July 4th 2014: Yorkshire: A wet walk (again)

Monty the Motorhome is snuggly parked up at the Wharfedale campsite as the whole area grows busier by the hour. With the Tour de France starting tomorrow there will be an estimated 2,000,000 - yes I have got the number of noughts right - people in Yorkshire over the next few days. Cyclists are everywhere, from solitary riders to large peletons. I have never seen so many, even in Holland. The roads are chaotic, with cars, motorhomes, cyclists and pedestrians all battling for space. 

Today we took the bus up the valley and back to Kettlewell and visited the campsite I was on last week. The owner, Alan, was outside and we had a quick chat. He expressed surprise saying he remembered the woman I was with last week had dark hair (Ruth’s is light brown) - Yorkshire humour!

After a quick look around the village we walked the Dales Way back to Grassington. The path takes a high level route, with extensive views up and down Wharfedale. We could see all the preparations for tomorrow - plenty of ‘pop-up’ parking and camping sites, bunting everywhere, effigies on the hillsides and even a flock of sheep that had been dyed bright yellow - the colour of the Tour.

Looking back up Wharfedale, just before the rain arrived

A 'pop-up' site below Kilnsey Crag in readiness for tomorrow

Unfortunately the weather deteriorated as we were walking, so that by the time we reached Grassington it was steady rain and we were quite wet. This was exactly the weather we had for the same stretch of walk when we did it 30 years ago as part of The Dales Way. The walk back to the campsite was not pleasant, and it was with some relief that a warm dry Monty embraced us back.

The rain continued for the rest of the day and at the time of writing (2130 hrs) it is still coming down. Lets hope for an improvement tomorrow.