On the Road Again: 6 June

71 years ago it was D Day. It was a bit rough then too.

Last night Lynette decided that we would have a day away from the horses and suggested a trip on the train that runs from Carlisle to Leeds. The central part of this trip is regarded as being the most picturesque in the UK. Jim's uncle and aunt in the UK had sent a brochure recommending the trip and we hadn't really planned it.

We had breakfast and set off to the Kirby Stephen train station just a few miles down the road. It was about 11C and when the wind blew, as it did often, it sunk well below that.

The trip was quite pleasant. The countryside is green and tussocky with stone fences everywhere. Mainly sheep but much lower densities than in NZ. In some areas there were plantations of conifers. The houses were well apart and looked cold and bleak in their gray stone.

The trip is known for its multi-arch viaducts. There's a 24 arch one and another 21 arch one for starters. The problem is that when you are on the train you don't actually see them or they are on such an angle that photographing them through the train window doesn't get you a good picture.

Our destination for the day was Skipton. That fitted in with our available time, had a Saturday market, even had a canal and cost less than UKP25 for the two return trips. Lynette took photos on the outbound trip and a few photos are attached. We had purchased a Two Together Railcard prior to the trip and that gave us a discount of at least 20% on the National Rail.

Skipton was fine and very windy. It's not too far from the Skipton station to the centre of town. There were market stalls on both sides of the High St, selling all sorts of goods from shoes to socks and mobile phone accessories to meat. In one of the larger city buildings there was also a Craft and Antiques fair, where we made a couple of small purchases.

We wandered down to the canal and had a look at the narrow boats. There were mainly hire boats in the central part. The canal boat shop had an interesting collection of bits and pieces. It's not often that you see large 12 volt batteries right in the centre of town. We had a lunch snack on the edge of the canal. Across the canal a family was feeding a pair of swans and their seven cygnets. The wife had run out of food and was teasing the male swan, (a cob), who in frustration, nipped her hand. It caused the wife to desist immediately and she was seen walking away rubbing her hand. We couldn't hear the swearing, but it was bound to have been there.

We looked in at the Skipton Castle but spending another UKP15 didn't really excite us so we went next door to the Holy Trinity church and took a few stained glass window photos.

It was a blustery walk back to the train station, where we caught the 3:30 train back to Kirby Stephen. We had a delay for ten minutes or so at one station where some mechanical issue was fixed and at Ribblehead we had to wait another 15 minutes. This was because there is a single set of tracks for some of the line and we needed to wait for a steam train to come through over the 24 arched Ribblehead viaduct.

It was a bit annoying because while we were waiting we could see the 24 arch viaduct but just could not get a decent photo though the train window. We thought we might be able to drive over from Kirby Stephen, but that didn't work our either.

When we got to the Kirby Stephen station, the rain had set in and the wind was very strong, even rocking the car as we sat in it. On top of that, the GPS didn't recognise Ribblehead. It did know Horton in Ribblesdale, but that was over an hour away, but something less than 30 miles, so it looked like a bit of rally driving was required. We decided to sneak back to the warmth of the hotel instead. We have at least got a good postcard of the 24 arch viaduct and that will have to do unless the weather obliges and we can make the trip before or after Appleby.