The Yorkshire Dales

Having only been back from Cornwall a couple of weeks our caravan had an unexpected outing into the beautiful Yorkshire Dales, Leyburn to be precise, and it found itself with another lovely view, this time across the dale to to Middleham

We were staying at Craken House caravan and camping site which is absolutely GORGEOUS, run by the most welcoming Richard and Lynn. It's within walking distance of Leyburn so after a very agreeable lunch we walked in.

As you would expect everywhere is getting ready for the imminent Tour de France and Leyburn was looking lovely, yellow bicycles everywhere even on the church tower!

Yarn bombing too

and, well it would have been rude not to take advantage of the local hospitality on such a lovely day.

Thursday saw us rather more energetic with a circular walk from West Burton via Aysgarth falls.

there were lovely views

cottages

flowers, cows and mowed fields

 waterfalls

and a pub at the end

The sun really emerged at the end of the day enabling us to bbq and enjoy pre-dinner drinks and nibbles in the warmth

and then we were treated to a rather nice sunset (although not as nice as Cornwall)

Hawes was our destination on Friday after a spot of knitting (you'll see the results later)

and again Tour de France fever was all around and I began to see spots before my eyes - red ones

and a rather odd person on a bike

The explanation for the spotted jersey is that

The Mountains classification in the Tour de France is a secondary classification in the Tour de France, in which cyclists receive points for reaching a mountain top first. The leader of the classification is named the "King of the Mountains", and since 1975 wears the polka dot jersey (French: maillot à pois rouges), a white jersey with red dots.

From Hawes the cyclists will go up through Buttertubs Pass to Reeth, one of the King of the Mountain climbs.

Apart from 'red spots' there was the river with its little fall, 

lots of red and white flowers

and just in case we hadn't realised what was happening in 2 weeks 

From Hawes we went to Redmires to sample the ales at The Bolton Arms which was also celebrating the fact that the tour was coming to Yorkshire.

When we got back to the van we had our own little Tour de France ceremony with the hanging up of this - yes the 'knitting'

We are going back into the Dales next week to watch the Tour, so yellow jersey bunting is a must. You can find the pattern here and if you want to make brooches you can find a pattern here

Saturday was our leaving day but as no one was coming on our pitch till later there was no hurry to go so David and I went up into Middleham. As we arrived a large group of horses form the nearby racing stables were passing through.

It's another lovely Dales village with a ruined castle in the middle.

 and some rather enticing alleyways

and I just had to take a picture of this plaque on the wall by the front door of a cottage

We had just time to go to Jervaulx Abbey which we had never been too before. It's reputably the second largest privately owned Cistercian Abbey in the country. It was so peaceful with mowed pathways whilst large areas were left for the wild flowers to grow - well worth a visit (the cafe looked very inviting too).

Back at the site, a quick tidy round and we were on our way back home knowing that we would be back up there in less than 2 weeks. I feel so lucky that we are a place at the moment where we can (to a certain extent) enjoy doing what we want when we want and having the caravan plays a very big part in that. 

Off to do a spot of cooking before we 'dog sit' Oskar for the week. xx