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...

Walk 2 :- Leyburn Shawl

Following the Craster walk, the requests came thick and fast for another one. It was decided to keep the distance the same length at 7 miles. It's quite difficult to find a location where the refreshment stops are in the middle third of the walk & at the end. After much searching on the internet for such establishments & the purchase of some cheap tea shop walk books from Amazon ( oh how the street cred has gone down hill...fast - i do hope that none of my mountaineering friends read this blog !!). This walk started at the village of Wensley (Wensleydale, North Yorkshire) and followed a kind of anticlockwise upside down triangular route to Leyburn & Preston under Scar. The first part of the walk was mainly gentle ascent across farmland and under the Wensleydale railway to the village of Leyburn. It seemed like a good point to stop for a late coffee break. We all settled on the back patio of a B&B/ teashop where there was a resident friendly dog.

I think we all got to know very quickly why........ there was a bite to be had. The weather forecast wasn't great for the day which beforehand was a bit of a worry in my mind for how the rest of the group would deal with that. Thankfully, this was the only point in the day that a shower came. As the table i was on were the last to be served, we had the opportunity to run inside & find the remaining table to enjoy the snack in the dry.

Toasted teacake with butter or rather butter with a toasted teacake. Very good it was too. On leaving the cafe, Leyburn Shawl was signposted just over the road and this part of the walk started in what seemed like a park. Gradually as we walked, the Shawl walk and view became more prominent as the cliffs were more visible to the left hand side. One of the recurring features of the walk was the unusual stiles through the wall. Although not entirely seen in this shot, the tree in the background was a bit unusual as from one particular angle most of the left hand side of it was missing.

The view along Wensleydale became clearer the further west we walked. The photograph below is of Penhill through the trees on the other side of the dale.

After a lunch stop with sandwiches, it was time to descend from the dizzy heights...

...through farmland to Preston under scar. It was rumoured that there was a teashop here but that turned out to be not the case as there wasn't even a shop. I don't think the group were that bothered as we just had lunch, but a walk leader has to think of every eventuality in situations like this !!

The return route cut through more fields & lost a bit more height to the level crossing on the Wensleydale railway. The photograph below is taken just after this point with the railway shown in the foreground and Leyburn Shawl / cliffs in the background.

As the paths turned into farm roads,we gathered up a bit of speed but unfortunately we were stopped in our tracks as we were hit with a bit of on coming traffic going for milking.

Just around the corner was Bolton Hall & a tree lined estate road leading us back to the entrance at the gates on the main road where the cars were parked.

After changing the boots, it was time for refreshments & we seemed to fill / take over the main room of the three horse shoe inn just over the road. Another good day out where the weather held out again for most of the day. I have already some questions being asked me about the date of the next walk.