Day 10: The Making of Wensleydale Cheese

August 5, 2024: Originally, I considered taking a zero day today and sightseeing around the town of Hawes since, as it turned out, there were some interesting things in the area. But I decided not to take a zero day, after seeing the weather forecast included an all-day rainstorm a few days away and figured it would be nicer to use that as a zero day.

However... there was one particular thing in town that I definitely wanted to do before leaving: the Cheese Making Experience. The factory where the world-famous Wensleydale cheese is made was just a five or ten minute walk away, and they give factory tours. I wanted to take that tour!

The highlight for the day was a visit to the Wensleydale Creamery--which, I might add, the Pennine Way went right around the back side during the walk into town yesterday. =)

Woke up bright and early for breakfast at 8:00am. Breakfast was included with the hotel stay, but you actually had to order it and select a time (within an hour or two window period) to have it, and 8:00am was the earliest time I could schedule.

After breakfast, I picked up a few groceries nearby at a Spar grocery store waiting until the cheese factory opened for the day.

The gift shop opened first, so I looked around there and bought a few items. I was most happy having bought a cheap pair of lightweight socks I could use in camp. I had forgotten to bring the fleece socks (that I sewed myself, no less!) that I usually used in camp, and my hiking socks were much too dirty and rough for camp, so it had been somewhat annoying to be in camp without any camp socks. I was finally happy to get some camp socks--yellow with lots of bright, fluffy white sheep on them. =)

Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep were featured attractions on seemingly everything in the store, but it really was Wallace and Gromit that saved Wensleydale cheese. They had made cheese out here for centuries, but were on the verge of bankruptcy when Wensleydale cheese appeared as the favorite cheese of Wallace turning the factory's fortunes around overnight. The writer who created that segment had later said that he had no idea that they were a struggling company or worked with the company in any way--he just liked the way the word "Wensleydale" sounded. Anyhow, the little blurb changed the course of this little town's history....

I can't imagine how much time it required to knit these larger-than-life creations of Wallace and Gromit!

 

But that's also the reason so much of the merchandise in the gift shop had Wallace and Gromit elements in it, but I have to admit, I wasn't entirely sure of the connection to Shaun the Sheep except that there was some sort of crossover between the two characters?

Then I headed over to the line that started forming for the factory tour. There were only about 5 people ahead of me, but no sense getting too far back in the line if I didn't have to! Finally, the doors opened and when I reached the front of the line, I paid the admission price before walking through a short hallway filled with cheese memorabilia, the history of cheese, the history of the area and into a demonstration room. After everyone had piled in, a cheese-making demonstration began.

 

I have to admit, I was a little disappointed it wasn't more hands-on. The presenter did a good job explaining how the cheese was made as he molded and formed a lump at the front of the room, but it would have been more fun if we were given the materials to make our own block of cheese and get our hands dirty. Which, admittedly, would have been a lot more work for them, but I definitely wanted to get my hands dirty! =)

The factory floor, as one of the employees processes a batch of cheese

After that was over, we were herded into another building which was where the actual factory floor was located, and we could watch through the windows as the employees processed an enormous batch of cheese. There was also an area for kids to play, a tasting area to try a bunch of the cheeses they made there (and were happy to sell, of course) and some amazing yarn creations of Wallace and Gromit (and friends).

Eventually, the tour was over, and I returned to the hotel to pick up my backpack. I had checked out of the hotel already since I didn't think we'd be finished with the cheese tour before checkout time, but they allowed us to leave our bags back at the hotel for a few hours to pick up after the tour which is what I did.

This guy appeared to be taking samples of the cheese from the conveyor belt, probably for quality control tests.

 

Then we hoofed it out of town. We hadn't even made it a mile before Karolina reported feeling a hot spot on her foot and stopped to discover a blister and she had to take care of it before continuing onward.

In the town of Hardraw, we decided to walk maybe a half-mile off trail to visit Hardraw Force, an impressive waterfall where a scene from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was filmed. I hadn't seen that film since it was released in the early 1990s and remembered very little of it--certainly nothing about a waterfall--but I'm always a big fan of waterfalls and would have checked it out anyhow.

I was surprised when I discovered that there was an entrance fee for access to the waterfall. What?! Why did my guidebook not mention this fact? I was tempted to turn around right then in protest but the fee was fairly modest (4 pounds per person) and we'd already walked this far off trail to see the waterfall, so we paid the fee and kept going.

