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A quick diary . . .


Wednesday 21st September 2016
 

Left home 1030. Stopped near Newark for a cuppa.

Go to first stop about 2:30pm - Brimham Rocks. Very interesting place. A hilly area where the soft sandy soil had washed away and exposed harder sandstone structures. Had a good climb about, took loads of photos.

                                 


Looked for somewhere for lunch. Saw lots of satellite dish domes on a hill and headed towards them. Found RAF Menwith Hill and sat in layby with view of domes for ham rolls lunch in car. Police car stopped to ask if everything was ok. Dad mentioned a few mins later he should have asked if they had some salt for his boiled egg!

Followed a fairly direct route to Warton house – great views and lovely roads. Easily found house just after 6pm and let ourselves in. House is very nice, and excellent value for £25ea per night. Maria came and said hello – very nice – very helpful. Recommended Malt Shovel pub in village for dinner – but remember, the road is closed.

   


Decided to walk 10mins to the pub – leaving just before 8pm. Stepped outside – it’s raining. Oh well, we’ll take the car even though it’s a big detour. Took a big south loop (with rain pouring!) through Canforth to get around the roadblock but couldn’t get around a 2nd roadblock – the coast was in the way! Had to double back and take an equally big north detour – about 20 miles total to get 1-2 miles ! Got to the pub – no food after 7:30 ! Barmaid advised to go to Canforth, and we could use an unofficial detour that cut out the big north loop on the way back. The unofficial detour showed that the road we thought was closed (Warton Main Street) wasn’t closed after all. We could have driven straight through the village and straight to the pub! Oh well, we still would have missed the food. Drove 8 miles back through Canforth (stopping for wine and whiskey shopping) to a Chinese restaurant we’d seen earlier. Very nice place, very good service, had an excellent meal for £50.

Back ‘home’ for a quick drink and bed.

260 miles normal travel, and then 30 miles to find dinner!


290 miles today: 290 miles total




Thursday 22nd September 2016
 

Fairly slow start to the day to recover from long day yesterday, and a fairly quiet day planned – a tour of the local Arnside and Silverdale AONB. Sun streaming in the windows despite changeable forecast.
Up to Warton Crag first. Amazed to find an enormous cliff face – a remnant from an extinct quarry. Walked around a bit and enjoyed the view of the cliff and opposite over Morecambe Bay, but some of it was steep, some slippery, and some steep and slippery – decided to move on.

 


Drove down to Jack Scout/Giant’s Seat – found a viewpoint with a rocky seat to sit on and had a picnic lunch there looking out over the sandbanks to Cumbria. We could see ~100 offshore wind turbines off the Cumbrian coast. Dad commented that he’d like to see what the view looked like when the tide was in. I later noted that the tide was coming in – a bit of sand I’d noticed earlier had gone. We watched all the sandbanks disappear over the next 45 mins or so, and Dad got to see his wish. We were all amazed at how quickly it all happened – though we all knew how dangerous the area could be.

   

Moved on, stopping to buy eggs from a farm on the way out. We chatted with the farmer about what we’d just seen and he nodded “very dangerous out there”.

Down to a dead-end carpark near Know Hill and out for a walk around. Loads of birds on the sandbanks and quite a few twitchers watching them. Very interesting coastline. We mainly walked on a boggy, grassy bank about 1m above the muddy beach level. When you hopped down onto the beach you could see that the grassy bank was being eroded by the sea at high tide, and eroded at a fast rate – great clumps of recently fallen grassy earth laying on the beach. I couldn’t understand how it was still there at all given the erosion rate, and guessed that it must be continuously eroded away and then reformed when the mud was swept back in – maybe on an especially high tide or during a storm. Nice 30 min walkabout.

         

Drove through Silverdale and stopped again by a viewpoint just north of “The Cove”. Took some photos of a very hilly up-down drystone wall and walked down to the beach. Young bloke down there balancing large stones into a precarious tower – or trying to – he didn’t seem to make much progress while we were there. Another interesting bay with a pebbly beach leading down to the mudflats. Found some samphire and had a few salty nibbles.

         

Drove on again to Arnside Knott but it looked like a major climb so moved on – stopping for photos of an ancient tower.

   

Into Arnside and down to the front – parked right on the front looking across to Cumbria again – nice views and a railway bridge going across – and a train crossing the bridge.

     

Continued up through Sandside to Milnthorpe which took us out of the AONB. Turned around and ambled back through some lovely lanes to the Arnside front we stopped at earlier for a cuppa in the car. Drove west towards Slack Head and south to Yealand and back through Warton and that was the sightseeing done by about 6pm.

Went to Aldi and bought supplies for dinner at home and lunch tomorrow - steak and mushroom and veg for Dad and I, and a pizza for Mum. Very nice it was too.

Another great day, and the weather was great too. We only ended up in this little corner of Lancashire as the house was the nicest and closest (and cheapest!) available around the Yorkshire Dales area. It’s been great – quite unusual in many ways and very scenic.


40 miles today: 330 miles total


Friday 23rd September 2016
 

Headed up the M6 and into the Yorkshire Dales towards Sedburgh and Garsdale. Straight into amazing scenery.

 


Meandered along the A684 and stopped for a cuppa in a big layby with great views and some little ponies roaming about.

   


Moved on and stopped at Hardraw Falls and went in for a look. A nice high waterfall.

     


Moved on to Hawes and looked around for the National Park Centre where we hoped to get some tourist info. Eventually found it joined with the Dales Museum. Picked up loads of good free leaflets.

Headed up the Buttertubs Pass – excellent road and scenery. Stopped at top for picnic lunch. Carried on north through the pass – amazing scenery. Dad (old eagle-eyes) spotted a grouse sitting on a rock in the heather. It was quite happy to hang around for photos. Stopped at a viewpoint and could see an ambulance up ahead, and rescue helicopter in a nearby field. A cyclist had crashed on a very sharp downhill corner.

         


Turned east at the end of the pass and then south again towards Askrigg over a very narrow, steep, twisty up-down road with yet more fantastic views.

           


Then to Aysgarth Falls. Parked up and walked down to the Lower Falls – spectacular. And back up to the Middle Falls – brilliant. And finally up to the Upper Falls – also great. All very good falls with very interesting geology. Good recommendation Stewart!

                           


Back to car at 6pm and headed off for a long route to Hawes to look for a pub dinner. Down the B6160 to Buckton and then back up through Oughtershaw to Hawes. My fuel-remaining-miles had suddenly dropped and it was looking a bit tight for getting home without a stop – and there aren’t many garages about. More great roads and terrific views, and arrived in Hawes as it was getting dark. It was very busy and looked less appealing than it had in daylight so we moved on. Headed towards home on the main A684 we drove in on, and stopped at The Moorcock near Garsdale Head. Had a lovely meal – 2x steak pies and a chicken dish with 3x soup starters. It was very nice but it was too much and nobody cleared their plates. Left there a bit after 9pm and got home a bit after 10pm – all knackered after another great day.

My fuel-remaining-miles had recovered the lost 50 miles at the pub and indicated that we had plenty to get back. I wondered if the fuel gauge had got confused in the many steep climbs up and down and had now settled. But it then dwindled to only 15 miles left by the time we got home. Don’t know what happened there.

Another great day. Terrific scenery and lovely roads. The weather was good too - started off cloudy but was mostly bright throughout the day, few spots of rain in the day and a 30min early evening shower.

Got a bit prepared for tomorrow - long day planned and we’re moving house. And a reasonably early night.


134 miles today: 464 miles total


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