Markets, Mills, Trains, Boats and Dales Tuesday 02 August 2011

Up at 07:00 to enjoy my breakfast before we leave at 09:00. The breakfast is a buffet with a good selection of hot and cold food. My bacon and eggs are delicious and everything is all very relaxed with people sitting where they like.
As the people give their room number on the way in they are given a menu for this evening to complete. I can see a few not doing this as it is not very well explained. A problem I will leave the hotel staff to deal with.
Just before we depart the lady in charge of the restaurant appears with a handful of menu’s and a couple of pencils. Those that haven’t made their choices can now do so.
I am a bit embarrassed to admit I was one of the guilty few! As soon as I saw the lady with her menus I realised I had forgotten to complete mine! I thought I could slyly get away with it but no, I am seen filling one in outside of the coach!
If nothing else I seem to have gained a couple of pencils!
Today we are going to visit the beautiful Yorkshire Dales, a part of the country I love but have rarely visited in recent years.
It is a damp morning but the forecast is favourable for later in the day.
Our first stop is the pretty village of Grassington where we enjoy some time to explore this pretty village and indulge in a nice cup of Yorkshire tea.
As we arrive the rain has stopped and it has become very warm.
I park in the coach park and once they are all off I go into the National Park Centre to find out about a coach map for the area. I remember having one before telling me what roads I can and cannot drive on and would like a new one. Some of the roads are narrow and I want to make sure I only drive on roads I am allowed to!
From here we take the road north towards Hawes and it is narrow, very narrow in places, and even narrower at times! The scenery is gorgeous with lovely green meadows sectioned off with dry stone walls and old, sometimes decrepit, stone store houses scattered about the fields.
I am a little relieved to reach the main road without too many incidents with vehicles coming the other way. A bit of a dodgy drive but worth it for the scenery.
We arrive in Hawes on market day and see a few old busses running about on some local routes. It is lovely to see and makes me wish I had a vintage coach. One day!
We spend a couple of hours in Hawes hopefully allowing enough time to visit this small town with its market, museums and of course time for lunch. Hawes is the home of Wensleydale cheese and you can visit the Wensleydale Cheese Creamery and museum. I don’t visit the creamery but do buy some cheese as it is one of my favourites.

I have my lunch in a cafe close to the coach park and rope makers and enjoy a superb Wensleydale cheese baguette followed by the nicest homemade scone I have tasted. All not very important but just wanted you to know!
By the time we leave Hawes the sun has come out and it is now a beautiful afternoon. The scenery is stunning with clear blue skies the backdrop to gorgeous green hills (high but not quite mountains!) and shorn sheep everywhere. In some of the fields you will see a pile of wool from the recently sheared sheep and the sheep themselves running about naked!
During our picturesque ride we stop close to the Ribblehead Viaduct, a beautiful arched bridge that carries the Settle/Carlisle Railway and is a famous beauty spot.
I only just stop though as the first lay-by I pull into is full of puddles and I drive over one of these puddles and nearly sink! The bus bangs the ground and I quickly move back onto the road and end up stopping on the road so we can get out and take some pictures. It is a beautiful sight. And we see a train travel across, a freight train, but a train nonetheless! Our happy snappers are happy!
There seem to be a lot of lorries on the road and mostly tipper lorries who are not the most forgiving and courteous drivers on the road. If it’s a narrow bit of the road we meet one and it is always me who slows down. For a very long time I am being followed by one of these lorries and I can see him keep putting his nose out as if to overtake me but he is only trying to bully me into moving over. No chance pal!

We drive through Settle on the way back and I am going to stop for half an hour but there is a market on here too and it is close tov the coach parking area and the road I want is shut so we carry on back to the hotel. Probably just as well because it is now raining very heavily.
I am a little tired today and don’t enjoy the drive back from the viaduct. It seems to be me against all these aggressive lorries and I don’t like it. That’s why I didn’t let the doughnut behind me pass!
We are back at the hotel just before five and the passengers have enjoyed a good day. I hope they have anyway!
Once I have dropped them all back at the hotel I go for a short drive left from the hotel to see what is there and if it is possible to walk one evening. The next village is Rishton and it is a bit of a walk away up and down hills. They must be fit in this neck of the woods because you can walk in any direction and you will be either going downhill or uphill.


Hollie has been to Sorrento with the school for the last five days and is home today after having a great time.