Grassington

The sun shone this morning for our day in the Dales -Coverdale, Wharfdale, Deepdale, Wensleydale and lovely Swaledale.

The villages and hamlets rolled seamlessly under the car wheels, Ripon, Grassington, Kettlewell, Starbotton, Buckden, Hubberholm, Gayle ,Hawes, Keld, Muker, Reeth, Grunton, and Leyburn.

We stopped often to look at churches and villages. We had coffee in Grassington and tasted cheese at the creamery in Hawes and then dined handsomely in Leyburn at 7pm when the sun was still high in the sky and people sat outside the pubs nursing pints of beer.

We couldn't have asked for a more wonderful day of weather, with the Dales looking resplendent in the sunshine. The sunlight added to the charm of the grey stone houses clustered in hamlets, the ubiquitous barns in fields outlined with. dry stane dykes, and the Wensleydale sheep wandering between the road and the steep sides of the moors.

Tomorrow we head east to the seaside.