5 June

We had a leisurely start. Breakfast began at 8:30AM, so being the first day of the Horse Fair, we were there knocking on the door. Full English breakfast which was included in the room rate.

It's about half an hour travel from the hotel to Appleby. We could have stayed in Carlisle and come daily by car or rail, but what the heck. We see a bit more of the countryside by poking around the back roads. Most of the track from the hotel to the larger A66 road is at 40mph. As we drove there, we saw a large number of travellers parked up along the side of the road or in paddocks.

We parked in the paddock beside the main gypsy encampment and wandered around the encampment for a couple of hours. The weather wasn't great. There was a bone chilling fog for a while but at least there was no rain. Later on, a cool wind came up when the fog went away and alternated with bright sunlight, but it was still dry.

It was great to chat with people. One guy offered his horse to Jim for UKP1000. A nice horse, but it wouldn't fit in the plane. Later, Lynette met another guy who was withdrawing his UKP240 from the Post Office to buy a horse so Jim's offer was probably well over the top.

One Irish traveller lives and works in Poland. He drove his camper van across from Poland just for a week of being with his friends. He moved to Poland with his furniture factory when manufacturing became too expensive in Ireland.

Another traveller owns a pub in Newcastle, but has two beautiful gypsy wagons. Every year he travels up to Appleby and then down to Windermere in the Lake District for his holidays. Just 10 – 15 miles per day and everyone has a great time. What attracted us to him was his caravan which has the name of Rob Young on it. Lynette had a customer of a similar name. That started the conversation and we had a good old chat. People here were great to talk to, especially when they realised that we had come some distance to be there too.

We walked down to the town, snapping photos of the horses and carts along the way. The Friday market hall was open and we made a couple of lightweight purchases. It was coats on, coats off and coats on again as the weather played with the wind and the sun. We had our lunch in the church. It's a great idea to use the building for a tea room and gain a few extra funds.

All the teenage young girls were out, dressed to kill, and looking cold. The young men were wandering around in groups of threes or riding horses, trying to impress them. All were well polished and shiny. It's just as you see it on the TV reality show. What makes you smile is the women dressed to the nines, trying to walk in high heel shoes on a farm paddock.

Back at the top of the hill, the forecast rain looked threatening so we walked a bit and then hopped in the car and made our way out of town, fighting the GPS all the way, as many of the roads were blocked by the Police, for this event. As we drove back to the pub, we ran into a bit of rain so our timing was great.

For dinner, we walked up to the Black Swan, a competitive Ravenstonedale pub about half a mile away. The temperature had sunk to around 11C. After a good meal, we tried to pay with a UKP50 note, but they refused it so we had to sort out something smaller. It will be something to watch in the future. We'll make an effort to change our notes to UKP20 at a bank later on.  

Travellers parked up along the road 

On a four lane road, you don't normally expect pedestrians to cross

Just one of many horses and carts on the road.

Start them early with a pedal horse and cart

Even the Moreporks made it to Appleby 

Lots of black powder shooters would love this setup for their rendezvous fires.

Nicely painted carts

The modern equivalent of a decorated caravan, this time with stainless steel 

Large mobile homes like this could solve Auckland's housing shortage.  Fully insulated and centrally heated.  Just add water, electricity and LPG.  Not bad for under UKP20,000

Coming down the hill

A family camping on the farm

Kids in the caravan

Three caravans, three generations

A traveller from Wales

Horses being washed in the river

Everything Appleby, horses, carts and tanned girls with skimpy clothes and high heels.

The boys out for a run