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...

The Keswick Launch and Catbell's Terrace

The Sunday was a more relaxing day compared to the previous day. The group decided to eat packed lunch walk overlooking the jetty area where the Keswick Launch departs from .....

..while we considered which boat not to take across the Lake !!

The long walk...

.. to load up...

.... across the water ... (Castle crag lower centre ...derwentwater,borrowdale and castle crag post )

... towards our destination ...

... of Catbells.

Once we reached the other side at "Hawes End" jetty, there was a discussion on how the party were going to split into three groups. One group was going to walk the Lakeshore, another group opted for the  Catbells Terrace and the rest for the summit of Catbells.

Keswick ... far left hand side of the Lake

Now you may think that this looks like wonderful weather and in one sense you would be right, but what these images do not show is the intense strong wind. We began the ascent and it was obvious that this was not going to be as easy as first thought. One of the group made a quick decision to retreat and catch up with the "Terrace" group. I had a talk with another responsible leader just before a crag about continuing as I felt it was outside the capabilities of another who I felt didn't want to continue. My co-leader on this section of the walk decided to try and catch the others up but they couldn't hear for the wind and pressed on. I escorted the unsure member back down to the Terrace and continued the scenic from there.

View from Catbell's Terrace

Amazingly, the high level group met us at the south end of the walk as they came off the hill and we headed back to Brandlehow Jetty. The further surprise was that the original Terrace group were already on the jetty and the Lakeshore group arrived on the boat.

I was left to reflect on this hillwalking experience as we set sail back to the other side of the Derwentwater

At the end of the day, it was time to put these all thoughts to bed .....

... and leave the experts that see these things everyday to get on with it !!

Kirby Stephen, Kendal & onto Borrowdale

I'm heading off to the Lake District for some walking for the following few posts but I can offer a bit of photographic variety. This was the journey that my friend and I took to get there. It wasn't the most direct route to take but it was mainly for his benefit. Bear with me, it's a long day.

(I have had to miss a few posts out as I am going to be seriously behind after this and the latest adventure that I have just had, but I promise that I will share them at a quiet moment. I am in between another two trips and have just today left at home, will try and catch up with some of your blogs today... 230 on RSS feed is rather a lot though... need to pack as well.)

Kirkby Stephen is a market town on the edge of Cumbria with the main building of St Stephen's parish church dominating the landscape.

There were several early churches on this site before the current one was built in 1240 with modifications and restoration in 1847 and the 1870's.

These were taken on The Royal Wedding day with the above image being at the time of the wedding. How different and peaceful is "The Cathedral of the Dales" compared to Westminster Abbey at this time. (I did catch up with the TV coverage later in the day.)

The Newsagent was open for business and all was peaceful as we sat and had lunch in the market square next to the flower beds (seat in first image).

We couldn't sit here forever enjoying the peace and tranquility as we had a task to perform today to help my friend out. As we left Kirkby Stephen travelling westwards, I discussed my future interest with the preserved railway there and as the rest of the day was all about him, he insisted that we stop the car and take a look at this great sight. The two class 37 locomotives of my interest are a long way off completion but the railway station building looks in reasonable order.

After a short period we arrived in Kendal. It is not a great place to find somewhere to park the car and the above image describes perfectly the theme that we had to follow a one way system over many bridges to get back to check a previous car park out. He is helping to organise a holiday in South Cumbria this week and we had to find a suitable car park in this town to accept 5 cars on a busy weekday.

 The object of this exercise was to lead a walk for a large group and while he was off asking the locals about other facilities, I found a small fraction of time to see what was available for capture.

Kendal is another South Cumbrian market town on the River Kent that most people associate with the sugary substance of Kendal mint cake which was marketed as an energy food for the mountains.... something you won't find in my back pack !! Historically Kendal was a fortified town from the Border Reivers with the main industry of that time being the manufacture of woollen goods.

Bank Holiday main street

On a side note, this is the town where Blackburn born Alfred Wainwright moved to during the 1940's to continue his career as a treasurer with the council albeit with a pay cut to be near the Lake District Hills. Ten years later he commenced his 7 pencil drawn "Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells". It took him 13 years to complete this project, drawing or writing one page every evening. He described 214 Lakeland fells in these books mainly for his personal pleasure but at the time a local Newspaper (The Westmorland Gazette) wanted to publish these pages and due to their sensitivity of the area, he agreed. The "Wainwrights" have been walked and completed by many people, including myself, and a list is maintained by the Long Distance Walkers Association on their website. Alfred Wainwright went on to write and draw many more large style coffee table / armchair books and long distance walks such as the Pennine Way Companion and Coast to Coast after he retired in 1967. He died in 1991 and his ashes were scattered on his favourite hill, Haystacks, overlooking Buttermere Lake.

Town Hall, Wainwright's workplace?!

It is at this point that my friend's walk starts from going in the direction behind the camera....

Up the hill ...

... and out of town

As the time was starting to disappear, there wasn't time to do all of the walk and as he had done some of it before, it was mainly an exercise in finding the footpath that left town. It was a pleasant path amongst the peripheral rolling hills of Cumbria although nothing really to get excited about photographically as we crossed a golf course further on and stopped above the main road exiting the Lake District to the south.

We found an alternative lower level route back with a similar aspect of views and stopped for a snack outside this barn.

A few locals came for a look

Path back into town ... 90 minutes in total

Tea shop closed

 We then travelled on to our destination for the weekend in Borrowdale ......

Arrival at last ... Glaramara

Glaramara outdoor centre was built in the earlier part of the 20th century when walking and climbing in the mountains were a new thing to most people wanting to explore that activity. Since then, it has played host to group bookings for a selection of outdoor activities and courses but due to under investment over the years it has become less of a Hotel but more than a Hostel. The new owners have taken on a big challenge and there are encouraging signs of tasteful development in this period building. Now who wouldn't want to stay here with a view like this from the front door ....

The mountain Glaramara .... (next post)

 Now what about that cup of tea that I have been waiting all day for......   !!

Having to wait a little longer at the Miss Marple trolley  !!