Hockley Heights Gazette

Time gallops when you are having a great time, and so this past week has disappeared in a twinkling. We drove up to Ingleton (Lower Westhouse) on Sunday, varying our route this time with a back country beginning via the A130, A120 and eventually the A1. It was a quick(ish) and relatively traffic free trip. Jim, our ex-Canberran mate (and now resident in Adelaide but holidaying here until the end of the year) met us and we eventually hit the local pub for some Sunday night nosh - very nice, if a little expensive.
To drive the calories out of our thighs we hit Ingleborough the next day for a 2373ft ascent. It took around 4 hours return, and we all had a nice rosy glow and dead legs afterwards! The weather was really nice, and we had some great clear views of the Dales. We were "buzzed" by a training pilot from the nearby RAF base, which was awesome and a little scary as well.
Tuesday we drove to Windemere, had a little peek around the town, then headed to Bowness and the ferry to Ambleside. It was another excellent day, and we were lucky to have calm waters and magnificent views of the local natural attractions.
Wednesday we drove to York, and after booking in to the Holgate Hill Hotel, we walked into the town to see the Minster (see pic where Kym is serenely enjoying the minster, but the boys are in motion to the point of blurriness!) and then walk around the city walls.
On Thursday we returned to the city, catching up with the local shopping area known as "The Shambles" and then spending some time at the extensive National Railway Museum, before departing back to Ingleton for dinner at the Wheatsheaf Hotel. Through the week the Pecks and the Lackies had been involved in a pitched battle over a Monopoly board, a soccer ball and a pool table. It would be churlish of me to report any scores, but let's just say that capitalism is not our strongpoint, but games involving ball skills show the fruits of hours of frivolous time-wasting over the years.
Friday we drove to Askwith (the Black Horse Hotel) to catch up with Kym's cousin and extended family, including Arinze the R&B artist, much to the boys' delight (see pic). They all look painfully arthritic to me, but I am repeatedly assured that I am an old fuddy duddy and should probably just keep my opinions to myself on modern culture. Finally, after farewelling the people and the landscape of the Midlands, we tore down the A1 and arrived home just after 9pm last night. This was a great week in a very different cultural dynamic to Essex, and one wonders what our England experience would have been like to date if we had have landed elsewhere in the country - oh well!