 |
| 22 of the 29 of us on the annual family camping trip to the Yorkshire Dales |
The last fortnight has
been really hectic, and hardly any of them boat related, so we were hoping for
a quiet and relaxing weekend.
The
stretch of canal where we are moored on Braunston is one of the busiest in the
country with boats passing in what seems like a constant stream.
I was talking to a lovely lady in a boat who
has been moored next to us for the last week and she seemed even more obsessive
than me – she said she counted 112 boats passing on the previous Sunday – 60 in
one direction and 52 in the other!
 |
| Dodgem boats in Braunston |
Wednesday was the start of
dry days again and many butterflies were out on the wing.
 |
| First brood Comma butterfly
– this is a pale form called Hutinsoni |
 |
| The underside of the Comma
butterfly clearly showing the comma punctuation mark |
Karen’s son, Matthew, and
Marie came over from Norway on Wednesday for a short stay with us and to join
in with our annual family camping weekend in Yorkshire. The weather was still kind for them so they
spent plenty of time in the kayak.
 |
| Matt & Marie on their
way back from the pub |
Steve, my middle son,
joined us on Thursday and then later in the evening Jake, my youngest son, and his
girlfriend, Dommie, came up as well.
Thursday was a busy night on the boat with seven of us sleeping
over. We haven’t had that many people
for a while and the children had a great time catching up with each other. We were up early on Friday morning and headed
off for Malham in the Yorkshire Dales at 5.30am.
Unfortunately our shower had
developed a leak on Thursday but it had to be left until we got back from
camping before I could fix it. The base
is a rigid plastic one rather than porcelain and it had developed a crack in
one of the seams so was now unusable.
For those of you that know me, DIY is not one of my better skills, so I
was dreading getting back from camping and fixing it. As it turned out I managed to fix a new
shower tray but it took a few days before I could stop the associated pipework
from leaking!
We had a brilliant time in
Yorkshire with eight of our children and their partners, and with various
brothers, sisters and a cousin there were 29 of us. As usual we managed to get all our tents
together in a circle in Gordale scar.
 |
| Our view from our tent
when we opened the door each morning |
 |
| Dommie and Jake building a
dam – one of the most popular pursuits of children and adults |
Karen, as usual, arranged
all the food for the four days and went on a massive supermarket shop when she
picked up Jo (her youngest) from Skipton station on the Friday afternoon. Jo had shopped around and got a ticket from
Edinburgh for just £9 – it still amazes me the enormous difference in ticket
prices for the same journeys.
 |
| Picking up the supplies
for the weekend – luckily Karen had Jo to help her |
Although we are all adults
now, the children still assume the parents take the adult roles on holidays. For example Karen’s brother in law, Keith,
and I did nearly all the cooking. We had
a good laugh though in a kind of ‘bake off’ way. To be fair, the children took it in turns to
do the washing up.
 |
| Me and Keith starting
breakfast for 20+ people |
Camping breakfasts go on
for a couple of hours or so. Croissants
when people first get up followed by cereals and then a good fry up.
 |
| Early risers having their
first breakfast |
Camping next to a beck has
its advantages; not only is it good to go to sleep with the sound of babbling
water it can be used to keep our liquids cool.
 |
| Beer, wine, milk and soft
drinks fridge (and, yes, it was all removed before we left) |
 |
| The first contingent to
get back to camp in the afternoon have raided the drinks fridge |
Most years we take a five
mile walk around the waterfalls of Ingleton.
Some of our group hadn’t been before so off we went on the Saturday:
 |
| Some of the 'children' behind Thornton Force, one of the waterfalls at Ingleton |
 |
| Steve and Lauren with their
Dad |
 |
| Traditional family games
on Gargrave village green |
 |
| Another tradition – all
our children and their partners on the stepping stones for a group photo (with
my parents this year) |
We were so fortunate with
the weather and it only rained when we came to pack up on the Monday. We keep most of the camping gear at my
parents’ house just down the road in Gargrave and the sun came out when we
arrived, so we spent a couple of hours drying things out before storing them
away.
 |
| Drying day in my parents’
cul-de-sac |
On the way back home I
dropped Matt and Marie at Liverpool airport (I always find it weird that it’s
called John Lennon airport) for their flight back to Norway. Buddy and I had an awful journey home to the
boat from there as the M6 was closed and we got caught up in it. It took us eight hours and the poor boy did
really well but was quite traumatised for a day or so afterwards.
One aspect of renting out
our house in Kent is that we have had to put most of our possessions in
storage. The plan had been to buy a flat
and use that to store the furniture and also be somewhere to meet up with the
children. We have bought a flat in the
middle of Aylesbury overlooking the canal basin and it is nearly ready to move
into. We have recently realised that we
won’t really use it as a family so decided to let it out. As it is new and large compared to most two
bedroomed flats in the area we found tenants very quickly.
Of course this means we
have to keep the storage option. I have
been shopping around and storage solutions in the Midlands are 1/3 to ½ cheaper
than in the South so Wednesday was spent moving our stuff from Maidstone to
Redditch. Not only is it cheaper, it is
a lot closer to home and makes it easy to put more stuff in or take it out.
Buddy and I found a new
circular walk on Thursday which was all going well through alternating wheat and
hay fields until we came out on a field that had just been ploughed. The footpath hadn’t been trodden out and
(being map-less at the time) we had no idea which way to go. I found it hard walking on the fresh soil as
I had sandals on and Buddy wasn’t finding it easy either. In the end we walked round the perimeter
until we picked up the path again.
 |
| Freshly ploughed field
thwarting our walk on Friday |
 |
| Open access area where we
are moored – very unusual to see these signs outside of National parks |
When we got home I
realised I had lost my boat keys so we started retracing our steps. Fortunately the first part of the walk was
along the tow path and past a chandlery.
We went in on the off chance the keys had been handed in and to our luck
they had been!
 |
| A cow and Buddy staring each other out on one of our walks |
Les, a good boating friend
of ours, turned up in Braunston on Friday and he and I went for a few beers at
lunchtime. Not something either of us do
very often as it knocks you out for the rest of the day but we had a good old
chat.
In the evening, after
Karen and I had finished yet another barbecue, Les turned up with his dog
Pepe. He stayed for a glass or two of
wine whilst the dogs tore around together.
 |
| Buddy and Pepe relaxing
for a rare moment |
 |
| Reminiscing on the towpath
(Karen’s lager, not mine!) |
The boat behind us in the
picture above was a hire boat with six adults on it. This was their first trip on a boat and they
were quite nervous about where to go and how to handle locks etc. It was really
nice to chat with them and help them out as they were really appreciative. It’s so much better all round when we ask for
help, rather than pretending we know it all in new situations.
The good weather really brought
our flowers on last week:
 |
| Nasturtiums that Karen
grew from seed |
 |
| Sweet Peas that we have to
pick every day - brightening up the boat |
The Admiral Neslon pub in
Braunston runs a music festival every year and we have never been so this year
we made sure we were in the area so we could go. We met up with Les again and
also many other people including Nicola who lives on her boat Martha. It was great fun with a really friendly
atmosphere. It’s a good venue for local
bands to get some experience and show off their talent.
 |
| Enjoying the atmosphere at
the Nelson music festival |
We didn’t stay into the
evening but went home and cooked some trout on the barbecue.
 |
| The evening view for the
last fortnight – lit up spire of the church in Braunston |
No comments:
Post a Comment