It is hard to believe that we have been home for over three weeks from Florida and have packed so much in already! The weather has been pretty good so we squeezed in one last Lake District Campervan trip and have got out exploring the Yorkshire Dales with friends both new and old.
Hurricane devastation
Following on from our last blog where we had such an amazing time on Anna Maria Island on the Gulf Coast in Florida, we have been devastated to watch the destruction of the 2 hurricanes that have since blasted through. It is hard to get our head around the fact that just days after we fished on the piers and had fun holidaying on the beach much of it has been destroyed.
The first hurricane, Helene caused so much damage through the violent storm surge that dumped up to 3 feet of sand on the roads and flooded most houses and businesses. It also ripped off the board walk on the Rod and Reel pier. The second Hurricane, Milton that came through just a week later caused more damage due the islands proximity to where the storm made landfall and the high winds. There but for the grace of God, the hurricane landed at low tide, so the damage was not as disastrous as it had been predicted.
We were saddened to see photos of the island, particularly the now total destruction of the Rod and Reel pier where the whole 2 story restaurant structure has been washed away into the sea. All that remains are a few wooden stumps to show that there had once been a pier. We were even more heartbroken to see that once again, the City Pier, where we spent most afternoons, had once again been washed away – only a few years after being rebuilt.
It is going to take the island a long time to recover from this double hit, many buildings lost their roofs, were flooded and had significant amounts of sand and contaminated waters dumped in the pools – but we will hopefully get to return one day and enjoy it again.
Impromptu Lake District camp out
Since we returned from the States, the weather has for most parts been great and we have enjoyed getting out and about in the great outdoors hiking in the last rays of sun. The autumn days have been quite glorious, and we decided to get away for a couple of nights in the Lake District.
As luck would have it, we received a well-timed email from the CAMC with a voucher for a free night at any campsite and we had a £10 voucher from when we joined. So for just £20 we had 2 nights at the lovely Coniston Park Coppice site near Lake Coniston.
We managed to hike up 2 more Wainwright’s – although they were only low fells, gaining only 300m of elevation on each, they were absolutely stunning. It helps that we had good weather and the visibility was clear so the views over the lakes were stunning.
On our last day, we set off in search of the Cathedral Caves. I had never heard of them before, but had seen a photo of them on google maps when we were looking what there was around the area.
We set off from Elterwater and walked across to Little Langdale across the picturesque Slaters Bridge. The actual caves took some finding as they are not signposted as Cathedral Caves. They are actually part of the Little Langdale Quarries but our search took us a few miles north and we dropped back down through some lovely, scenic derelict quarries which made the detour worth it!
Sometimes it’s the last minute, impromptu things that make life more interesting and we had a wonderful, cheap, totally unplanned couple of days away.
It was also lovely to meet a few of our subscribers at the campsite, it still feels a little strange when we meet people that watch the channel and know all about our adventures but it is lovely to chat and it is a good way to break the ice and meet new people.
Meeting up with new friends
We had the most wonderful day on Tuesday. We met up with one of our original subscribers that has followed our YouTube journey almost from the beginning. Sharon and her daughter are Canadian and are in the UK to do some hiking in the Dales, so we arranged to meet up.
We hiked 17km from Burnsall to Kettlewell which is a beautiful stretch of the Dales Way. It is amazing how you can spend hours with someone you have only just met and there never be a moment of silence! We laughed and chatted and took in the beautiful scenery. It was so nice to see how much pleasure people who are not from the Dales get from visiting the places that we now call home.
We stayed overnight at the Masons Campsite in Appletreewick – we have cycled past there many times and vowed to make a visit and it didn’t disappoint. It has a wonderful quirky feeling to it, even in low season. There are several yurts and glamping pods and even an iconic airstream to hire, sadly we arrived quite late and had to be up early so we did not get to sample the coffee and pastries but I am sure we will return again in the spring.
