Christmas in the Yorkshire Dales: Cycling Tour

Only two days holiday in those times

                             Leaving Grinton Lodge Hostel for Home

 

We have planned two days over Christmas in the Yorkshire Dales

Barnard Castle and Grinton Lodge Youth Hostels

Christmas Eve to Barnard Castle I had worked the night shift; finishing work at 07:00 home for breakfast shower and change of clothes bag to pack. So was late setting out. Club had met in St Georges Square at 08:00, two hours ahead, no chance of catching up.

 

Ten o'clock with eighty miles to ride six maybe seven hours should be there by five.

Leeds, Harrogate, Ripon then on to the A1 'Great North Road' to Scotch Corner.

Why Scotch Corner ? Its miles from Scotland; through County Durham and Northumberland, even taking the cross country road it is another hundred miles.

Taking the road west turning off at Bowes. The hostel is in the town centre at the top of the hill.

Only Richard D here the rest have gone for a meal.

 

We share food I have a chop potato mash powder and green beans He has sausage potato mash power and carrots

Share on pack of mash green bean and carrots in one pan fry the chops and sausage together.

After the meal we set out to find the others somewhere in town; call in bar after bar, no not found; had enough to drink best go back.

 

Morning after breakfast of fried egg, bacon and beans; we set out for a Christmas Day ride to the top of Bowes Moor

Descending we call in at the local Inn. "Any chance of a dinner? "Its Christmas Day we do not cook today; how many (Looking at the group) Twelve you say let me have a word with cook (one minute later) Fine just half an hour"

Lets have a drink while we wait, back room is made ready meal - We are served - Drinks after time locals ask how can they be served "You have to have a meal - Yes a cheese sandwich will do" locals are all served food and drinks

About four o'clock we make way over the hills to Reeth and Grinton Lodge Hostel perched up on the hill looking over Swaledale

Cook another meal

 

Morning ice on the windows signifies a cold night.

Outside a covering of snow and iced roads for the ride home.

 

Work tomorrow

Reviews

[Annette Pisano-Higley]

Fascinating story and photo Wild Rose. Your writing is so authentic and rich with vivid detail. It sounds so grueling to bicycle so far and in such bad weather. I don’t know how these young men were able to do it. I love your naming and recounting their experiences in the English country towns, hostels, and inns. Reads like a true diary. Excellent.

[Wild Rose]

Thank you for a lovely review
Yes it is like a diary
I was given dads old racing bike at 11 YO, I had to strip it down and rebuild it before I was allowed to ride it > All the bearings had to be checked by him.
Joined a club at 12YO, We cycled round all of the Yorkshire Dales: Peak District and to both coast east and west
Now at 82Yo we still travel the same roads only in a camper van
Bad weather we can get deep snow in winter - I have known us carry the bikes through snow drifts to get out of some remote place (Sunday morn) after an overnight stay at a Hostel
Use to ride ten miles each way to work
Did between 200 & 400 miles a week then
After we married we took to fell (Mountain) walking

[Annette Pisano-Higley]

You and your lady love are truly a remarkable pair Wild Rose. I love your spirit and your vitality. Your adventures are a joy to read.:))

[Wild Rose]

Thanks - we are still traveling - In a campervan now - after 55 years together

[Annette Pisano-Higley]

God bless you both. Enjoy your adventures together my friend!

[Samuel Dickens]

You've written this in a sparse style with many words missing, yet it's easy to read and understand. The story itself is engaging and made me wish I was young again and biking along with you.

[Wild Rose]

Thank for taking time to comment
Yes when we were young and fit

Sorry if some words were missing - It was written with so many interruptions

[LKBillips]

All I know is that your writing made me hungry! Lots of description on the meals. It felt like a journal entry to me, with times, facts and little events along the days. I liked it!

[Wild Rose]

Thank you > Some time back now we lived on bikes then > we didn't use busses or trains
I don't have a diary But the pictures bring the memories back - You forget the cold and tired legs
Keep watching I will have more similar posts

[Flowers of Eternity]

What a freezing and cooling as well as refreshing story!
I like the way you write this poem!
And I could also imagine the scenery as well!
Good job!

