Naughty Night Away

Pendle Hill trig point

So Matt and I headed our way down to the very lovely village of Barley for our naughty night away.  It felt very strange but lovely to be doing it.  It helped that the hills were bathed in sunshine on our way over - the countryside around here is truly stunning.  We had booked ourselves into The Barley Mow pub which we came across last time we were here - very lovely it is too - one of a small chain that prides itself on service and quality.  The room was very pleasant, so we had a shower and went out for a walk to try to earn our dinner.  Barley is one of those unspoilt villages in the middle of nowhere.  Every house seems to be a barn conversion.  You feel like you are in an area of millionaires, but because it is in the middle of no-where the prices really are quite reasonable.  Anyway we walked alongside a stream for a while and then headed back to the other village pub for a cheeky drink before heading back to our pub, putting on our glad rags and having dinner.

This pub prides itself on its food and it didn't disappoint.  I had a Goan king prawn curry which was really really good - I ate it all up, so it must have been good.  Matt had pie and chips and was very happy with it - although most of his chips ended up being dipped in my curry sauce before being consumed.  Matt was on beer and I was on wine.

The Dales from Pendle Hill

It was a lovely evening, so nice to be just the two of us with no interruptions. We headed to bed quite early, but that was just fine.

An average house in Barley!

Friday morning dawned yet another sunny day.  We headed downstairs for breakfast (omelette for Matt and poached eggs for me) and then got ourselves ready for a walk up Pendle Hill.  This is a 4 mile circular walk which is very uphill.  With my lighter frame, it was certainly easier than last time I climbed up it, but I still sweat.  A lot.  Oh hum, the view from the top was just magnificent, we could see Ingleborough in the distance, and the valley holding Colne, Nelson, Burnley and Accrington.  It was just gorgeous and as we had headed up early, we didn't have to share the summit with too many people.  We carried on back down past lots of puffing people and had a drink outside in the cafe to recover.  We then drove home the scenic route via a garden centre to pick up a saucer for the Ikea plant we bought the other day.  Once again we were rewarded with wonderful views of the Dales and the Trough of Bowland.

We got back home about 1.30 - neither of us were hungry so we pottered around.  Tom is still out enjoying himself with the Ellershaws.  They have been to an ice-cream farm and are now geocaching around Williamson Park.  The house doesn't feel right without him - he should be here annoying me!

Here are a couple of pics of his day out:

In Williamson Park (they went geocaching)

At the ice cream farm (Tom decided to have coffee cake!)