Subsidence update
Things have moved quite fast with Richards mums house this past couple of weeks. After a visit to sample the artex on the walls and ceilings, it was found to contain traces of asbestos (we didn’t even know that was a thing!) Within a week, a team had been deployed and all asbestos removed from the hall, stairs and landing. We are now just waiting for the repair team to move in and complete the works and redecorate. Overall, it has been a slow process, 15 months and counting, but we have been kept informed every step of the way and there have been MANY steps so far!
Celebrating 50 states landmark
After we left the USA, mum stayed out there as she was on the final leg of her mission to visit all 50 states. She had 2 weeks to do a whistle stop tour of the last 4 states on her bucket list and she celebrated her 50th and final state with a boat tour on Lake Erie in Ohio. Quite a remarkable feat for someone rapidly approaching their 9th decade!
Birthday celebrations and family time
We spent a few days last week back in Cheshire to welcome mum home and to have an early birthday celebration for Georgia. We had a gorgeous afternoon tea with all of the family and had a big night out in Altrincham with the girls. It has been quite a while since we have been out drinking in a town, and it was a lovely treat. Altrincham has changed a lot since our last outing there and we enjoyed a carafe of wine and some street food in the old market hall. We even remembered to take some photos, which we never do when we all get together!
On Sunday we all went into Manchester to cheer on Charlotte in the half marathon, she absolutely smashed it in under 2 hours and was still smiling on the finish line
Expensive few days!
Last week seemed to be one of those weeks when all we did was spend money - luckily those weeks don't come around too often!!
On Monday we had the chimney swept, on Tuesday Richard cracked his computer screen and needed a very expensive replacement from Apple! On Thursday, my car Bertie had his MOT - Luckily all was good, on Friday we needed to pay the credit card that we had put all our Thailand accommodation bookings and flights on and today the final ski accomadation payment is due.
Lots of exciting plans so no grumbles when paying up!
Time exploring the Dales
The rest of our time has been spent getting out and exploring the Dales – finding new paths and trails in our local area.
One of our favourite new finds was a hike across from the top end of Settle to Malham which takes you high over the moors amongst the sheep and a herd of belted Galloway cows. The views all around were quite spectacular and the hike was a lot harder than it sounds, with around 800m of elevation gained due to it being an up and over both ways! But Malham is one of our favourite places, as is the walk along Attermire Scar and there was a lovely pint waiting for us at the Lister Arms in Malham to bolster us for the hike back home.
We had some friends over to stay and visited Stainforth Foss as I had read that the salmon were back for their annual run up the Ribble. We were fortunate enough to glimpse one failed attempt of a huge salmon leaping up the waterfall but after waiting patiently for 30 minutes there was no further sighting.
Myself and Richard returned a few days later after a huge deluge of rain to see if the higher water levels were more conducive conditions for them and we were treated to quite a show. They were much too quick to try and capture on camera, but we sat and watched for about an hour and saw several salmon leaping, sadly non very successfully 😂
We have been trying to get lots of elevation gains in over the past few weeks as I still have about 4000m of elevation needed to complete my 4th virtual Mount Everest and I am not sure how much hiking and elevation we will get when out in Thailand. I still have until the end of December to get achieve my target so I am not too worried yet!
So it is not long until we go to Thailand and the rest of our time now will be spent sorting ourselves ready to set off. We have got our back packs ready, booked the first few weeks of accommodation, ordered some Thai Bart and fresh £50 notes as apparently that gets us the best exchange rate when out there. I am really excited as we are travelling with Emirates on the airbus, that excitement may dwindle after we board the second 7 hour flight in Dubai! We are also getting a little apprehensive as SE Asia is so different to anything we have ever done before, but I am sure after a couple of days out there we will love it.
We are at the Motorhome show this week to have another look at what vans are out there for when we swap Nelson. We know roughly what we are looking for now so it is just a matter of visiting each manufacturers stand and seeing what their version of the van looks like and to compare prices!
Hope you have all had a great few weeks
Jackie and Richard
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