J&J's European Adventure

22 Aug, Sunday

Hawes, England

After breakfast, we caught a train back toward Carlisle and got off at Garsdale, which is just a station basically in the middle of nowhere. Way back when, there was a line that ran east, but it's been closed for many decades. The upside is that it is in a wonderful location in the Yorkshire hills. After a 2-hour wait, an antique bus arrived to transport us to the town of Hawes, but before we boarded the bus, Janene put on an act to rival the Three Stooges.

I should mention that Garsdale is rather high in elevation as things in England go. Combined with the topography of the surrounding hills, this apparently produces the conditions necessary to make this one of the windiest places around these parts. As Janene left the station to meet the bus, her hat (recently rescued from the Carlisle lost & found) blew off and landed beside the train tracks, about four feet below the level of the station platform. Ignoring the "Stay Off The Tracks," signs, she hopped down to retrieve it. Getting back up was a bit harder. After one failed attempt at hopping back to the platform, she realized that she would have to remove her daypack and fanny pack. While she was taking off her daypack, the wind caught her rain jacket and blew it halfway off of her arm, entangling it in her daypack strap. She floundered around briefly before getting both packs off and flinging them onto the platform. With the jacket flapping madly from one arm, she somewhere managed to roll back up. While trying to put everything back on, the zipper from one got tangled in the buckle of the other in a hopeless mess. All of this occurred during the time I was trotting down to make sure the bus didn't leave without us. Not knowing how much success I was having with holding the bus, she finally gave up and threw whatever straps she could find around her neck and/or shoulder, took her suitcase in tow, and took off for the bus. Missing this comedy of errors may be my biggest disappointment of the summer.

About fifteen minutes later, the bus left the station, with us safely aboard. I kid you not about the bus being an antique. I think it was a 1949 Bristol. The ride was a lot of fun, and we never had to get out and push. We checked into the Herriot Hotel before hiking about three miles round trip to the next village to see a waterfall. We walked along a section of the Pennine Trail along the way. The waterfall was nice, but not exactly one of the wonders of the world. We had supper back in Hawes. I had Yorkshire Pudding; it was quite good.

Daily miles: 5.14

Expenses: £12.70 (bus, food)

Train to Garsdale