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The day dawned beautiful and sunny again and we headed north again through Hubberholme, this dale is one of my favourites. It starts quietly with the river bubbling alongside the road and sheep hopping about. Then when you least expect it the road takes a sharp right and you have a stiff winding climb up on to the moor. There's a viewpoint at the summit at around 2000ft and then you have a fast descent down to Gayle, Calum almost touched 50mph here. There's a great cafe at the west end of Hawes, it's mostly frequented by users of two wheel vehicles, with or without engines. The tea comes in giant mugs and the bacon sandwiches have to be seen to be believed. We then went up to look at the Ribblehead Viaduct, I think Calum was underwhelmed and I must confess it looks better with a steam train on it. We lay in the sun for a while and then went down to the hostel in Dentdale. We stayed in at night but later discovered that there is a pub not far down the dale.

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Another sunny hot day and just a short ride over to catch the train at Oxenholme, how could we extend this I wonder. Well a cyclist at the hostel recommended the road through Barbondale, it was beautiful, quiet and steep..... perfect. We arrived at Oxenholme in time for a quick visit to 'The Station' and our last fresh pint of Black Sheep for a while. When we arrived at the railway station we learned of the chaos on the west coast line and were warned that our journey could take much longer than usual, our train was at least two hours late. Just then a train arrived at the platform and after speaking to the guard we learned that it was heading for Glasgow. So without any cycle tickets for this service we hopped on, the guard said plenty of room, why not? The second class coaches were very crowded, probably due to the extreme late running of all the trains so the guard told us to sit in the first class. In the end we arrived in Glasgow ten minutes earlier than we should. What luck, but somehow it was in keeping with the rest of the holiday. Next year we tackle south west Ireland.