go on, compare them...

last day and on our way home :-(

first stop, after a slightly death-defying series of skinny roads up the dale, hawes cheese shop where they make wallace and gromit wensleydale (and lots of other yummy cheeses). there's a small museum and a gallery where you can see the factory chaps at work, but it's the cheese shop that makes you spend - mountains of bits to sample and i defy you to leave empty-handed (i thought i did well to restrict myself to just the £20-worth).

then another of my requests, thorp perrow. it was the arboretum that attracted me, but it was a bit so-so and in fact it was the birds of prey and mammal centre that made it a good afternoon out - a nice walk through a wood there and back more than an arboretum to inspire. there were dozens of birds in what appears to be the walled garden of the house (which is private), and they fly them three times a day. we hit on a good combination being flown: buzzard, owl and gyr falcon. i've never seen a buzzard that close - usually all you hear is the screeching - the owl was hilarious in his attempts to elicit chicken from the handler and the gyr falcon breathtakingly speedy in flight as he tried to catch the lure the girl was swinging around the place. not sure i'd have been able to stand still when it came in for a vertical dive!

after the show we stepped through to the mammal part to see the meercats, which are some of the cutest things around, you have to admit. this was the sentry taking a moment to lean back and take the weight off before perking upright to peer round at everyone :-) (mind, much as i could've taken him home, there was a puddle of ferrets having a snooze in their cage in the sunshine and i'm sure no-one would've noticed if i'd liberated one...)

then it was north, and rain and the end of the hol :-( boo!

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yorkshire tales begin back here