North Yorkshire was an acute disappointment, obsessed about its wilderness to find Swaledale was a barren landscape denuded of any wildlife for the sake of the grouse shooting – having killed-off all the top predators, the ground was strewn with rabbit carcasses, shot to try and control the rampant population. I can take a walk locally and see buzzards, red kites and foxes, didn’t see any there.
We walked 10 miles to Gunnerside to find the pub, shop and café all closed during lunchtime in July….with the Tour a few weeks earlier they’d obviously decided they’d had their fill of tourists.
To cap it off were the bikers at weekends, riding at stupid speeds on narrow roads, you could hear the engines screaming for miles – hardly peaceful!