dayZedandconFUSED 04-11
Led Zeppelin Run - Over the Hills and Far Away
July 13th was the date for our run out to Hawes and we met at Bev's cafe again. Any more of this and we'll be regulars. After the usual inspection of each others cars and a bit of chit chat we set off. John and I led off in the B followed by Uncle Frank in his Midget and Dave in his RV8. Bringing up the rear were the Mazda Mafia with Mike and Jim together and Pete guarding our back door.
Passing through Thirsk was uneventful but getting through Masham was a struggle as we had to pass between two breweries, Theakstons to the left of them, Black Sheep to the right of them, into the valley of---well you get the picture. Middleham was overrun by horses for some reason and Leyburn was neatly side stepped and we arrived in a very busy Hawes after a brief comfort stop in a field full of sheep.
We parked in the Wensleydale Creamery car park and went for a look around the museum where the history of cheese making in the dales was shown along with many everyday items of dales life in the past. There were also many newspaper cuttings from 1992 when Dairy Crest closed the creamery down and were going to move production to another county that we like to beat at cricket (Lancashire). The creamery was saved by the old management team and local business men buying it. After that we went into the viewing gallery to have a look at part of the production process and then we went to the tasting room. This was at the back of the shop and was quite cool with lots of cheese to sample and/or buy. We sampled but decided to buy later to save having to carry it around.
 |
 |
We then went down into the centre of Hawes for lunch at the excellent Old Board Inn where fish and chips were enjoyed by all except John who had a rather large looking ham sandwich complete with salad and chips. They had Black Sheep on tap as well. After lunch the Mazda Mafia headed for home and the rest of us went for a wander around the town. We soon lost Dave, don't know where he went and then Frank got tempted by an antique shop so me and John went into Outhwaites Ropeworks to see ropes being made. You can walk right through the middle of the factory and watch machines and people working away making all kinds of ropes, they even make bell ropes for churches.
By the time John and I got back to the car park via the creamery shop and tasting room everyone else had gone so we had a coffee and enjoyed the sunshine and the glorious dales scenery. It was a struggle to drag ourselves away but we did and had a pretty uneventful run home. Good weather, good roads, good company, all in all a good run out.