We did, however, ask if we could leave our backpacks at the entrance station there, which they allowed and therefore could walk the rest of the way to the waterfall unencumbered. =)  

There's not much to say about the waterfall. It was nice and scenic. Seeing it didn't ring any bells for me from the Robin Hood movie. There was a young woman sitting near the waterfall who appeared to be wearing a wetsuit under some clothes, as if she was waiting to jump into the water (which was strictly prohibited, I might add). But I never actually saw her swimming in the water and she was completely dry, but it was a little odd to see.

Hardraw Force ("Force" is just their name for "waterfall"). Watch the clip of the waterfall from the Robin Hood movie on YouTube where Kevin Costner (or at least a double) skinny dips in the pool below the waterfall. (Maybe swimming was allowed when it was filmed--but definitely not today!)

 

After taking the necessary photos, we returned to the entrance station where we picked up our packs. Karolina used the opportunity to make use of the toilets before we left and returned back to the trail.

From there, the trail climbed for seemingly forever to Great Shunner Fell, but the climb was relatively slow and steady. Much of it was in the fog obscuring the views and the wind was fierce and cold.

Then the trail descended into the small town of Thwaite, which appeared to be entirely closed by the time I passed by. I had considered stopping somewhere in town for a quick dinner or snack but didn't see any place that was open and just pushed onward.

 

Not much appeared to be happening in this town!

Signs around the town warned people not to camp in the fields, which was a huge pity because the fields were quite nice with luscious green grass on flat and level ground. I was a little annoyed as well because we were tired and rain looked imminent. I wanted to set up camp before any rain started!

The worst-case scenario was that we'd have to hike another couple of miles to the small town of Keld where I knew there was a campground, but neither of us felt like walking that much further. Fortunately, we didn't have to. Just outside of town, we got lucky and found a small open spot hidden behind a stone wall and sheep pen with just enough space to set up camp. It was horribly sloped and definitely less than ideal, but it was here, so I decided to stop right then and there.

Just as I finished setting up camp, it started sprinkling. We finished in the nick of time! Whew! What a long day.....

I bet someone could buy a beer with all the coins embedded into this log!

We weren't hippies, but given our dirty and smelly clothes, this would probably apply to us as well. =)

Another view of Hardraw Force

Day 9: An Uneventful Day on the Trail

August 4, 2024: It rained during the night, but the rain had largely stopped by morning and we got a relatively early start to the day's hike by leaving camp at about 8:00am. Good job finally waking up earlier, Karolina!

Because it looked like it might rain at any moment, Karolina wore her bright red rain poncho the whole day, but it turned out not to really be needed. While there were some very light sprinkles occasionally, it was never so bad that I felt inclined to pull out my umbrella.

Due to the ugly-looking weather, Karolina wore her giant red poncho--although it turned out to be largely unneeded.

The day's hike was quite uneventful, which is nice to experience, but leaves little to actually write about. The weather was cool and cloudy all day.

I did finally hear back from Martin saying that he was back home and doing better, so I was glad to hear that he was still among the living. I will note, however, about a month and a half later, he emailed me an update about being diagnosed with some sort of blood cancer and the pains he'd been having since February were likely a result of the cancer the entire time--it was just not diagnosed until recently. At the time of writing this, he's undergoing chemo and probably not feeling too great, but hopefully he'll beat it and stick around for many more years to come.

Not knowing about the cancer yet, however, we felt relieved that Martin was doing better. I had been concerned after not hearing back from him for a couple of days!

By the end of the day, I didn't particularly feel like camping. The weather forecast called for rain, and we had been camping every night since starting this trail, with the one exception of the summerhouse which was more like glamping than a real hotel. So I looked around online and splurged for a hotel in the town of Hawes. 

Hawes was hopping with visitors! Where did all these people come from?!

 
It was nice not having to set up camp and know we'd be high and dry from any rain during the night. For dinner, we headed across the street to the Wensleydale Pantry where we ordered jacket potatoes. For dessert, I might have also ordered a raspberry cheesecake--and washed it all down with a pint of Coke-Cola and water. Karolina bought some sort of dessert that I failed to note in my journal and a local beer.

We both ordered jacket potatoes for dinner tonight! (But we did order different types of jacket potatoes, in case you're thinking the two meals look different.)

Looking at the weather forecast for the days ahead, I noticed that it was supposed to rain the whole day a few days from now, and tentatively planned to work a zero day around it. I felt like we were due a genuine rest day from the trail, and we may as well work it around a day when the weather was expected to suck the whole day anyhow. A lot, however, would depend on precisely where we managed to get to before the weather turned bad.

And thus ended another day on the trail.....

There was clearly an active mine on the hillside in the distance, but I'm not really sure what they were mining.

Packhorse-style bridge

I could imagine the Hogwarts Express puffing over this railroad bridge!

