Moors to Dales, Lovin' Yorkshire

After Robin Hood's Bay Seal and I scooted through the Yorkshire Moors. There is one main road that circles around the area (about 100 miles around), with the terrain looking rather flat or a bit rolly. But once off that road, you go down very steep (25%) grades to the valleys below.


We had some onlookers while we were maneuvering these tiny backroads, occasionally having to turn around (9-point turn!).


We should really invent a sheep that eats thistle and stinging nettles, two plants that this country has WAY too many of.


A tad breezy up on the moors!


Every village was cuter than the last one. I was really proud of myself for driving on the left. I got used to it pretty fast and with Seal helping ("Stay left! Stay left!") I was soon zipping around corners, parallel parking and even softly cussing at Brit drivers to hurry it up!


In one of these valleys is Rivaulx Abbey. I'd been here 2 years ago and wanted to show Seal. We didn't go in, just walked down the road a bit to look.


The tiny village surrounds the abbey and this Historical Trust site is right in their back yard. Ho hum. They probably find it annoying with all the tourists coming through.


We ate lunch in this farm shop along the way. There are many of these places in England. They grow their own produce, raise their own meat and sell right on the property. There is also a cafe in the loft and tables right by the cattle. It did smell 'barny' which doesn't bother me but I could see that some folks wouldn't want to eat their apple pie by cow pies.


The structure is a very long barn made of stone. I've seen many of these turned into homes.


I thought the displays of produce so enticing. Kale, onions, leeks, cauliflower.


Gooseberries and strawberries...mmmmm




Didn't have a chance to try the Magnet Ales but I sure did like the sign.


We took a twisty turny road, down, down, down to this little railroad depot. I guess it's a town as it was on the map but it consists only of the depot, an artist's studio and a B&B. After looking around a bit, we continued on but ended up in a thick forest and after taking a number of roads, decided it best to turn around and head back the way we had come. Good thing too. We didn't have a very good map but did have "Miss Mapple", our GPS. She kept recalculating but we overrode her and turned around. When we did get to look at a more detailed map, it seems we would have come to a dead end.


Happy train!






Always polite.


A few more sights along the way....


There are so many little stands in front of people's homes. Usually it's plants or flowers. I thought this one was so cute. I may put up one in front of my house in Barnesville. One summer, about 15 years ago, I had an abundance of zinnia flowers. I cut many bouquets and put them in a large bucket out front, with a little 'honesty' box for money. The boys were young then and thought it so much fun to lift up the top of the box and retreive the money.


Just a little castle ruin in a village. La de da. We were walking from the car park to the market and passed it on the way.


This is one of those very steep roads. It's about to drop off and I wanted to see how steep it was before driving over what seemed like a cliff. It was ok, but a wee bit scary when other cars were coming up. Pulling over was a challenge, especially trying not to hit the sheep. This particular sheep was laying in the road when we came by the first time and was still in the same place on our return an hour later.