Walks and Water – 10th October 2021

After a busy few months at work, my man, our dog Piper and I headed north in our campervan to explore the best of what the UK has to offer. The plan was to head to Scotland, taking in the Dales and the Lakes en route, however we only had two weeks to explore and before long realised this was a touch too ambitious. As we’ve only recently adopted Piper, spending too much time on the road switching locations didn’t seem fair, so after a pit stop in Malvern we headed to Hawes in Yorkshire for a couple of days to visit an old friend. We met Martin in Spain a few years ago whilst on a paragliding holiday, and have stayed in touch ever since. In his 80s but still active, Martin has piercing blue eyes, a wicked sense of humour, a great sense of social justice, and a passion for art and nature. He’s also led the most interesting and varied life of anybody I know, and has amazing stories to tell. We spent a happy couple of days in his company drinking tea, eating biscuits, walking, listening to tales of his and his friends’ lives, drinking local ales, eating pub lunches, walking a bit more, eating cake…… We spent a hot and sunny lunch one day in the garden of the wonderful Green Dragon at Hardraw, which – to our delight – was featured in the national paper a couple of weeks later. Piper loved the company, sunshine, walks and of course any crumbs of cake that happened to fall his way.