Subtitle:
Saturday, April 14, 2018 - Sunday, April 15, 2018.
We were staying in a small town near Thirsk, which is near York.
On Saturday, we got brief tour of the area. The pictures from
Thirsk are in a different section, but one of the stops was
Sutton Banks, a hill that overlooks the North York Moors National
Park. We didn't have a ton of time (about 30 minutes to walk
on the trail, which means 10 minutes out, 10 minutes back, and
10 mintues to look, take pictures, and such) as we were going
to a birthday party at the end of the day, an hour away. So
we cut this a bit short and then came back on Sunday to spend
a little more time there. It had been a bit overcast and foggy
on Saturday. It was warmer on Sunday, but more hazy, with
more restricted visibility. That day, we also stopped at the
Mouseman furniture visitor museum and White Horse, plus other
places on other sections. Everything other than the first set
of pictures from Sutton Bank was taken on Sunday.
Part 9: Backyard
Blacksmith Workshop Part 10: Bagby Airfield Part 11: Byland Abbey Part 12: National Railway
Museum Part 13: Cambridge (Part
2) Part 14: Cambridge
Botanical Gardens Part 15: The Departure
000-DSC_1156-header: Sutton Bank (Saturday)
000-DSC_1156-headertext:
000-DSC_1156: Sutton Bank is on top of a hill with a 25% grade.
Note that I was in the front passenger seat (left side) and was
generally accepting that people won't spontaneously switch to
the US style of driving. There is traffic in our lane ahead of
us and oncoming traffic on the right side. All is the way it
should be (over there). But every now and then, sometimes one
has to ignore the visual messages that say, "Holy crap, we're
passing someone, and oncoming traffic is passing someone, and
should we just stay in this lane or try to 'fix' everything at
the last moment?" Fortuantely, I wasn't driving, so I just
go with "I'm not driving. Bethan likely knows what she's
doing. My the countryside is pretty, let's look over that way."
001-DSC_1157: Finest view in England, credited to James Herriot
on the Sutton Bank trail. First note that he spent much of his days
looking at and up cow butts. Second, that sign conjures some Benny
Hill-esque sight gag where the camera would pan to the right where a
busty woman in a low cut dress would be standing. But even with those
two considerations, it really is a nice view.
002-DSC_1158: Looking to the southwest from Sutton Bank.
003-DSC_1159: Looking to the west from Sutton Bank.
The road is the A170 highway.
004-DSC_1160: A metalic map of the areas.
005-DSC_1162: The map and the view.
006a-DSC_1163: The cliff edge past the Yorkshire Soaring Club.
006b-sutton_bank_Panorama: Smaller panoramic view of the area at Sutton Bank.
006c-sutton_bank1_Panorama: 180° panoramic of Sutton Bank, from
the south (left), then west, then to the north (right)
007-DSC_1175: A memorial to aircrews who died in this area.
008-DSC_1211-header: Mouseman Furniture
008-DSC_1211-headertext: Robert Thompson was a furniture maker in the
first half of the 20th Century in Kilburn, North Yorkshire. As his
trademake, he would carve a mouse on every piece of furniture he made.
His family still runs the workshop and others who had worked with have
adopted similar trademarks, each with own animail. The furniture is
well known worldwide. We stopped in to the Mouseman visitor Centre.
008-DSC_1211: A friend of mine kept asking me (jokingly) about my upcoming
trip "down under." Seeing this sign made me wonder if perhaps
Anastsia knew something about England's geography that I didn't...
009-DSC_1212:
010-DSC_1213: Note the mouse coming out of the back of the bench.
011-DSC_1214: The mouse on this bench is just under the armrest.
012-DSC_1215: Another mouseman mouse.
013-DSC_1216: Beatrix and her big sister Isabel in a mouseman chair.
014-DSC_1217: Another of Beatrix and Isabel in a mouseman chair.
015-DSC_1218: I liked the little bridges over the (drainage?) stream
as well as the hills the in background.
