My Yorkshire Holiday - Part III

On the Tuesday of my week in Ripon, an uncle and aunt of mine came up from Sheffield to spend the day with me, something I had been looking forward to very much. This lovely couple are in their early 70s and both very fit and active, mentally as well as physically. Like me, they love to walk - and walk we did!

The original plan was to walk along Ripon canal and the river Ure to Newby Hall. Last year, I'd already been to Newby Hall with my sister (you can see the pictures on this post), but I certainly did not mind going there again, especially since I expected the wonderful gardens to look rather different now in the July sunshine than to what it was like last year in May, when it was so cold we really could not go out without wearing our padded winter coats.
 

Ripon Canal

Ripon Canal

Ripon Canal

Ripon Canal. Some people live on a canal boat permanently, others just rent for a holiday.

Well, it turned out that we never actually made it to Newby Hall this year. The reason? A misinterpretation of the OS map my uncle had with him. On that map, it looked like there was a path along the river and then a place where the river could be crossed to reach Newby Hall's grounds. In reality, the path along the river was there alright - but no way to cross the river except for by boat or swimming, neither of which was an option for our small group of four.

The canal and the river Ure meet at some stage. What you see here is the 

Ure.

It was so warm the sheep were seeking the shade of the trees.

Not much undergrowth at this bit; I could not take pictures at the djungle-like parts, since it was so dense all I could do was move forward and stick to the path as best as possible!

Look at the plants behind me. They are taller than I (5'8''), even if you can't see it properly there.

Finally, the path left the river and lead along some fields...

...and across this vast pasture up to the village.

Instead, we kept walking along the river, the path sometimes so overgrown with huge djungle-like undergrowth that it was hard to detect it, until we reached the beautiful village of Roecliffe. Wikipedia says it has less than 250 inhabitants, and by the looks of it, each one of these lives in a very pretty cottage.

There, we found "The Crown Inn", a five star country pub and inn that has won many prizes - and, as far as we could tell, deservedly so. Their website is here if you want to know more.

When we arrived, it was 1.45 pm, and the kitchen was closed. The friendly waiter told us that the chef had already gone home. Our faces must have been so full of despair (by that stage, all of us were really longing for something to eat - we'd been walking miles in difficult territory and in the heat, equipped with water, yes, but no food) that he took pity on us. We said we didn't want a cooked meal, a slice of bread would be fine or even just a bag of crisps along with a nice cold drink, and he disappeared. Moments later, he returned to tell us that he'd gotten hold of the chef and he'd make us sandwiches, but really just sandwiches, nothing else (which is what we'd wanted anyway).
After a short wait, what arrived at our table was not "just sandwiches", but full meals with salad and freshly made chips - wonderful!

We thanked the waiter as if he'd saved our lives (which, in a way, he had), and after finishing our excellent meal, walked into Boroughbridge to take the bus back to Ripon.

Altogether, on that day we probably walked somewhere around 10 miles. That does not sound much, but one of our group was not used to much walking at all, plus there was the uncertain path and the warm weather people in Yorkshire are not quite used to.
It was an adventure, and a lovely one at that! Sometimes under the huge plants overgrowing the river path I felt like one of the tiny people that populated my childhood imagination, the kind that build houses in large mushrooms and use leaves for umbrellas.