Brian and I were talking the other day and we had an epiphany. Brian pointed out that back home in the States, we normally dedicated one weekend day to friends and the other to whatever we needed to get done around the house; however, since we are back to renting a home here and I normally can try to get the laundry and other miscellaneous chores done throughout the week, we have had more leisure time. While I miss our beautiful home in the States, I can tell you I certainly do not miss mowing the lawn, gardening, or vacuuming the pool.
With all of our new-found time, and being in God’s Country, we have been given plenty of reasons to spend time in the great outdoors. Brian and I have always enjoyed a good hike, and we normally only really got to enjoy that when on vacation before, such as in Yellowstone National Park last year. But now, it’s basically on our back door step. Now, before I go on, I feel like I must explain English time. When we are getting ready to go somewhere in England, we always have to take the length of time we expect to go a certain distance and essentially double it. You can not get anywhere directly in the U.K. For example, to drive from our house in Sykesville to the Inner Harbor in Baltimore takes roughly 35 minutes to go about 30 miles. Logical. However, here, to go the same distance, takes anywhere between 50-60 minutes. So, when I say it’s on our back door step, I am being serious, but sometimes we do drive upwards of an hour to get to these places.
I’ve talked about a couple of hikes we’ve done already, like Aysgarth Falls and Pen-y-ghent, but we’ve done plenty more. We also have become good friends with a group of people who seem to enjoy the hiking like we do, so that is helpful! My friend Justin introduced me to this app called Kamoot, which is great for logging hikes, etc., but it also takes your history/interests in hikes to help you find local trails to explore. It’s a really neat app. So, if you like hiking and have a smart phone (who doesn’t at this point?!), you should check it out. Anywho, using Kamoot, we found a local hike, which ended up being a popular hike, called the Ingleton Waterfalls. The hike itself is about 4.5 miles and hosts 6 different sets of falls. We meandered through the wooded trails to explore the various views of the falls. It was a pleasant hike on a warmer day, but since we were in the shade, it really was nice. We got there earlier in the morning, like around 9:30, and we were grateful we did because there were people waiting for others to leave so that they could park their cars when we were complete. We saw quite a few people coming in with their swimsuits, etc. to take a dip in some of the wading areas around. There was also a downed tree where people started putting coins into the decaying bark, and now it’s known as the money tree. It seemed similar to a wishing well type thing, or at least that’s the connection I made. Other various tree stumps throughout the hike seemed to host some coins as well, but nothing as intricate as this tree.
This is the only hike so far where we had somewhere to be after the hike, but we did give ourselves plenty of time. We had to be home in time, or at least to place in service in time, for our annual Higgins Family Fantasy Football draft. Priorities people. Our other friend Matt also had his draft, but his was earlier and in person so he and Katie had to skip lunch to get back. So, that left us and our friends, the Griepentrogs, to grab some grub. We took a tour of the Dales through Brian’s work and were told about this store/restaurant called The Courtyard Dairy, which has been voted one of the top ten cheese shops in the world. They had me at cheese. So obviously we went there for lunch as it was only a twenty minute drive, in the right direction, from the hike. And boy was it GOOD. Brian and I split a blue cheese and apple salad, a raclette, and sandwich and it was all soooo good. Like, not a crumb left on the plate good. Unfortunately since we were on a bit of a time crunch, we didn’t shop around the store, but you can bet we will be going back, more than once. Probably more than twice.
*Side note: because we were on English time, we ended up drafting using our smart phones in the car, but it all worked out. Go team Easy Breesy!
Aside from using Kamoot to find our hikes, another way we determine where to hike is via a book entitled “30 Pub Walks Through the Dales.” Sounds right up our alley, huh? We had seen the book when we went to Aysgarth Falls, thought it was cool, but it seemed a bit overpriced and we figured we could find it online; however, when we went on the tour with Brian’s work, we saw it again, except this time it was like $12, which was significantly cheaper so we figured, why not? The same weekend we hiked Ingleton on Saturday, we decided to do our first hike from the book because it was so nice out. We also did the math, and figured we needed to do one of these a month from here on out so we could finish them all before our time is up. Yea—we know, we’re crazy.
Anywho, Brian, Asher, and I set out to hike the first trail from the book in Embsay, a town about 30 minutes from our house. Each hike begins and ends at a neat English pub. So, we hike the hike and reward ourselves with a beer and a snack. Sounds fair to me! This hike was 3.5 miles and took you up to see the Embsay Crag with some great views of the Dales and the Reservoir, and then back into the small town of Embsay for a pint at the Elm Tree Inn. The walk was pleasant, but a bit warm as the sun rose higher in the sky. You see, in the Dales, there isn’t a lot of cover, so you are taking direct sun most of the time, but there was a considerable breeze which made it a bit more feasible. This books gives directions like “cross two fields going through a final gate and swinging left towards a lane.” How British is that? For this hike, the directions were pretty clear; however, that isn’t always the case. We strolled through various farmers fields and walked by numerous sheep before clearly making our way up the Crag. The views from the top were really pretty and the breeze in particular was really nice. We hiked back down the Crag and into to town for a pint and snack before heading back home. It was a quick morning outing with some awesome views.
