Walk: 11:30am to 3pm - 6.5 miles and 737ft of ascent
Well another dull day, but that doesn't make it a dull holiday; in fact the opposite as it's been a great holiday. I didn't roll out of bed until 8:30am; I can't believe that it's only a handful of years ago that I would jump out of bed as soon as I woke up, normally around 6am. But these days....oh to have the life of a dog....
Donna had asked me last night where we would be walking today, I had a few options but hadn't decided so left the 'surprise' until this morning. When Donna asked again I still hadn't decided, but 5 minutes with the OS Map and a walk had been imprinted in my mind. We would park up at the top of the Hole of Horcum as we had done on a number of occasions in the past, but this time head over to the north-western edge to see if we could catch a glimpse of the North Yorkshire Moors train passing by.
We had walked across the bracken covered moor for about an hour - the colours were stunning, and then in the distance we could make out the sound of the train. The question was though, would we be in a position to see it as it passed by? Well we were in luck, the path had taken us near enough to the edge of the moor to allow us to see some of the track just as the train was passing. It was the steam train so our luck was in, the only negative aspect was that we could only see the part of the track where we caught the back of the train so couldn't get a head on shot. Never mind, we had seen it.
Our route took as slightly off the main track as we intended to dine at Skelton Tower, we'd seen it in the distance but after bumping into some walkers they sold it to us as a 'must go' place. As we got there we realised what a great vantage point it was as it sat high on the hill above Newtondale. We unpacked our snack (you couldn't really call it lunch) and I had my camera poised with the telephoto attached. After about 5 minutes we heard the train in the distance, and shortly after it came into view. And as it was heading towards Pickering it was coming straight towards us.
But, unfortunately the engine on the train was reversed so the front of the train was the back end of the engine. Never mind: Ok I didn't get the photo that I had hoped for, but we could have been unlucky and not seen it at all so it was a bonus worth walking for.
We took the path back uphill and over towards Dundale Pond where we would pick up the main track back over the moor to the car-park. It was funny to listen to Donna questioning the length of the walk as the road at the top end of the Hole of Horcum just never seemed to get any nearer. I must admit that this section of the walk is a bit of a slog, and a 2 mile long slog at that. It didn't help that for the last 45 minutes or so of the walk it rained. That said, we've never yet been in this area without it raining!
So, we headed back to the cottage to do some freshening up before driving into Scarborough for a curry at the Scarborough Tandoori. We've dined there a few times before and the food has never let us down. And tomorrow back to normality.
Well another dull day, but that doesn't make it a dull holiday; in fact the opposite as it's been a great holiday. I didn't roll out of bed until 8:30am; I can't believe that it's only a handful of years ago that I would jump out of bed as soon as I woke up, normally around 6am. But these days....oh to have the life of a dog....
Donna had asked me last night where we would be walking today, I had a few options but hadn't decided so left the 'surprise' until this morning. When Donna asked again I still hadn't decided, but 5 minutes with the OS Map and a walk had been imprinted in my mind. We would park up at the top of the Hole of Horcum as we had done on a number of occasions in the past, but this time head over to the north-western edge to see if we could catch a glimpse of the North Yorkshire Moors train passing by.
We had walked across the bracken covered moor for about an hour - the colours were stunning, and then in the distance we could make out the sound of the train. The question was though, would we be in a position to see it as it passed by? Well we were in luck, the path had taken us near enough to the edge of the moor to allow us to see some of the track just as the train was passing. It was the steam train so our luck was in, the only negative aspect was that we could only see the part of the track where we caught the back of the train so couldn't get a head on shot. Never mind, we had seen it.
Our route took as slightly off the main track as we intended to dine at Skelton Tower, we'd seen it in the distance but after bumping into some walkers they sold it to us as a 'must go' place. As we got there we realised what a great vantage point it was as it sat high on the hill above Newtondale. We unpacked our snack (you couldn't really call it lunch) and I had my camera poised with the telephoto attached. After about 5 minutes we heard the train in the distance, and shortly after it came into view. And as it was heading towards Pickering it was coming straight towards us.
We took the path back uphill and over towards Dundale Pond where we would pick up the main track back over the moor to the car-park. It was funny to listen to Donna questioning the length of the walk as the road at the top end of the Hole of Horcum just never seemed to get any nearer. I must admit that this section of the walk is a bit of a slog, and a 2 mile long slog at that. It didn't help that for the last 45 minutes or so of the walk it rained. That said, we've never yet been in this area without it raining!
So, we headed back to the cottage to do some freshening up before driving into Scarborough for a curry at the Scarborough Tandoori. We've dined there a few times before and the food has never let us down. And tomorrow back to normality.
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