We left Bamburgh the next morning. After a quick stop in Newcastle for some lunch we made our way into the Yorkshire Dales. We would be staying in the village of Askrigg for 3 nights, in a little stone cottage with a fireplace and a cosy feel. Askrigg is a picture-perfect village in Wensleydale with a church, a few pubs and a cafe selling homemade cakes. And in case you’re wondering, Askrigg is an old Viking name meaning Ash trees on the ridge. The Yorkshire Dales consists of a series of valleys (or “dales”). Wensleydale is the most famous thanks to Wallace and Gromit, but there are over 20 dales in total.

On our first day in the Yorkshire Dales we had a drive to Reeth, a slightly larger village on Swaledale. The drive there was pretty hair-raising. Google Maps took us on a shortcut which involved driving in thick fog down a very narrow single-lane road.

In Reeth we parked the car and went for the first of many tramps through the dales. We walked out of the village and into the open countryside of Swaledale, roughly following a trail but just enjoying being out in the fresh air. We taught the kids a lot of important life lessons such us why they should avoid stinging nettles and why dock leaves grow next to the nettles. We taught them about the blackberries that grow on hedges and how to make daisy chains. These are the kind of innocent childhood pastimes that they are missing out on in Australia, so it was lovely to share it with them, and see them taking such an interest in it. They loved picking the blackberries especially. Although we were very late in the season there will still quite a few blackberries growing in the brambles next to the paths.

We were quite a way into the hike by this point when we encountered an unnerving yellow sign with a picture of a menacing bull. We took this to mean: Beware! You are about to get savagely gored by an angry bull!

Now I’m not an expert on countryside tramps with cows and bulls in the field but we had already encountered a few cows on our walk in the Lake District where they were standing right on the path. This time there were triple the amount of cows and a bull hiding among them. They were also standing very close to the path (are the cows deliberately doing this to make us nervous!?). The most unnerving part was when they stopped and stared at us as we approached and walked past, as if to say “I see you and I’m seriously considering goring you right now”.

Needless to say we walked very rapidly through this field and I was never so relieved to see a stile which I virtually leapfrogged over to get out of the cow field. After this bit of excitement we were back in the village of Reeth and we had earned a pub lunch and cold drink in The Buck.

In the afternoon we had a drive over the very scenic but slightly alarming Buttertubs Pass. It was a sheer drop on one side, but thank goodness for the ankle-height token fence that had been installed to prevent you from falling off the cliff edge. At the top we got a beautiful view over the dales, so it was worth the drive.

Next stop was back to Wensleydale and a visit to the Wensleydale Creamery in the pretty village of Hawes. Hawes has a number of gift shops, pubs, antique shops and a waterfall running right through the village. The Creamery is the home of Wensleydale cheese, made famous by Wallace and Gromit. There was no cheese making demonstration while we were there but there was ample cheese tasting. My favourites were the blue, and the mango and ginger. There was also a cafe serving the most incredible ice creams and milkshakes which we obviously had to sample as well as the cheese. The Creamery has a large onsite gift shop, and if I wasn’t flying back to Australia with a suitcase already laden with shopping, I would have purchased many nice things for my house.

Dinner that evening was in The Kings Arms pub back in Askrigg where we enjoyed another good steak and ale pie and a pint of Askrigg Amber beer.

Our next and last day in the Yorkshire Dales was a relaxed affair. Our cottage in Askrigg was right on the doorstep of some lovely countryside walking; just a few steps from the cottage and we were in open fields. I was once again amazed how engaged the kids were finding these countryside walks. Blackberry picking, finding a good stick, playing pooh sticks in the river, spotting stinging nettles and dock leaves, and all of a sudden they’ve walked 3 miles and loved every minute of it. They don’t call this nature’s playground for nothing. To Theo’s delight he found a massive “T for Theo” stick which he kept with him for the rest of the trip. This walk took us right alongside the River Ure and through fields of sheep and old stone cow barns and before we knew it we were back in the village.

Thankfully there were no cattle in the fields today. I had been reading up the night before and had no idea how dangerous cows could be. They are considered the most dangerous large animal in England and are responsible for more injuries and deaths than any other animal. Don’t forget there are no large predators in England anymore (let’s not talk about the people that want to reintroduce wolves and bears). And it’s really not the bulls you want to worry about – the dangerous bulls are not kept in fields with public footpaths. It’s the cows that are dangerous. Especially if they have calves or you have a dog, they can very easily start running towards you as a herd and you’re in big trouble. They are not aggressive but they are massive and muscly and could easily trample you. They are especially bothered by dogs, understandably so. If you have a dog with you and the cows starts running towards you, you’re supposed to drop the dog’s lead and let it run. Cows can outrun people but not dogs, and the dog will draw the cows away from you so you can hot-foot it to the nearest fence.

Apart from the cows, the public footpath system in England is excellent. The footpaths criss cross the English countryside going through all kinds of terrain, alongside rivers, through woods and private farmlands. Between the fields there are stiles and little gated gaps in the fence. If you’re planning on some countryside walking, get yourself the Ordinance Survey app and don’t forget to observe the countryside code when walking on private land.

After our lovely morning walk we were back in the village and had definitely earned Sunday lunch. This was at The Middle House, a slightly more upmarket hotel and pub in Askrigg which did a mean Sunday lunch complete with two kinds of potatoes, red cabbage and Yorkshire puddings – we were in Yorkshire after all!

We needed a rest at the cottage after all that fresh air, walking and Yorkshire puddings. Once refreshed we went out again in the afternoon to Aysgarth Falls which is just down the road from Askrigg.

At Aysgarth Falls we decided to walk the longer countryside loop which involved another glorious walk through woods, followed by a bridge underneath an old abandoned train line, a tramp through open fields, a distant view of Bolton Castle and finishing up along the river to see the actual waterfalls. We were on the hunt for foxes, red squirrels and owls. Alas we didn’t find any, but we did find an owl feather, a few dead rabbits on the path (those pesky foxes!) and many, many burrows of various sizes which had the kids guessing about what kind of animal lived in that hole. Rabbit? Mole? Mouse? Finally right at the end we saw a rabbit hopping through a field. What a great walk!

The waterfalls themselves are really worth seeing – a series of stepped levels with water gushing across a wide river. I’m reliably informed the water was very cold. If you’re visiting Aysgarth Falls I would recommend extending your walk rather than just seeing the waterfalls. We did the 3 mile countryside loop and were tempted to add the further 2 miles to walk to Bolton Castle. There is one overgrown section on this walk with stinging nettles and prickly holly so definitely wear long trousers.

And that was the end of our time in Wensleydale. What a wonderful part of the world. The people are friendly, the beer is good, the countryside is beautiful and we’d had a really relaxing few days stretching our legs in the fresh air.

Coming up…a quick stop in the North York Moors.

Previously…read about wonderful Northumberland here.