The Exciting Adventures of Team Mo!: Ilkley

Last weekend we headed to the town of Ilkley.

Ilkley is a very pleasant spa town situated in lower Wharfedale at the southern edge of the Yorkshire Dales. It's surrounded by fine unspoiled scenery, with Ilkley Moor and and the famous (although I'd never heard of it) Cow and Calf rocks positioned just above the town.
Ilkley is also about to be famous for the town in which our friends, Daryl and Lorna, are to be wed on the 5th Aug this year. And this was the true reason behind our visit. To catch up with them.

On meeting Daryl we made our way to the Ilkley Moor which we were to cross, meeting Lorna on the other side for lunch. It was about a 2hr walk. From the top it offered us a great view of the town and a warm breeze to cool down our heated bodies. I ended up a little bit rouged by Mr Sun again. There is no getting used to this English weather and it's ability to crank up the heat. From now on I think we should take the sunscreen wherever we go!

Also on the moor is the famous whitewashed building known as White Wells (we borrows this picture off someone else) - which houses a bath at a site which (reputedly) dates from Roman times. [N.B. Ilkley was an important outpost during the Roman occupation, when it was known as "Olicana".] Interestingly enough there is also a very famous english folk song (in the same way that pokarekare ana is for NZ perhaps) which i've not yet had sung to me in full. It's kinda funny - people ask what you are doing for the weekend and you say you are going to Ilkley, and they all reply "Oh - Ilkley moor, Bar tat..." which is the first line of this diity and which means "walking across Ilkley moor without a hat" the next line translates something along the lines of you'll catch the death of cold... and basically die a horrible death! it's all positivity over here i tell you. Overwhelmingly so!

Having decended the Moor we conveniently found ourselves at the door of the local pub where we consumed a much desired meal and cooled off in the shade of the old trees that towered us.

Sunday after Mass we headed to Bolton Abby.

The Bolton Abbey Estate is the Yorkshire Estate of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. It covers 30,000 acres of beautiful countryside in the Yorkshire Dales. There are medieval buildings to explore and 80 miles of moorland, woodland and riverside footpaths. Evidently every ruined Abbey in Britain has much the same story - was once a thriving population till Henry VIII came and ripped the roof off, and stole the stained glass, it all ends in tears from there with the locals forced to watch as their beloved cathedrals slowly fade over time - but hey bits of them are still standing 400ish years later... so i guess those Catholics are a little harder to get rid of than ole Henry thought...

So we wandered around the Estate grounds. It was a gorgeous day and hot again. I really should have gone with the shorts option rather than jeans. Lots of people were there soaking in the sun a quality family time with bbqs, ice cream men, family cricket and swimming all adding to their fun.

I would have loved a swim. It was oh so tempting to push ryan in the water when we were standing on these rocks but i know all too well what he's like and the end result would have been a saturated me!

Another cool part of the estate is found after a riverside walk then through woods to the Strid, a notorious stretch of water where the River Wharfe is forced into a deep and narrow thundering channel.

At its narrowest point the Strid is only about two metres wide. Apparently foolhardy visitors have in the past tried to jump across the roaring chasm. Failure is invariably fatal, as there is no recorded incidence of anyone having survived a fall into the frothing waters of the Strid - which easily sucks its victims into the underwater caves and eroded tunnels which lie hidden underneath each side of the rocky channel. (YIKES!)

It wasn't really that pretty to look at. To me it looked like a waterfall of beer. But yes not one you'd be itching to jump into. Ferocious it was... ferocious.

On our walk through the woods we stumbled upon this tree. You can probably only tell from the close up picture that it is in fact totally covered in coins! And my parents always told me "money doesn't grow on trees". LIARS! And here's the evidence! I mean how else did it get there?! Unfrotunately there was no explanation about this tree and it's origins. Seeing as it grows money i'm not surprised they're keeping it a secret.