We did this hike the week before our two week visit back to the States because we figured it might be the last time we had really nice weather. We were wrong about that; however, not too far off. The weekend we got back here was still pretty nice (68 degrees and sunny) so we had to take advantage of that for hiking as well. However, there was a bit of a hiccup there because we needed to get our car out of Harrogate, which was impossible since the UCI World Cycling Event shut down our town for a week. Brian and I chose our house for the location in that you can’t really get more downtown than we already are; however, since we live downtown and the cycling race had a downtown circuit, our car was stuck for the week. Luckily our friends wanted to hike too, so they gave us a ride. Brian, Asher, and I walked from inside the circuit to the outside for the ride, and headed towards Hardraw and Hawes, to complete two more of the hikes from the pub book. We decided to complete these two hikes as they were among the furthest away from our house and we wouldn’t be able to get back in town till later in the afternoon anyway, so why not? These two hikes were only a five minute drive from one another and they were only two-to-two and a half miles each, so it was feasible.
The first hike we completed was the Hardraw hike, which also included a waterfall. This hike had a bit of a rough start between a car-sick kid, inconveniently timed bathroom breaks, and confusing directions about crossing fields and gates; however, once we got going, it turned out to be a pretty nice hike. The views of the Dales were again really pretty. We crossed a few fields before climbing a larger hill to look out over Hardraw. We didn’t end up seeing the waterfall because the tearoom/pub acquired the access to it and were charing a pretty penny to go in and see it. After some deliberation we decided against it since, honestly, the Waterfalls in the Dales, while pretty, pale in comparison to other waterfalls we’ve seen, out west, etc. It was also fun because our friends recently acquired a drone which we tested out. Although, Brian was nervous as it was flying in the wooded area (I didn’t witness this as I was feeding Asher), but he said he thought he was going to witness a pricy purchase slam into a tree. Luckily, the drone and all of its operators went unharmed. The pub at the end of the first hike was called the Green Dragon and it may be the coolest pub I’ve seen in England so far. The ceilings are really low and the rooms were all sectioned off with various fireplaces throughout. One fireplace was operating because it was pretty chilly inside from the night before. It was a real wood-burning fireplace and smelled lovely. It definitely was the type of pub you wouldn’t mind spending time in on a cold winter’s night for sure. The food was also pretty good.
The second hike was in Hawes, a five minute drive from the Green Dragon Inn. This hike was the easiest hike we’ve completed so far and didn’t require much energy at all. It was a nice hike through some fields, little elevation, and pleasant views. The drone was much easier to use and operate out here in the wide open country-side; although, we quickly learned that the sheep do not like it at all. The hike was pleasant enough with friends, and the pub at the end was a traditional pub. We had our pint before heading back to Harrogate.
Now, like I said, the UCI Cycling Championships were held in town and events were happening all week because of it. On the day we went hiking, the
UCI Bike Races kicked off with the para-cycling races. Then, throughout the week, there were time trials and junior racing, etc. The atmosphere was cool, but admittedly, the weather turned typically British and was relatively atrocious. So between the weather and the actual races, we were quarantined to our house. That being said, it is a pretty neat thing to see, and since we had already seen the Tour de France this year, why not see the UCI championships as well? So, on Saturday, the women’s race was held, which ended with 3 laps around the Harrogate circuit. Our friends live right on Ripon road which was a race street, so they had a bbq and we all hung out. There was one woman who was well ahead of the other women racing, so it wasn’t that exciting to watch, but neat nonetheless. The weather on Saturday was rather cooperative, for what seemed to be the first time all week, with some sunshine and a comfortable temperature. We went to the same friends house the next day to watch the men race in incessant rain. We hung inside most of the day, but did go out for the last few laps around the circuit. The men had a much tighter race, and the US was in second for quite some time, but by the second to last lap, he had fallen way back. As we were walking by the racers on the way to our friends house, we thought for sure the peloton (big group of racers in the middle) were going to wipe out on the bend because it was so wet, but since they were all professionals, they managed to avoid it. Denmark didn’t win that one until the last minute, but overall, it was impressive to see. A highlight of the day, aside from good food and drinks with friends, was we interacted with Andrew Ridgeley. What? You don’t know who that is? Don’t worry, we didn’t either until someone was like, the guy from Wham? (Ear worm alert!) In case you don’t think you know who Wham is, you do. They sang “Wake me up before you go go” and most famously, “Last Christmas.” You’re welcome.
The weather is certainly changing here in the U.K. with shorter days and a bit more rain than we’ve had since our arrival, but nothing too terrible (fingers crossed!) We are soaking up as much outdoor time as we can before it gets too cold to enjoy it that much. We’ve got a few busy months ahead of us with planned trips and friends and family visiting, starting this weekend with a jaunt to Florence, Italy! Ready for some delicious Italian grub, fantastic wines, interesting history, and beautiful views! Not to mention, the weather is looking like mid-seventies and sun—what more do we need! I’ll be sure to post and share our experiences there soon! So, ciao for now!
Globetrotting Garbutts in Great Britain 