantly with the talking all done and the constant drone of the engine, most of us to nodded off for a snooze at various intervals.
However everyone had a rude awakening on the rickety approach turning off the main road and award winning reversing manoeuvre into Redmire Railway station car park.

One thing that kept me going was the thought of a pub meal at 6pm in Leyburn square. However little did I know what was in store for me next. Some of the girls fancied the freedom of a 1 hour shopping spree ... not something that readily comes to mind in Leyburn considering the flagship shop is an Ironmonger !!
The town wasn't conducive to photography as there were too many cars parked everywhere so I went with the alternative plan from my friend who doesn't give up easily on walking.

The Leyburn Shawl walk is one of the most subtlest inclines and is essentially an extension of a walk to the park where the visitor is constantly enticed to go a little further for a slightly better tree free view. I knew I had to do this option as I was the reins on this walk that looked like galloping away and missing the 6pm gastro appointment. I distinctly remember saying "We need to go back, it's 5 o'clock now" and "It's ten past five now" !! The downhill section in 50 minutes seemed more acceptable !!

We were met by the shoppers 3/4 of the way back in the park who didn't know what else to do, so thought they'd wait for us with the immediate view of Wensleydale to enjoy.

All in all it was a great day out, but we hardly had any slack in the timings to send a postcard ...

... and we could have done with the services afterwards of one of the Leyburn businesses...

Hawes, Yorkshire Dales

A weeks rain?? !!

The market town of Hawes is situated at the western end of Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales National park and is probably most famous for the production of cheese (12th century french Monk recipe carried on by farmers wives in the 16th century) at the creamery just outside the town centre. Like many other locations in Yorkshire, the making of TV programmes such as the nostalgic  James Herriot's "All Creatures Great and Small" bring the tourist to Wensleydale with a destination of Hawes to purchase some cheese (12th century French monk recipe) that the animated characters of Wallace and Grommit adored.
    Several months ago I was asked if I wanted to go with friends for what can be best described loosely as a spiritual retreat to a country house near Carnforth in North Lancashire. Essentially, the weekend was just going to happen for me as I was just going to be a car passenger, but I needed to get the friday off work as the group always do a hill walk on the fringes of the Lake District on the way down. However, not one to get off lightly, yes you've guessed it, I was informed at short notice that I was organising the friday walk. In previous years, the group have climbed mountains with grades that would make any ordinary hillwalker proud. Unfortunately, after studying the weather forecast all week, today was no "Jacks Rake" Langdale Pikes day! I was weighing up a choice between the Lake District mountain "High Street" from Haweswater or the Yorkshire Dales mountain "Whernside" from Ribblehead viaduct. To cut a long story short, the weather was awful and seeing I was the only one in the car who had not been before, it was me who got the blame !! The walking option I eventually came up with on the day, was to go to Ribblehead viaduct ( Carlisle & Settle railway) and assess the weather.
   As it seemed like a poor start to the day with regards to the weather, I came up with the idea of stopping at Hawes  for an hour to see if the weather would improve, hence the reason for being here.
   It had been some time since I was last here and even though I had an idea of the layout of the town, I was unsure of the images I would end up with. Although the weather didn't help, I was a little disappointed with the architecture of the buildings. There was some scope near the waterfall above, but I had to keep up with the group who gave me a mixed impression that they didn't want to get too wet in the town but wanted to head south to start the walk.

Unlikely fusion of ancient and modern !!

Rain shelter !!

On the edge of town, there was an eerie faceless farming sculpture scene within a small fenced park in the middle of the road that looked more like part of a nativity scene.

I had an idea of what I wanted to photograph but it wasn't happening for me due to the dynamics of the angles and obstructions on the ground. I wasn't quite happy with just taking the shepherd as the background was messy but kept the image anyway......

early Christmas card ??!!

Ropes have been made in Hawes since well before 1725 when the first registered ropemaker died.  Records show that bell ropes for the local church were made between 1726 and 1802. It became a family business during the 19th century when they also looked after the toll road entrance fee into the town. At the beginning of the 20th century, the rope business was sold to another family but the railways and World War one played their part in disturbing the balance of what had gone on before.

In the 1920s, the previous family owners needed the adjacent Gatehouse as a dwelling for his newly married son so the business was moved to its present site near the (now disused) railway station. The rope making continued through the difficulties of getting supplies during World War two until electric motors changed the process in 1952. As more of the family retired, it looked likely that the business would close in 1974 but it was kept alive by two college lecturers who moved to the area and continued to use the family name. The retired owner was still around to mentor the couple in the transition period but the business survived due to another unusual occurrence at that time and indeed to this day, thanks to an event which takes me back to the beginning of this post ....the publishing of the fictitious books of the Vet, James Herriot.

Church Bell ropes

scented scones !!

We ended up in a local cafe away from the rain and even although I didn't fancy certain items to eat, we discussed, like country folk, the weather and I was left perusing the options for the afternoon walk, thinking about the continuing theme of the excessive Hawes moisture both outside and inside!!