[Wild Rose]

Thank you for your comment
Writing style - Something I have learned on here
Previously all my writing has been technical stuff, my students had to describe the operation of industrial process control instrumentation
I do try to give the scenery (sort off) though much is left to the imagination
I have been requested to say more of the terrain
BUT wide open hillside with drystone walls lining the road; not the light werdant grass of the low lands but the harsh dark green moorland grass
The cold We didn't have modern outdoor clothes - layers of thin jumpers . mind you soon get warm when riding just hands feet and face - I wore long underpants

[Chris Shaw]

The photo shows just how cold it was, snow on the ground for your cycling over Christmas in the Yorkshire Dales. I enjoyed your writing style in diary format. I can think of better places to be on Christmas Day, for a Christmas dinner, but it sounds as though you thoroughly enjoyed your time at the inn. You've really gotta like cycling to put yourself through this, you obviously did Wild Rose. Good account of an unusual Christmas.

Chris

[Wild Rose]

Thanks Christine YES we did enjoy it - Only thing miis on this trip was no evening entertainment (singing etc & no booze allowed in the YHA's)
I will have to recall one at Burley Woodhead hostel on the edge of Ilkley Moor (Oh yes it is a real place/moor) where we stayed until New Year

[wordman]

sounds like the place to be on christmas

[Wild Rose]

We used to ride around this area (100 miles or so radius of Bradford) every week end

[wordman]

looks like great fun

[Verse]

Realistically, the only way I am likely to see the Yorkshire Dales is on Downton Abbey, if they ever bring that back, and through the eyes of travellers like yourself. As ever, I appreciate your eye for detail which shows up in such unexpected ways! Taste is usually reserved for restaurant reviews, so I always appreciate it when a writer serves me up a fresh experience that my taste buds can relate to. :):)

You have the economy and photograph of Hemingway, and the expanse and flow of Proust combined in one. It’s really quite amazing. :):)

V

[Wild Rose]

Wow THANK YOU : Comparing me with such great people > Barleygirls say she wants to see descriptions of the landscapes > I/we just take it for granted

TV Shows We used to live on a street like Coronation Street > We have travelled by bike, car and on foot around the area covered by Emmerdale, All Creatures Geat And Small.
Downton Abbey is/was more over towards Malton /The Vale of York - BUT they do use many locations ----- Emmerdale ;Hotton' is Otley; Skipdale is Skipton -- The old intro was taken from the fell top looking down on Arncliff, they got so manty 'Sunday motorists' they blocked the narrow roads

Restaurants we don't use them now - Wife is on a strict diet & is faddy about food - nothing spicy and no alcohol
She is a great cook > I have to help now to lift food in/out of the oven
Pete

[Verse]

hahaha! Your descriptions are such fun to read! :):)

Deb

[Julie McCarthy (juliesp..]

U nailed it here, the matter of fact way you talk like a diary that you are reading from your wonderful youthful days after doing a night shift quick brekky off you go and only 2 days break then back to work,
how times have changed
i loved this i really did good work !!

[Wild Rose]

Thank you > I don't have an actual diary. My pictures are what I have
AW (Alfred Wainright) did drawings of the Lake District walks for when he couldn't walk them 7 of them Now they are fell walkers bibles 40 year later

Pleased you like my work - great encouragement
Have to remember to send you read requests
Pete

[angel]

This piece interested me greatly, for my Gran was from the area. She came from Darrowby, now called Thirsk.
I grew up hearing about the Dales; she said it was mostly populated by sheep and cows...she always spoke fondly of the folks she left behind when she came here.
Thanks for bringing back fond memories.

[Wild Rose]

Thanks Angel I though 'Darrowby' was the TV name like Hotten and Skipdale in Ennerdale fro Otley and Skipdale
Pity Gran cannot read my work _ It would have set her off on some good yarns - Like my MIL did from her pictures (1908 - 2000)

Aye lad/lass its reight grand t' get em gaahn
Pete

[angel]

Darrowby WAS real, but they chabged the name to Thirsk because of too much aggravation after thode bookd were published.

[angel]

Lord, I just got up...I meant to say they changed Darrowby to Thirsk after the Herriot books were published.

[barleygirl]

You have an unusual point of view that makes everything you write very original. I've done many long bicycling treks in my life, but I don't remember a thing that I ever ate on any of these trips. As someone recovering from a technical career myself, I understand your "nuts & bolts" approach to conveying how such a bicycling trip has been put together. But I still kinda wish you would also remember to include a little bit about the countryside you cover -- what did it look like? what did it smell like? what was the terrain/riding like? Just find myself wondering at times . . . (((HUGS))) Fondly, Margie

[Wild Rose]

Thank you Margie > I forget about describing the countryside we sort of just said to friends where we travelled and they knew > Wish I could add extra pictures

[barleygirl]

As a writer, let words be your pictures . . . *smile*