SADY – stands for Summer at Dalesbridge, Yorkshire – basically a weekend near Settle in Yorkshire, either camping or in dormitories, with evening entertainment and daytime walks planned. No-one from Kings Lynn group has gone before, but I thought I’d give it a go!
I arrived about 8.30ish in evening to pitch my tent – luckily a pop-up affair, so up and “furnished” in time to head to the pub for a pizza with friends, much to Corinna’s (organiser) disgust as she was busily trying to convince everyone to go into the room for karaoke, which just isn’t my sort of thing (s0rry Corinna!). A mix up at the pub resulted in a larger than ordered pizza which was quickly snapped up when I got back to the site with it. Dancing to the disco then lots of chatting and catching up with people resulted and the late night was inevitable.
Morning time saw some cooking their own breakfast, some heading to the catering van over the road, then a short drive to the start of the days walk, and a chance to go buy a sandwich in the local shop to take with us for lunch. The weather was excellent, the route steep in places and surely more than the 5 miles we had been promised by Francis, or maybe I’m just stupidly unfit! Quote of the weekend was I think from Geoff – who when Francis warned us to be carefuly of the orchids in the field replied with “why – are they dangerous?”!!
Saturday evening saw us fed by Richard’s curry which was very tasty, and entertainment was a duo singing to a backing track – then disco with DJ Gary from Brean – a good chance to work off the stiffness in the legs from the walk – and no aches the next morning either!
Another walk on Sunday, although as it fell on the same day as the World Cup Final, we were under pressure to get back to the pub in time for the match…..the walk once again took us through some stunning countryside including a waterfall that we had to go through a pub to get to, and some more very steep hills. Once strange part was walking through someone’s back garden, complete with washing on the line (attached to the footpath signpost) as part of the route! The view was certainly worth the hill climb. Back to the pub just in time for the football, and the non-footie fans (ok, just a few of us) went for a bite to eat at a tea-room and a wander around the town of Hawes – the home of Wensleydale cheese.
Back to site and after a bite to eat we listened to a very talented guy with an accoustic guitar – a refreshing change and I could have listened to him all night.
Sunday morning and time to pack up and head home – all in all a great weekend, made brilliant by some excellent weather. Definitely to be recommended!
Christine T