Another Long Walk: 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.....