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We do quite a bit of exploration and travel within the UK here are a few shots and observations made during these excursions:
First up is Scarborough, a seaside town a bit South of Whitby. I always find Brit beach culture amusing, basically one walks around he sea side town, buying the kids a bucket and spade maybe a net to catch crabs, buy some "rock".. hard lollipop type candy drawn into stalks, cinder rock (honey comb type stuff) and buckets of fairy floss. For dinner..fish and chips and icecream, if you dine in a fish and chip shop restaurant the meal can be accompanied by a slice of bread and butter and pot of tea. Most of the shops are either sellers of crap, sellers of rock, fish and chips or icecream. Then there are souvenir shops (they can go under the heading of sellers of crap) and pinball / games / slots arcades. I like looking at the working boats and the old buildings and the non commercial scenery, otherwise these places do little for me.












Crab netting at Whitby


View of Robin Hood's Bay From Ravenscar, the village of Robin Hoods Bay is just right of centre frame on the far coast line
robin hoods bay by wallycacsabre, on Flickr

Then there was a trip up to Bishop Auckland and Barnard Castle and Middleton in Teesdale, I went through MIT last year on the Pennine Way walk. Barnard Castle was full of Antique Shops, an interesting place to stroll around. "High Force" the waterfall is a waypoint on the Pennine Way walk, this picture is taken from the opposite side of the river to that path.


We also revisited part of the Coast to Coast walk and climbed up the "Wainstones" at Middlesborough:

After that walk off to the Black Horse Pub at Swainsby for a well deserved pint of "Bitter and Twisted", great pub, lovely village great food and drink.. I could live here:



A week earlier I went for a walk on a canal I hadnt been on before from Thorne to Scunthorpe on the Keadby navigation, it wasnt particularly picturesque but I did get this interesting picture of a narrow boat on a sea of duckweed. You can see the train going over the bridge, for the boat to proceed further up the canal the bridge including the section of rail way track has to be swung around out of the way, each licenced boat owner has the key to operate swing bridges, lift bridges, locks etc. The systems are designed to be foolproof you cant turn the bridge when there is a train coming!

And then a Postcard from the North York Moors, Inland between the Coastal Villages of Whitby and Scarborough about 15 miles south of Whitby lies the village of Levisham, a beautiful little place hidden from view and separated from the less appealing village of Lockton by a steep valley that has to be negotiated via a twisty one lane road.
The place is a gem, the pub "The Horseshoe Inn" is delightful, the accommodation, grog and food all first class. The place is a fabulous base for many walks along the moors, around the "Hole of Horcum", along the path of the NYM railway through some delightful villages and the steam Train workshops at Grosmont, we lucked out to the max with the weather this visit.

A Levisham farm House


My beer'sa coming


Views of the Hole of Horcum

the scientific explanation for it's formation is totally incomprehensible to me, I far prefer the ancient legend that the hole was created by the giant "Wade" who got really pissed off with his wife one day, scooped up a great wad of earth and threw it at her... not for from the hole is a large mound / hill which is named after the wife, the hill being formed from the great clod that Wade threw.

North York Moor Railway, forever since I have been visiting here I have wanted to take that "biscuit tin" image of the a steam engine puffing around the green countryside. Last time I attempted this the planets were aligned, the sun was out, I had a vantage point , the train came into view and the bloody engine was back to front pulling the damn train in reverse. In the brilliant weather I thought I would have another go taking a new path to the ruin of Skelton tower where views of the railway track are to be had. On the way I had sight of the track in vicinity of Levisham station (situated in a valley couple of miles away from the village), like Johnny Cash I heard the train a coming, I pulled out the camera and bugger me if the damn thing wasnt going backwards again!


At Skelton Tower I got a shot of it coming the other way, still have not got the shot I want, this train does not puff out white steam and the aspect from this vantage point is not ideal..have to try again from somewhere else next time and hope the white puffer comes around.



Skelton Tower from afar

Very picturesque Wally, makes me want to trip over there and join you!

Mind you we have a plan to get over there in a year or 2 anyway. Bring on retirement!

Seriously beautiful countryside Wally. I can understand why you keep going back. Great shots.

OMFG I wanna go to that Rock shop nom nom nom

Bad for your teeth Paul! You'll love retirement Ray!

More of the Moors,

Looking along the valley on the left side of he hole. The rim of the "hole" is the high ground on the right continuing to the top right, on the other side of that rim the hole is deeper than the adjacent valley we are looking down.



Besides the usual sheep and cattle, these highland cattle roam the moors, dad, mum, sisters and kids are all featured on this family album:





We met the farmer that owns these cattle on his daily round checking the valleys for sheep and holes in fences, a big problem for them is lamb losses due to irresponsible dog owners allowing their pets to roam free and unleashed on the moors. The 7th generation farmer is surveying the deepest valley from one of the available vantage points, "the captains rock", below and behind him in that thick forest lies a farm house and a disused iron stone mine apparently.. they were not visible from anywhere overhead.

camouflage pants are standard uniform for farmers up here.

We also met a moors ranger on one of our walks and stopped to have a chat, (we do a lot of that when we go exploring due in part to our curiosity and my strange accent) we found out that the "hole" was the site of the largest stone age settlements. That the moors (which are a human creation caused be deforestation) are managed to maintain their current aspect, regular burn offs of heather to keep down Birch growth, (the birch would take over and revert the moors to forest), heather is harvested and sold to the Netherlands for use as a water filtration substance, the heather is coming out in bloom, the first week in september sees an ocean of purple over the countryside:


Bracken is a pest plant that just takes over and has to be poisoned and cut down


As a walker I hate the stuff, in low traffic areas it quickly covers the paths and is shitty to walk through, it is also unsightly.

Aye up, always lovely when the weather is like that, and don't forget some Wensleydale cheese while you are there, be sure to say hello to Wallace

Really nice photos posted Wal. The countryside looks picturesque as do the train photos.
The hotel (?) at Scarborough reminds me of the same buildings in Banff and Victoria in Canada.
Is the hollowed out rock classified as budget accommodation?

Wayne