Last minute plan dictated that we meet for a few swift ones at the Whitherspoons. After taking a few people out with our rucksacks and the thought of standing for an hour due to the general busy atmoshphere, we decided to sit outside. Twenty minutes later, we began to wonder what we were letting ourselves in for as it began to rain quite a lot. Sarah was off at this point searching round Leeds for a hat and came back in a short while with a very nice hat from H and M. All happy, we set off on the train. No sooner had we pulled into Keighley, that we began to rest on our laurels regarding the weather. The sky brightened up and honestly you would be hard pressed to believe you had been sitting in pouring rain not less that 15 minutes before hand. We arrive in Settle at 8.15 and were picked up by another friend or should I say 'knight in shining armour' as the the campite it transpired was 5 miles from the train station. Off to the campsite we went, set up our tents, checked out the facilities and were back in Settle within the hour. By this point we were all fairly peckish and decided on the traditional Yorkshire meal of curry in a Indian restaurant. It is fair to say that we all gave the food, restaurant and price of food a big thumbs up. Next, time for a few beer and ended up in a little. traditional pub between Settle and Austwick. Lovely beer and a very thoughtful pub in that they even cater for dogs by providing a 'dog bar', oh how we laughed!!! It became apparent that taxis are far and few between in the country and with this in mind we proceeded to walk back to the campsite, in the dark at 1.00am with a keyring torch and a phone torch between us, as well as the potential of eventually locating a minor landmark near the campsite, all meant we were fairly confident in returning to the campsite in one piece, or should I say three pieces?. We arrived back to the campsite an hour and 45 minutes later and eventually fell into our sleeping bags. The rain began shortly later and lasted all night, the tent threatened to blow away a few times and daylight appeared around 5am, all in all not conjusive to a great nights kip. Still, we concluded it all to be part of the atmosphere of camping. We were up and dressed nice and early. friend with car picked us up. We were heading to do a five hour walk and were fairly dubious regarding our stamina after no sleep the night before and our walk home the previous evening. Picked up Mike at the station, had a quick breakie in 'Ye Olde Naked Man Pub' (minus, sadly andy naked men) some provisions or 'snap' from the co-op and off we went. Twently minutes later, we stood on the side of the road reflecting on where that wheel was that had just flown of 'our' car as were driving along. Oh well, we turned it into a postive and took some nice photos of the scenary while two nice men stopped to help our mate replace his wheel. Sometime later, we eventually began our walk and after half an hour up a steep hill, confessed to our mate that we thought 5 hours after no sleep last night, would be, well, a bit steep. We pressed on for a hour and enjoyed a lovely lunch of co-op sarnies, and returned down to the same pub as the previous night for a few well earned beers and chips. Few hours later, we returned to Settle and had more pints in a pub with a gorgeous roaring fire. We were sad to say goodbye to Mike at 5ish. Food tonight consisted of even more traditional Yorskshire food of a curry chip, fried rice and fu yeung between us. Kind mate gave us a lift to Austwick where we ate our chinese on a wall and then ventured into the one and only pub we could find in Austwick. Upon finding it to be the size of a postage stamp and people not it seemed willing to step back from the bar to let us in we promptly left to find a pub else where. We weighed up the options of walking for a hour and a half to Clapham (not the London one) with heading back to the campsite and seeing what we might find on the way or just to enjoy the few cans left over from Fri nights curry. We realised that an hour and a half walk would eventually turn into three hours because we would have to obviously return 'home' at the end of the evening. Secondly, it had become evident that when someone, who prob owns a car tells you it is a hour walk, then add on another two hours just to be safe. With all this in mind, we headed back to the campsite. Not even ten minutes later, it was feet up (metaphorically speaking) in a really nice plush hotel lounge, no queues at the bar, pint for £2.80, and molton brown hand wash in the loos...alllriiiigght!!! Paul joined us later and we proceeded to enjoy a very relaxed few beers before saying night to Paul and heading back to base. We arrived back about half an hour later and decided to check if the campsite bar was open. The room we thought was a bar was actually a general room full of people enjoying weekend out with an organisation called breakaway. A really lovely gentleman insisted that we join the fun and for the next half hour we enjoyed some general chit chat, tea and cake. We were in bed for a very respectable 12 o'clock and possible I think we did sleep much, much better.
Up at 10 on sunday, packed away our accomodation, said our goodbyes to the campsite and set off on our five mile walk back to settle (we are now convinced of this being more like 10 miles). We stopped an hour later at the falconary centre for lovely bacon and egg rolls, the loo and a general rest. A few miles later we stopped at another pub, sat outside and enjoyed a nice refreshing soft drink and a reminise about the weekend. Twenty minutes later we were back in pub with the roaring fire enjoying some lovely nosh. Sarah decided to get the 3.30 back to Leeds and Simon and I enjoyed a few more pints before catching the 18.19 back to Leeds, where it appeared was still raining.

Lesson from the weekend
1. If it is raining in Leeds, it might not be raining in the dales. But it will rain eventually, really heavy. Should you stay at home? Godd question.
2. Book a campsite within walking distance of the train station, not short driving distance.
3. A 5 minute car journey is not a 5 minute journey on foot.
4. You hear noise coming from a room, have a look, never know you could be enjoying a nice chat and a cup of tea.

All in all, a super weekend!!!

That seems to have been a really great time, well played! Reminds me of Withnail and I a bit though. "We've gone on holiday by mistake"