Tuesday 8 July 2014

July 3rd 2014: Yorkshire: Arrival at Grassington

Monty the Motorhome has driven round some of the route that the Tour de France cyclists will take on Day 1 (day after tomorrow) and is glad that he has a decent engine to power him up the hills.

We left Hawes this morning and drove up and along the Buttertubs pass. This will be a sprint stage for the ‘King of the Mountains’ title and though the climb is tough it is the descent that is most scary. Hairpin bends, steep slopes dropping away from the side of the road and gradients up to 25%. Nerves of steel will be required, along with well maintained brakes!
The pass drops into Swaledale and the route continues along this pretty valley before turning towards Leyburn. The Tour will head off in the direction of Harrogate from here, but we turned west and back towards Hawes, before branching off on the road that crosses to Wharfedale. Here we picked up the Tour route again, though this time travelling in the reverse direction to which it will be going. The road comes down into Wharfedale at Buckden and goes along the valley bottom through Kettlewell and towards Grassington. This was precisely where I was last week, so Ruth could see the campsite and areas walked.

Our home for the next four nights will be the Caravan Club campsite at Grassington, formerly known as Long Ashes, now simply called Wharfedale. We arrived shortly before 12.00 and there were quite a few pitches to choose from, though later in the day the site filled up completely. 

After getting settled we walked into Grassington, which took about 40 minutes. The town was not as we remembered it from walking the Dales Way 30 years ago. Our recollections were of a village on the banks of the Wharfe that was fairly flat. In reality it is built on a hillside, which is quite steep. The river is at the bottom and does not flow through the centre at all. How time plays tricks on the mind. 

The Wharfe from Grassington bridge

Looking up Wharfedale from near our campsite


We did not spend too long looking around, but long enough to buy a few bits to keep us nourished for a while.

Evening meal tonight was a remoska meal of chicken kiev pieces, onion and courgette, together with rice. It was delicious and got both our votes as the best remoska meal so far.



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