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Our Wednesday itinerary took us to Masham (pronounced "Massam") from where we worked our way up the dale via Fearby and Healey and past the Leighton Reservoir, where we stopped to take some photos. There were people fishing in the reservoir, and we saw one man catch a fish and then throw it back in.
We crossed over the bridge at the top of the reservoir and headed towards Lofthouse, crossing from Colsterdale into Nidderdale via Masham Moor in the process. The sun came out and the scenery was wonderful and we made lots of stops for photographs.
From Lofthouse we turned down Nidderdale and went past the Gouthwaite Reservoir. We found a spot where a farmer has made a parking area at his own expense, put a pound in his "honesty box" and took more pictures.
We followed the dale down to Patelely Bridge, where we turned west towards Hebden and Grassington. There was a tourist information centre in Grassington and we stopped there to use their facilities and to pick up some local tourist leaflets. I said that we were hoping to see Malham Cove and Janets Foss and the man in the tourist information office suggested a different route from the one I'd been going to take. Grassington was a busy little town and we walked into the town for a look, but decided that the shops there weren't all that unique. I did go into the sweet shop and we saw some sarsaparilla drops, so we got some for Angela, who we found out on Monday is very partial to them.
We followed the route suggested by the tourist information man, which took us up through Kilnsey, where I stopped for some photos of the spectacular Kilnsey Crag. It's a huge rock outcrop with a big overhang.
We then went via Arncliffe, and headed south again towards Malham. The was no parking near Malham Tarn. We could see the tarn in the distance, and it looked like we would have to do a lot of walking to reach it, so we kept going down towards Malham.
We were on the lookout for Malham Cove, but we nearly missed it because it was behind us when driving south. However, we did see it when I stopped momentarily, but as with the tarn, there was nowhere to park. Malham Cove is an amphitheatre rock face, and as late as the 1700s it was a spectacular waterfall, but the water now goes down sinkholes and emerges lower down in the valley rather than going over Malham Cove. It was still a spectacular sight.
There was also nowhere to park close to Janets Foss, but we parked in Malham village, and put a pound in the milk churn to pay for our parking, and then walked up to Janets Foss, which is waterfall into a pool which the guidebooks say is used as a local bathing hole. It wasn't bathing weather in October and we had the falls to ourselves. As well as the main drop, there are little rapids above the falls, and they are also photogenic. The high pressure system sitting over Britain is resulting in very still conditions and it was possible to take long exposures of the waterfall and record the leaves on overhanging trees rather than having them blur as they would do in windier weather.
I'd been looking forward to seeing a waterfall and wanted to do it photographic justice, so we spent some time there photographing it from various angles and with both telephoto and wide angle lenses. Eventually I declared myself "all waterfalled out" and we walked back to the car. Unfortunately the first part of the walk was up a steep hill, but the later parts were downhill. It was almost completely dark by the time we returned to the car.
It was also while at the waterfall that I discovered that I didn't know how to use bracketing on my Pentax K10D and that maybe I should have packed my manual.
It took longer than I expected to get back to the cottage. Even though we'd meandered rather than going in a straight line, we'd managed to cover quite a lot of distance even as the crow flies. We were further delayed because I thought it would be a good idea to go back to Grewelthorpe via the local villages rather than going all the way into Ripon and back out again, but we ran into a road closure and ended up back where we'd turned off, so we went into Ripon and back out again!
More from our October 2007 holiday in Yorkshire: Yorkshire Holiday Travelogue - 11th October, 2007
Back to Yorkshire Holiday Travelogue - 9th October, 2007
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Last Revised: 22nd October, 2007.