Well it's fair to say; I had forgotten how much I really enjoy the whole experience of being out in the elements and getting back to basics. It's also fair to say that I could only really enjoy the whole experience for a couple of nights at a time... after a couple of nights the public wash facilities and air mattresses begin to lose their appeal.
After a 90min drive, we were in Appletreewick outside The Craven Arms. A few seconds later, we were inside The Craven Arms ordering our first drinks of the weekend. Now usually I make a point of sampling the local ales of anywhere I'm visiting (unless I'm driving, offisher), but on this occasion I was struggling to choose one that I liked the look of. I had a boot (trunk, if you're over the pond) full of Stella Artois so not wanting to mix my drinks - how responsible am I? - I ordered a pint of said Belgian grog to get the weekend started. And very nice it was, but for my 2nd drink I did go for a local bitter... I forget the name, but it wasn't a bad drop.
Now it was 1pm, we could head to the campsite and check into (onto?) our pitches and start to erect the tents and gazeboes. I was dreading this part, but it all went surprisingly well and within 2- or 3hrs everything was in place: four sizeable tents and two adjoining gazeboes with a waterproof tarpaulin over the top. The gazeboes would be the weekend's function room, breakfast buffet, dining room, debating hall and homeless [looking] persons shelter.
The first night was Martin's 40th birthday and so held much promise. It didn't disappoint, the billing for the night was something like:
5pm-6pm: beer, lager, Pimms, dips. Music: Teach yourself Spanish (still looking for the other CDs)
6pm-7pm: beer, lager, Pimms (much stronger now after Vicky 'topped it up'), fewer dips. Music: "anything but Dylan"
7pm-8pm: beer, lager, Champagne, red wine, sirloin steak avec trimmings, not as much talking. Music: Hendrix.
8pm-close: this part of the night kind of all rolls into one and I can report: 1 birthday cake (chocolate), more beer, more lager, an alcohol fuelled egg and spoon race and football match, bruised ribs (John), bruised Coccyx (Carol), broken toe (yours truly) and two excellent goalkeeping performances from Arthur (just like Banks) and Carol (not quite as orthodox).
I was awoken at 5am on Saturday morning by a tiny man trying to drill and hammer his way out of my head. Two painkillers, two more hours sleep, a shower, two sausages, one rasher of bacon, some beans and a cup of coffee later and I was ready to take on the daunting heights of Simon's Seat - all 500ft of it!
 | |
| Simon's Seat (the rocks at the top of that hill) |
Now I've done some walking in my time, including the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge which takes in the summits of Pen-y-ghent (2,276 feet), Whernside (2,415 feet) and Ingleborough (2,372 feet) in a 26 mile circular route, within 10hrs. So Simon's Seat is a mere bump in the horizon. But the terrain is tricky; at least half of the walk is a scramble with ankle breaking ruts littered along the way!
 |
| Money well spent - the view from Simon's Seat |
It was very enjoyable and those of us who took on the challenge made it all the way to the top and back down the other side. Me, Ryan and Milo were first to the top and once backup arrived to keep hold of Milo's lead, I headed straight to the summit marker on top of the rocks so I could take in the view and get my monies worth.
We descended the hill follwing an easier route which just happened to go past The New Inn. It would be considered rude not to pop in to such a fine establishment for two pints of Theakston's Old Peculier... and anyway; Dawn, Carol and Thomas were waiting with food in the beer garden. Another pint in The Craven Arms on the way back to the campsite...
No sooner had we reached the safe haven of the tents and the heavens opened. It was raining cats and dogs, throwing it down, raining stair-rods, sheeting, pissing, bouncing... whichever term you prefer to use for describing really heavy rain. One thing about heavy rain in England is that it usually passes quickly and this time was no exception... so we headed to the river to fish, skim stones, help Milo overcome his fear of water and do some canoeing. Canoeing and skimming stones were successful; fishing and phobia counselling not so much.
Saturday night; we didn't drink quite as much and the sports activity was replaced with star-gazing and talking about Ouija boards, the other side, Gremlins etc. Which reminds me, if there are any astronomers reading this... at ~11pm (GMT+0), a very bright star came into view to the East (just above Simon's Seat) and then disappeared (behind a cloud?) before re-appearing in the same orientation, but now higher. It remained there until we retired for the night. I thought it might be Saturn, but its change in height had me rather confused.
I was the last out of bed this morning, totally free of any hangover but very tired. We were packed up in 3hrs and headed to Burnsall (1 mile walk) for a lunchtime drink before returning to the campsite and driving home. What a fantastic weekend.
Next on the calendar (work aside) is California. We fly out on Friday so I've started to go through my checklist...
Passport - check
Visa - check
Dollars - check
New t shirts and shorts - check
Haircut - booked
Hopes, dreams and ambition - check
Thanks for reading, once again, and have a great day.
No comments:
Post a Comment