Its two years since we’ve been away on holiday. COVID-19 has made us uncomfortable about going into other accommodation or staying in an hotel. However, althouh the numbers are still high we decided to go away and see how we felt. We had a lovely time, despite the weather (which was cold and wet at times), the area was beautiful, we walked every day and left the car parked where we put it when we arrived.
Malham village is somewhere where we have visited before, but only when we were staying somewhere else and just for a day. The river was in full spate but not flooding (although it looked like their had been some flooding the previous weeks).
On the first day, we walked up to Malham Cove which was as impressive as ever, the 400 steps up the side were not slippery, despite being wet and the view from the top beautiful. We also went to Gordale Scar somewhere we’ve not seen before which was equally impressive, massive limestone cliffs and a waterfall round the side. On the way we passed Janet’s Foss, another beautiful waterfall which was thundering water over the top. One of the interesting things was the way that the water was coming up to add to the river. Gordale Scar is limestone (which is porous) on top of granite so the water which has filtered through the limestone bubbles up when it hits the granite.
Day 2 saw us walking down the river Aire to Airton and then back up again past the old mill with its attractive mill race. There was lots of water flowing and it makes you wonder whether it would be worhwhile putting a turbine into the overflow to generate power but I suppose it all depends upon the water levels year round. It was wet and muddy but there was a nice cup of coffee at the turning point. One of the things we didn’t really expect to see were some of the birds around the river. Whilst gulls and suchlike weren’t out of the ordinary, Oystercatchers and Goosanders were less expected.
Day 3 saw us take a short walk out of the village going north and up onto the tops in the snow. It was windy and cold but again beautiful scenery.
That was it Day 4 was us driving back home through Barnsley where I bought another Airfix model which I’m presently building.
