Dales and Wales

We've covered lots of miles since we last entered on the blog. After we left Stephen and Shona in Durham we drove down to the Yorkshire Dales. We criss-crossed our way across the Dales, visiting lots of pubs and doing some great walks. it seems to have become a habit that David drives in the morning and then Joanna takes over in the afternoon after the pub visit and the consumption of the local brew! David assures me that this is important research in his trip around the UK and no doubt will be the same in Ireland. The Dales were lovely, all green fields, stone walls, dinky little villages and lots of sheep to make us feel at home. We did several hour walk from a village called Malham in the south of the Dales. We did our best to look like real English hikers, but we still need to get a map carrier to hang arouns our necks.
Had 3 days in the Dalesand then on to the Lake District. A bit the same in a way (shock, horror from all the purists)but higher mountains, lots of lakes and a lot more people. Again we managed to choose a great walk above Grassmere - steep but fantastic views from the top. David managed to visit all the places he remembered from years ago,had hi photo taken on the Ashness Bridge but I couldn't remember anything from when I visited 30 years ago. 3 days there and then on down to North Wales. On the way we stopped for an overnight at Flookburgh sort of at the bottom of the Lake District. We discovered the area, Morcombe Bay, is famous for its sticky toffee pudding(yum) but also for the awful drowning of 23 cocklers about 3 years ago, when the tide came in and trapped them and they all knew that they wete going to drown.
Anyway on to Wales. Again it is beautiful, craggy mountains, rushing, rocky streams, and lots of open space. David used to climb here a lot, a long time ago. So we retraced some of his haunts. We eventually found(after much help from the girl at the tourist office in Llamberis) the hut that he helped build years ago. It is at the end of an isolated and very beautiful valley. It was quite a mission to get there but we were so pleased that we did. We stayed the night there and it is quite the most spectacular campsite that we have had. We spend most nights free camping, seeking out camp grounds when the need for a shower gets too great. We have a portapotti, which is adequate, but we are very good at sourcing public loos.
We crossed over to Dublin from Holyhead in North Wales, and have been staying with Alison Andrew, David's cousin for the last 2 days. She has been very hospitable and we have been able to celebrate her birthday with We have really enjoyed catching up with all his family(hope they have enjoyed it too) and it as been helpful for me to link them all together.
We are moving on to look into some of my family now. My grandmother was born in Enniskillen in Northern Ireland, so we are going to hunt out their old house, graves etc. Another cousin has been there recently and done the groundwork which is a big help. Will be in France next time we enter this. Having trouble loading the photos so will publish text and do that later.