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Monday 29 August, door de North York Moors

Great Britain 2005 - part X

Elisabeth & Teije
2006-08-27 12:23:47

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Today is Bank Holiday, eveybody has a day off and we notice it: people are everywhere, crowds all over the place! The sky is cloudy, but it feels comfortable. We try to avoid the masses and take small roads, first to Rievaulx abbey of which an impressive ruin has remained.

After that we cross the North York Moors national park. Fields with blooming heather cover this high area of more than 1400 km². A beautiful purple colours the whole landscape. According to our travel guide this area is not very touristic, but that doesn't seem to be true today. On most of the roads we drive in a long line of cars.

There are not many roads in this area but we find a few smaller ones and there is less traffic. Now and then we even have to open a gate to continue our way. At first we thought, it is a dead-end, maybe a road to a farm. But then there would be a sign... The gate is probably just a replacement for the more commonly used catlle grid to keep lifestock in a certain area.

Sometimes the sky becomes very dark, but the dark clouds go as fast as they come. Unfortunately we couldn't make a good photograph of it, since it looked very beautiful. This journey we find it difficult to make good pictures anyway because of the weather conditions. The sky is often to dark, or to white, the sceneries too vast to capture. A pity we are only amateurs, it would be so nice to be able to capture the fantastic sceneries that we come across.

Back on the south side of the moors we take a break in Pickering, a town build around the castle. The skies are blue again and the sun is shining brightly and everybody is wwalking or sitting outside. We walk around the market and have a look at the castle; the 14th century castle walls are still intact. On the market we buy a lovely elfs dress for our granddaughter. She will have to wait a few years before she fits into it, but it is so cute that we can't let it hang there.

Then we drive to the north again, along another road and arrive at Whitby where an old abbey ruin stands high on a cliff above the sea. Whitby itself lies much lower and in the town it is as crowded as we have seen in other places. Where do all these tourists come from, we ask ourselves? Don't they have to go home, now that the holiday is almost over?

Robin Hood's Bay (doesn't have anything to do with the 'real' Robin Hood) is a village (very small on the picture) where tea and liquor were brought to land by smugglers in the 18th century. Nowadays it will be probably cigarettes and tobacco since these articles are now very expensive in the UK.

We have made quite a tour today and when we are back at Helmsley, we indulge ourselves with a 'good' English meal. That is to say, there are carrots and peas present, like in all meals here. We don't have a good relationship with the English kitchen... We know some people won't agree with us, buth we always eat cheap and in England that is expensive enough. The houses here, they are much better, but we can't live of them... So we just finish the plate with all the (not well-cooked) vegetables and too fat potatoes.
The sun just sets when we return to the campsite. And maybe it really becomes quieter after tomorrow because some of the tents and caravans have already gone and others are packing. Now we skip sometimes places we would like to see, just because it is way too busy, but hopefully that will change when the holiday is really over!