Lost

Hi! Everyone! How are you?

The weather here in the UK is so lovely. The the trees are a mass of red and gold and because it's so gorgeous, I thought you might like to hear about a walk (YES! WALK!) Me and Arf did when on holiday in Yorkshire about 8 years ago. This was the last time I managed this sort of holiday before the now very famous brain op!

We'd booked a cottage in Settle, a small village in the Yorkshire Dales, our favourite place for hill-walking. Our little abode was in Upper Settle, a vertical walk from the centre of the village!

We were next door to a real old-timer; a Yorkshireman who had worked on the railway and for some reason had a bicycle in his lounge - we never did find out why! He used to collar us each time we went out (he loved chatting!), so we decided to tip-toe out of the BACK door this particular morning but - YES! You've got it! - he was there smoking his pipe and grinning!

Anyway we set off with a map to walk over the top of Malham Cove, a short but tiring walk of about 8 MILES! I was the 'pioneer' leading my trusty slave (Arf! I lived in make-believe land at the time!). We followed the directions to the mighty Malham cove. We came across a herd of cows and they obviously thought me a bit tasty as they all ambled over to us. I'm not over-fond of herds of animals so Arf stood there with his RED rucksack (good job there was no bull in the herd!), opened his arms wide and shouted "Go away - Go away", and waved his arms in the hope they would do just that! It was like the parting of the Red Sea - half went one way, half the other and Arf stood there smiling like Moses!

The climb to the cove was quite easy until you came to some rather steep and slippery steps but following the map, we made our way up to the top passing many people coming down. Some of the women were in high heels - even I'm not that daft! The view from the top was amazing - I hugged myself and Arf with pure joy! After we'd had a drink, we followed the directions down the other side of the cove. We passed through a few stiles and eventually came to a shaded woodland with a river tinkling through it!

The scent of wild garlic filled the air and we sat by a waterfall (well, I say 'waterfall'... we'd had a slight drought that year!) before heading for the car. It had been a circular walk and I was quite pleased with myself for finding the path and not getting lost!

We saw the owner of our cottage with his ice cream stand and thought "Yummy - just what we need!" so we trudged over to him, both of us panting by now and very hot! Oh! Calamity! We'd forgotten to bring any money! But he gave us an ice cream just the same and I thanked him and proudly showed him the map and how we'd managed to find our way without any hitch! B

ut wait for this! WE'D ONLY DONE THE WALK THE WRONG WAY ROUND - WE STARTED AT THE FINISH AND ENDED AT THE BEGINNING! How did I manage to follow the map and still find our way? Well! You know me by now - dippy at the best of times!

As we entered the pub that evening for a meal, everyone grinned - how did they know? Yep!

The ice cream man owned the pub as well! We had two red faces and it wasn't just the sun that caused them!

Lovely memories! See ya! Sandie.