Ingleborough Nature reserve

The forecast was looking great with average temperatures around 25 degrees over the weekend which just so happened to be the weekend we had arranged to meet up with some friends near Settle, on a campsite called The Dalesbridge, you can find our campsite review here.

As usual it seemed to take a long time on Friday afternoon to put bits and bobs in the van and ensure we had enough food for the weekend but as soon as Katie finished work we were off 🙂
We arrived at site around 7 pm checked in and found a pitch, put the awning up and had a little walk around to get our bearings before settling Coben down for the night.
If Coben is late going to bed he tends to take a long time to go to sleep and can be a handful but this time he wasn’t too bad and fell asleep quite easily.
The heater in the van is currently broken and we were slightly worried about the overnight temperatures as through the week it had been getting quite cold overnight. But we needn’t have worried as it was too warm and we had to sleep on top of the sleeping bags instead of in them.

The next morning  we were up early and had our overnight Oats. This is something we prepare for weekends away the day before and keep them in the fridge, it’s a tasty and quick breakfast with no faffing about enabling us to get out early leaving more time to explore and adventure.
We had intended to go up on the Norber erratic’s and generally explore up on the hills, but the weather was already getting hot so we changed plan and instead plotted a route to Clapham this would pass through a wood where there would be shade so would be pleasant and we also have to think about Mika.
We set off leaving the campsite crossing the busy A59 with care and passing through the charming village of Austwick then climbing steeply out up towards the hills.

We turned off onto the Trans Pennine Trail before ascending to the top of the hill following this for a km or 2 traversing the hillside with some great views on both sides of us.

We turned of the Trans Pennine Trail over a stile down towards Ingleborough Cave, we decided not to head to the cave today and came across Ingleborough Estate Nature Trail. You have to pay a fee of 5 pound per adult to enter this is to cover the costs of maintenance and such like. Its a easy going path through the woodland with a few features on the way and passing a man made pond with an interesting history which can be read in the link.

We came off the trail in Clapham resisting temptation of the cafe for today deciding we may visit the following day with friends.
Instead we walked down the lovely streets of Clapham and sat next to the stream running through the centre with a Heron for company looking for his own dinner in the water.

After a relaxing picnic we set off on our way only to be stopped on our tracks ten minutes later by cows blocking the way. Now we are not a fan of cows especially with Coben in his carrier on Marcs back and a dog that’s daft, so embarrassingly we turned on our heals and retraced our steps back to the road which we followed back towards the campsite, luckily it was a B road so was quite safe but added another few Kilometres onto our walk in the baking sunshine to say we were relieved to get back to the campsite and open a cool beer is an understatement.

Our friends had arrived and were already pitched up welcoming us back. Greetings were done and we decided we would stay on the site for the rest of the day and just hang out.
Coben enjoyed catching up with his friends and played happily running around making us feel more tired and keeping us on our feet as he kept deciding to go adventuring too far !!
After a while we headed to the onsite bar to check it out but mainly for some adult refreshments.

We haven’t really had a campfire when Cobens been awake so we wanted to make sure he had the experience of one this weekend, so despite the warm temperatures we got the fire going earlier than usual so the kids could all have some toasted marshmallows and make some memories.

The fire carried on late into the night long after the kids had gone to bed before the adults all needed to get to bed.

We all slept well the temperatures were a little cooler than the previous night which was a relief, we woke ate breakfast and discussed a plan for the day.
We decided to pack up the vans and head upto Clapham to explore the nature trial more and maybe go to Ingleborough cave.
The drive only took 5 mins, we parked in the national park car park and paid for the day packed our bags and off we set.
We paid the entry fee for the trail and opted out of a visit to the cave this time but one for another day.

We took a steady walk through the trail and up into Trow Gill which is a spectacular gorge and is popular with Rock climbers.
We scrambled up to the top and scouted out a good spot for dinner before we headed back down the way we came.

Obviously we couldn’t not stop to sample the cakes at the cafe so this is what we did. The old sawmill cafe is worth a visit just for the features inside it is the old saw mill and has the old bench saws and a water turbine retained in their original positions for display which are great to see.

After our coffee and cake we headed back to the vans said our goodbyes until next time.