The Yorkshire Dales and the Peak District

After our morning hike in the Lake District we headed south towards the Yorkshire Dales. At this point I feel obligated to tell you that a lot of our tour of England was motivated by Harry Potter. Most, if not all of the Harry Potter films have been filmed in the UK and there was a particular scene in HP7 Part 1 where both Katie and I said "I want to go to there." After a bit of googling I found the town of Malham in the Yorkshire Dales. We knew ahead of time that Malham is pretty small, so we stopped for groceries in the town of Settle before arriving.

Once in Malham we hiked up the 400 steps to the top of the limestone formation and spent some time taking pictures, eating snacks and generally avoiding the other tourists. After making lunch back at a picnic table at the hostel we decided to drive down the road to Gorham Scar. Gorham Scar is a really beautiful glacial valley with a waterfall on the inside. In the evening we had tomato soup, couscous and a loaf of bread and then hung out in the hostel's common room talking about life in general with three Brits.

Hand pulled Ales

The next morning included yet another southerly journey and so we set off for the Peak District around 9:30 AM. Because a lot of this english journey was to parks and small towns the roads were not: fast, wide, well marked or generally navigable. After about three and half hours of driving and getting lost we finally made it to Castleton. The Brits from the night before had told us to do the hike from Castleton towards Edale, so we did (after making some peanut butter and banana sandwiches for lunch).

As we hiked up the hill towards Edale the clouds began to break and the scenery was beautiful. Back down the hill towards Castleton and into the car to drive Winner's Pass once more to film it and then on to the Bretton (another tiny town in the Peak District) hostel. As we drove along a small ridge in Bretton towards our hostel we saw what someone later guessed were the Red Arrows (eight jets) practicing aerobatics with red, white and blue smoke.

Our Hostel in Bretton