Wharfedale, Yorkshire

We rented a car and set off for Wharfedale, ninety miles away. Four hours later, we arrived - so silly of us to travel on a Market day, every short cut we took through obscure little towns was traffic hell.

Nevertheless, Nel and I were determined to get a hike in up the Wharfedale Valley. This gave me an excuse to dispense with tourist information leaflets, and purchase, from a map vendor, some of the most exciting maps on Earth - British Ordanance Survey Maps. Nel's motives were a good day out. Mine were to purchase, possess, and scrutinize the maps, but also to see for myself the mesmerizing Neolithic field systems of Wharfedale. A brilliant description of this Neolithic History can be found at

www.outofoblivion.org.uk/field.asp

Those few of you who may not be incredibly fascinated by descriptions of field systems and strip lynchets can just look at the photos below. Note that you can also get a pretty good idea of where we went by going to 54 08'42.08" N 2 02'46.2" W on Google maps.

Our original idea was to walk the ridges that line the valley and do a long loop up high (well 1800 ft), but a knee injury kept us to lower ground. Still, a good 10 miler.

Wharfedale, Yorkshire

We did have a whiff of excitement as we returned to base camp, witnessing the age old tradition of sheep herding. The following action shots show the whole event as it passed us on the road. To get the full animated effect, click forward on the slideshow as quickly as your computer will let you.

Sheep herding Wharfedale