What a beautiful walk today up through Grassington, and across to Conistone in (what we thought) was very Montana esq without the walls. We met Jess the collie dog and his parents mentioned walking down the ravine to Conistone so we changed our route to do this and it really didn’t disappoint. The sun shone for pretty much the whole route and it was glorious. Upon getting back to the Threshfield spar Tim treated me to a Magnum Salted Carmel which was lush.
Finley had walked a lot so we needed to let him rest so this meant we could do some of the other things we love. This meant a 30 mile bike ride for Tim and a Pilates class in the tent followed by a 20 mile bike ride for me. We took the dogs out individually choosing to do the run route as a walk! It was a day of some rain to start and sunshine to finish! On Monday it was forecast rain again so we made it a cleaning morning and a chance to replenish the water. Our walk was a 10km into Grassington via Linton Falls stopping off in The Corner House cafe to have a good old chip butty and rhubarb & custard cake. We managed to dodge the rain on the walk home!
Beautiful walk despite the wind. We had part sunshine, clouds and it was glorious as we headed up to Bordly House Farm on a round robin! It was 13km and almost 4 hours and we celebrated with a pint at the Old Hall in Threshfield.
It never fails to suprise and enlighten us with its green fells, rolling hills, little rivers and streams, dog friendly styles and lovely people! We walked from Threshfield towards Linton falls on to Hebdon and Grassington.
Moving day is always a bit of a gloomy day. We are leaving the known for the unknown, there is a decamp, travel, weekly shop on route and then we arrive at our new place. For some reason things never quite look as rosy as they do in the last place. In today’s case it was a busy camp site with few choices and many of the choices were on a slope of some sort. We opted for pitch 100 far enough away from the crowds but close enough to the dog walk and toilets in that order. Just as we arrived it started to spit so we hurried as best as we could to get the van set up. Tim focused on the awning and I did the van interior before then focusing on the awning interior. Eventually we were set up with a cup of tea in hand, believe me when I say I almost fainted in shock! The dogs had a short walk before we started on dinner Roast chicken, potatoes wedges and a feta cheese salad. All evening it threatened rain and we sat in the awning until after the dog walk when we moved in doors. Going back to the campsite as the day wears on the campsite seeks to get better and we start to see more and more positives and before you know it the previous campsite is just a memory!
Today started wet so we spent a lot of the morning in the van, followed by us both having an individual run with Mabel and then after lunch a walk over to Lantern Pike through so much beautiful purple heather.
We wasn’t sure about Finley but today he proved he is still fit and able at 14 years old and post operation. 14km, 535m elevation in 3 hrs 29 moving time.
It started with a run by Tim and Mabel the old favoured route of the Sett Valley trail and Mabel sending Tim on a Mickey through the village.
After breakfast it was my time to ride out i chose a route on Strava but as it happened I wasn’t all together sure of the route out so I ended up cycling round in circles before doing the route in reverse which meant studying the map quite hard.
This afternoon we ventured out for a walk supposedly the reservoir in reverse but it went wrong and we did a totally on the spur route which was lovely 8.78km and 2 hours. We ended up in the village for a shandy after a shop!
This evening we played scrabble and boule!
One of the things I was excited about when I retired was travelling (obviously) and meeting up with friends. Today I did just that with Jancis. We met whilst working for Youth Sport Trust and kept in contact ever since I left in 2013. Today we walked 12km to New Mills and back on the Sett Valley trail ending up at the Sportsman pub for lunch of haddock and chips. It was so lovely to walk and chat.
Retirement had started and we were off on our travels the freedom tour. We had great journey until the M1 and we arrived in sunshine to a hard standing pitch with views. We were disorganised for the first couple of days I guess tiredness, heat, a different set up which meant no places to put things outside, but we were relaxed about it knowing all to soon we would find the places and probably more to do with the weather.
We were lucky with our pitch as it was away from the playground so the screaming kids couldn’t be heard. We joked we were in the old end which suited us.
So the van was parked, awning rolled out, the wolfie tent up! We had the ice machine plugged in and beers were cold whilst we set up. What was not to like although we did keep pinching ourselves, is this real. It was just a case now of waiting for someone to ask “How long are you away for?” .
GoughAdventures 