Ravenstonedale

Time for the quarterly(ish) walk with my friends Chris and Steve!

As per usual, Chris had done an excellent job of the planning, including getting us booked in at the Black Swan in Ravenstonedale, and it was from the car park there that we began our journey. 

The first half involved walking north-east through Locholme and past the nature reserve to the Fat Lamb pub, whence we turned back on ourselves and followed Scandal Beck back to Ravenstonedale. All the way along we chatted away, our conversation punctuated by Chris sharing interesting titbits from the walk notes. 

I very much enjoyed the walk along the beck, which was where I took my first Extra, Chris and Steve on the bridge, and then we stopped in Ravenstonedale for our packed lunches. Chris had reliably brought the coffee while Steve produced some KitKats*.

And whilst I had been enjoying myself up to this point, the after lunch loop of our walk proved to be particularly special. We headed west into Smardale,  and in my Blip you can just see the viaduct with a closer shot as my other Extra. 

There's a lot of work going on there at the moment and we stopped to ask one of the workmen about it. Apparently, the National Park were doing to pay the army three-quarters of a million pounds to destroy as it was falling into dangerous disrepair. 

But into the story arrives - deus ex machina - the hitherto unsuspected existence of the Viaduct Trust, who are paying for the repairs. Hooray!

From there, we walked back along a section of the old trainline, before descending back downhill and along into Ravenstonedale for an excellent dinner at the Black Swan.

Also, impressively, we enjoyed, by my calculation, about eleven hours of conversation!

*This is a particular treat for me, since I haven't (knowingly) bought a Nestlé product since the mid-nineties.