Across the Yorkshire Moors

We had a bit of a surprise this morning, after dropping our tents. We headed to breakfast at Lordstone’s Country Park and ran straight into one of the steepest climbs we’ve faced in our whole trip. It was well over 15% gradient, but luckily only around 2km long. It was a slightly less than sprightly trio of McNamaras who crested the climb and entered the tea shop at Lordstones in need of breakfast and a sit down.

After breakfast things settled down considerably, with beautiful Yorkshire back roads through the heather coated hillsides of Herriot Country. Amazing scenery was accompanied by bright sunny skies too, a truly gorgeous ride.

Lunch was in Helmsely - a little market town in the middle of the Moors. It’s a shame they’ve turned the market square into a large (highly profitable) car park, it somewhat spoils the feel of the place, but the local deli served us up some exquisite sandwiches to eat sat on the steps of the large monument in the middle of the square.

Our search for Union Jack flags in the village was to no avail though, meaning we’re still without courtesy flags in our home country so far.

The final stretch to York was a race against an incoming rain storm. We just about made it as the raindrops started to fall, but then the rain stopped pretty much straight away, so it wasn’t really a problem after all.

Off for a night out in York tonight, to see some “old buildings” as Tiger described them.