Another sunny weekend

Tom and a cockerel

Well we have been lucky.  We had another sunny weekend and this time we had someone to enjoy it with us - Michael - one of Matt's friends came up on Friday night.  He and Matt were hoping to do some proper walking and they were rewarded with sunshine so off they went and climbed Whernside - the highest point in the Yorkshire Dales.  This meant that Tom and I had each others company again.  I was going to take him for a bike ride at Ribblehead just down the road from where I dropped Michael and Matt off, but when we got there it was packed - I would have had to walk with Tom and his very heavy bike a long way before we could start cycling so I decided not to stop so followed the road and ended up on a very pleasant drive to Hawes.  We had been there once before, but it was mid tourist season and quite packed.  This weekend it was empty so we had a pleasant look around.  We also found a big play park for Tom which kept him happy.  Next stop was lunch - we found a greasy spoon full of bikers (of the motored and non motored variety) this is always a good sign, and it was good (ie cheap, filling and quick)

Riding towards the viaduct

We finished off looking round the town, including a stationery steam train in a car park, and a look around the National Park centre before heading off back to Ribblehead for another go at parking.  We were successful this time.  Tom did a really good job riding under the bridge - it was very lumpy and bumpy and full of pot holes as well as being very uneven.  He took it in his stride - he's definitely getting braver.

And through to the other side

We then drove the very scenic route through Dentdale to Dent to meet up with Michael and Matt.  We got there half an hour too early so played in the park for a while before heading to the pub where we found 2 tired and happy men.  They had just bought a pint each so we stayed and watched them attempt to play darts and then took the scenic route back.

Made a huge amount of pasta for dinner and decided to make some garlic bread with some pizza dough I had left over from earlier in the week.  I wandered whether to put the garlic butter on the dough and then put it in the oven or vice versa.  We decided to put it in naked - a mistake the pizza dough blew up into a huge ball and went very crispy.  A lesson learnt.

Sunday we took it easy in the morning and ended up in Grange Over Sands for lunch in a tea room and then a walk / cycle on the promenade before heading back to Oxenholme to send Michael on his way back to London.