Day 8: The Malham Amphitheater

August 3, 2024: As it turned out, there was no real rain during the night. Just the lightest of sprinkles to drum me to sleep and by morning, the skies were clear and sunny.

Immediately upon leaving camp, the trail climbed to the top of the Malham Amphitheater, an impressive-looking cliff with some weird limestone formations at the top. There's not really much else to say about that, except that the climb to the top included 421 steps according to my guidebook. I didn't bother to count the steps myself, however, so I'll take their word for it. And the the views were nice. Very nice. Well worth a visit if you're in the area. =)

The Malham Amphitheater, straight ahead!

From there, the trail led north through a dramatic valley which my guidebook described as a "Narrow, enclosed valley. High cliffs. Good place for an ambush!"

So I kept my eyes open for any ambushes, but I am happy to report that none appeared and we made it through the narrow, high-cliffed valley with all the hair on our heads completely intact.

The day included two big climbs, but it was the climb up Pen-y-ghent that was ridiculously steep and memorable. "Have the locals here never heard of switchbacks before?" I complained to Karolina. "This is an Appalachian Trail kind of trail!" I imagined someone who designed the AT came out here and bragging about the ridiculously steep trails they made through the White Mountains at a local pub and the locals here turned to him and said, "hold my beer" as they proceeded to out-do him.

This was the section of Pen-y-ghent shortly before we reached the really steep section!

There were lots of day hikers along that portion of the trail, and I wondered aloud to one of them why we were doing this, and he said he was regretting some of his own life decisions as this was the second time today he was climbing to the summit. WTF? "Why?!" I asked.

"I really don't know...."

Late in the day, we passed a really nice stream, and I filled up with water using the new water filter for the first time. It worked wonderfully, and I said a silent prayer for Martin hoping he was okay. I still hadn't heard from him or about him since he was taken to the hospital in the ambulance. 

I fill up with water using the brand new water filter for the first time! =)

Anyhow, coming down off the summit, the trail veers into Horton-in-Ribblesdale, but my guidebook seemed to suggest that there wasn't really any reason to go into town except for food or lodging. Wild campers could easily bypass it by following the 3-Peaks Bypass. That would knock a few miles off the hike as well as the long descent into town that would immediately be followed by a long ascent back out of it.

Since there seemed to be no good reason to go into town, I decided to use the bypass. The trail was surprisingly busy with people, even late into the day, and I decided to look for a place to camp along the bypass hoping that most people going into town or coming out in the morning would miss us as we camped between the two main trails that led into and out of town.

We set up camp, but several joggers still passed by. One even jogged by at about 2:00 in the morning for some ungodly reason. Why were there so many crazy people in this area?!

During the late afternoon, Karolina complained of a headache, but shortly after setting up camp, it turned into vomiting. After summiting Pen-y-ghent, she asked if her nausea might be due to altitude sickness, but I laughed that off as extremely unlikely. As steep as the climb to Pen-y-ghent was, it topped out at only 2283 feet (696 meters) above sea level. Nobody gets altitude sickness with those kind of altitudes. I didn't really have a good explanation for her sickness. Maybe it was just something she ate? Food poisoning from the dinner last night? I've heard that a lot of food poisoning often doesn't show symptoms for 24 hours after eating contaminated food, which would put it at last night. We never did figure out why she become so sick this evening, though. It will have to be a mystery for the ages!

Anyhow, the sun set and it was time to get some sleep. Another day thus completed!

View from the bottom of the Malham Amphitheater. Apparently this is also a popular rock climbing area, but I didn't see any rock climbers this morning.

Some of the 421 steps to the top of Malham Amphitheater

The top had these weird limestone formations that were remarkably hard to walk on!

View from the top looking back down the valley we had just hiked up

I was on high alert for ambushes through this valley, but I'm happy to report that there none! Not today, at least. =)

Malham Turn

I noticed that a lot of old logs and stumps had coins embedded into them along the trail. I don't remember seeing this sort of thing before, but it was all over the trails in England!

Malham Tarn House Study Center

Lots of mine shafts all over the country!

The old mine shafts near the trail usually had fences around them and appeared to be filled in anyhow.

View from the top of the first big climb of the day

Never did see any horse-drawn vehicles

And this is the infamous Pen-y-ghent. You can see the trail a bit heading up the mountain on the right side of the photo, next to the stone fence.

Looking down the far side of Pen-y-ghent, which wasn't nearly as steep as the uphill side!

And this is looking backward toward Pen-y-ghent and where we descended.

Lots of rabbits were visible on a daily basis, but this was the first time I managed to get a decent photo of one. They are very people shy!

Me at the top of Malham Amphitheater