016-DSC_1219: Aunt Stephanie playing the game Spin the Whizzy Izzy.
017-DSC_1220-header: The Kilburn White Horse (from below)
017-DSC_1220-headertext: First cut into the hill in 1857.
Every few years it undergoes maintenance and grooming.
017-DSC_1220: The White Horse on the hillside is visible for miles
around the area.
018-DSC_1221: A stone marker describes White Horse.
019-DSC_1222: A trail goes from the bottom up to the top, connecting
to the Sutton Bank trail.
020-DSC_1223: As I was about to take a picture of White Horse, a Piper
Pawnee flies right over White Horse.
021-DSC_1224: The Pawnee is towing a glider. Yay!
022-DSC_1225: A picture of White Horse from the parking lot at the bottom.
023-DSC_1226-header: Yorkshire Gliding Club and Sutton Bank (Sunday)
023-DSC_1226-headertext: We went back to Sutton Bank on Sunday because
I wanted to hike the whole trail. Stephanie also wanted to get a run
in, so it seemed like many things could be accomplished at once. The
Yorkshire Gliding Club is located at the top of the hill too. I only
saw them from the trail. The ceiling wasn't too high, but they still
launched a few gliders. The one I saw when I was on the trail wound
up coming back pretty quickly and it was the last one for the day. I
think the clouds were getting too low (unless they wanted to soar in
the valley and then land in a farm field and get trucked back up.
023-DSC_1226: This was a picture of the airfield, gliders, tow-plane
and more from the van as we were headed to the Sutton Bank visitor
center and parking.
024-DSC_1227: The valley below and the A170 highway. The clouds are
lower than they were the previous day, so while it might not be as
scenic, it has a cool end-of-the-world feel to it.
025-DSC_1228: Another shot looking out to the west.
026-DSC_1229: Looking to the south. I found the little farm
that's visible using the satellite view on Google Maps and Hood
Beck is the name of the stream that winds around there.
027-DSC_1230: The edge of the cliff, where the gliders launch.
028-DSC_1231: I just want to say every way is Cleveland Way.
029-DSC_1232: Information on Sutton Bank.
030-DSC_1233: A warning sign by the edge of the path. I was really
hoping to get a shot of a tow-plane and glider taking off just above the
sign, but alas, it was not to be.
031-DSC_1234: The runway just beyond the Sutton Bank hiking trail.
032-DSC_1235: Trailers to store the gliders.
033-DSC_1236: Information on soaring above Sutton Bank.
034-DSC_1237: The sign with the airfield in the distance. There are
hangars for the tow-planes. The circular building might be a restaurant
(with a nice view).
035-DSC_1238: Another view of the no-name farm I saw before and the Hood Beck.
The road is the A170.
036-DSC_1239: The A170 winding its way up to Sutton Bank.
037-DSC_1240: I spotted Stephanie below, surveying the land, making
her plans.
038-DSC_1241: On the way back, she was sitting and pondering universal
truths, like "why am I here" and "how do I get back?"
039-DSC_1242: The cliff face.
040-DSC_1243-header: White Horse (from above)
040-DSC_1243-headertext: The Sutton Bank path continued beyond the
gliderport and ended at the top of White Horse. I wasn't expecting
that. Suddenly I sort of had an idea of where I was (though not
really relative to anything else).
040-DSC_1243: A sign saying walking damages it, so please don't.
040-white_horse_Panorama: A 180° panoramic shot from the top
of White Horse. Since I was using a wide angle lens instead of
50mm, it's more warped and distorted.
041-DSC_1244: A sign with more information on The White Horse of Kilburn.
042-DSC_1245: The view from the top of the parking lot at the bottom
where we were.
043-DSC_1251: The road goes south to Kilburn, where the Mouseman Visitor
Centre is.
Bottom:
Part 9: Backyard
Blacksmith Workshop Part 10: Bagby Airfield Part 11: Byland Abbey Part 12: National Railway
Museum Part 13: Cambridge (Part
2) Part 14: Cambridge
Botanical Gardens Part 15: The Departure