Dog hire company required

Saturday 26 Aug 2017

The earliest our hosts offered breakfast was 8.30am so we had a lovely lie in with a cup of Yorkshire tea – how nice it is to be able to sit in bed and look at such a fabulous view out the window instead of a fence or roof or road.  We had a very nice cooked breakfast and then on the road again.  We were a bit stressed about getting caught up in all the traffic for the Swaledale Show but we did a bit of back road touring and managed to miss it.  We did, however, stumble across a flat racing paddock which is where the English train their racehorses.  Unfortunately they were just packing up the last horse into a trailer as we got there.  Made our way onwards to Aysgarth falls and managed the steep road down into the valley to see them.  Apart from being very picturesque, these falls are famous for the scene in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves where Kevin Costener and whoever played Little John had their sword fight.  The water looked cold enough for us not to want to recreate the scene although there were some guys wading around collecting something in a bucket.  Bait?

Back in the car and driving through beautiful countryside and to the village of Askrigg – famous as the town used for the TV series All Creatures Great and Small.  Bought ourselves a drink and sandwiches from a little shop/cafe and then drove on towards Hawes.  Very touristy town and absolutely heaving as it is August Bank Holiday weekend.  We will go on to see lots of touring motorbikes today as well as a line of mini mokes (the people in those were very well rugged up!)  Although there are quite a few dark, threatening crowds around it remains dry and generally sunny wherever we are.  I think I got a bit burnt today!  We found the Wensleydale Creamery and sampled quite a few different varieties.  Unadulterated it’s a fairly average tasting cheese but they’ve obviously worked that out so there’s all sorts of options including ones with blueberries, caramelised onion, smoked etc and we bought a couple of small chunks just because.

Our next destination was Hadraw Water Force (waterfall) but it wasn’t well signposted and the GPS sent us some convoluted route and the next thing we knew we were climbing up and up and over the Buttertubs Pass which was spectacular if not a little hair rising particularly when you rounded a corner to find a sheep in the middle of the road. 

We spent the next hour or so wending our way through the back roads of the upper dales before finally leaving Yorkshire and heading into Cumbria and then winding our way back up into the Penines.  We passed through a lot of really wild and desolate country today – amazing that a country with so many millions of people still has these areas that have a very high sheep population and a very low human one!

We stopped at Low Force waterfall (thought it was High Force but once again poor signage confused us) and had our sandwiches on a rocky ledge looking over the falls.  Lots of families there enjoying their bank holiday with a picnic and a walk and EVERYONE without fail had a dog with them except us.   Honestly, there should be a dog hire company in England so you can hire a dog to take with you everywhere, otherwise you stick out and look like a tourist.  We really haven’t seen any other foreign tourists since we left York and took to the countryside – everywhere we have been has been English families enjoying the school holidays and the long weekend.

Continued our zig-zaggy way north and eventually hit Haydon Bridge which is where we are staying tonight.  Back on a more major road and headed west towards Vindolanda.  We arrived about 3.30pm but doesn’t close til 6pm this time of the year so all good.  Wandered all around and over (really, it’s amazing that they don’t care about people trampling all over these archaeological sites) and you get a really good idea of the layout of the town and the fort.  Very impressive that so much has been worked out about what every building was used for, how many storeys they may have been, even what god would have been worshipped in any particular temple.

Checking the clock we figured we might have just enough time to go up Housesteads fort which is right on Hadrian’s Wall.  Arrived at 4.30pm and thinking it closed at 5pm we high-tailed it up the hillside (GASP!) to check out the ruins and to stand on the wall and pretend we were looking for marauders from the north.  After 5pm and still plenty of people up on the hill and we suspected maybe the dash up the hill quite that fast hadn’t been necessary after all.  Never mind, good for our fitness and at this rate, based on the walking and climbing of hills/steps we are doing we might actually lose weight these holidays!

Eventually made our way back to the car and managed to stumble across our B&B “Hadrian Lodge” on the way back to Haydon Bridge.  Checked in, meanwhile fending off the world’s friendliest and most fittest chocolate Labrador, then rewarded ourselves after our long day of driving, with a drink and a spot of Wifi in the lounge before heading into Haydon Bridge for dinner at The Anchor Hotel which was right on the river.  We watched the ducks pretending to be salmon and swim upstream while we waited for our food to arrive and Larry had a colour-changing gin and tonic.  A blueish colour until you add the tonic and then it goes pink.  Apparently it had a raspberry flavour hint to it and Larry said it was very nice.  Dinner for Jenny was creamy, garlicky pasta with prawns and chorizo.  Larry had a chicken, brie and cranberry burger and fries.  Was a bit of a long wait for the food to arrive so pretty much straight home to bed afterwards.