Episode 47 - Yorkshire Dales
Sheep, sheep walls, and some more sheep after that đ
Yorkshire is the largest county in England, and is home to two important things (Iâm sure there are many more important things, but for our purposes there are just two): the Yorkshire Dales, and Wensleydale cheese. Their relative importance is probably in that order.
If youâre like me (confused American), you may be wondering what a dale is. Itâs just a valley in between rolling hills.
A region of these dale valleys is called âdalesâ. And this collection of dales we were visiting was in the county of Yorkshire, hence the name, Yorkshire Dales. Yorkshireâs collection of dales is so nice, in fact, that they went ahead and made it into a national park. And in a complete lack of creativity, they called it Yorkshire Dales National Park.
I was hoping for something more like âThe epic and wonderful dales of the county and most wonderful region on Earth, that of Yorkshireâ, but Yorkshire Dales National Park also does the trick1.
And for those of you right now who are thinking, âtell me more about this delightful cheese you mentionedâ, Wensleydale cheese is a crumbly cheese local to Yorkshire that just so happens to be Libbyâs momâs favorite. Just like official champagne has to be made in the Champagne region of France to be actual champagne, true Wensleydale cheese is only made in Yorkshire.
Right now, youâre probably like âwow, Dennis, this Yorkshire place sounds really cool, and Iâm super duper excited to read all about your trip thereâ. Iâm very glad you think that!
If this is your first episode and youâre like âwhat in the world is happeningâ, start off here.
Thursday, April 17th, 2025
After a nice day relaxing in Manchester and a lovely morning stroll around the university, Libbyâs parents2 picked Brooke and me up from our hotel. We were off to the Yorkshire Dales!
The entire drive from Manchester to the dales was very scenic, and the highlight of it was the stone walls built all over the rolling hills. Ancient farmers each had their plots of land where their sheep would graze, and these different plots were all denoted by 4-foot-high stone walls crisscrossing the hills. I must add that these walls were all built by hand over hundreds of years, so it looks like I was born ~500 years past my true calling.
Yorkshire stone wall builder? Sign me up.
We eventually arrived in Malham to go on a mini hike and drink some tea (Iâm with English people, so of course weâre drinking tea). We went to park our car, which created the first adventure of the day â a little girl and her grandpa selling parking spots in their grass field for 8ÂŁ a pop. And itâs not just cash. Here in the middle of Sheepville, the little girl quickly whips out an electronic card reader.
I can just imagine the conversation at school: âHowâd your weekend go, little missy?â (Iâm assuming this is how British schoolteachers talk)
âI made 800ÂŁ selling parking spots in my familyâs sheep field.â What a legend.
Once parked, we headed over to the nice and cozy teahouse, where Libby, Eleanor, and Jacob were waiting inside. Brooke and I went up to order some grilled cheese and soup, which created the second adventure of the day â a pleasant haggle with a nice old man.
Basically, ordering just the grilled cheese + chips3 + salad costs ÂŁ7.50. Adding the soup would cost an extra ÂŁ2.50, so Brooke proposed keeping the grilled cheese, cutting the chips + salad, and adding the soup, all for ÂŁ8.50. To translate, sheâs asking for a ÂŁ1.50 discount because she really likes to dip her grilled cheese in tomato soup. I dare say itâs one of her favorite things to do.
The old man quickly agrees to this deal.
But Iâm standing there quite famished (and having already ordered my food), so I ask if he could cut the âwithout the chipsâ part, give Brooke the chips anyway (so that I could eat them), and keep the agreed upon price of ÂŁ8.50. The old man quickly agrees to this deal, too, and is visibly pleased by this haggling process. He then reveals that before working at the teahouse, he was a salesman and haggled often.
Yet! I couldnât help but think that we got the much better end of the deal, and that this guy was not that good of a haggler despite his proclamations. Perhaps there was a reason this guy left the sales business. Or maybe he just loves tea, houses, and particularly houses for tea!
After our teahouse adventure, our group of 7 embarked upon a lovely stroll around the Malham hills, where we saw many more sheep walls, many more sheep (the lambs are so cute!), and a beautiful waterfall in an even more gorgeous gorge (or maybe a gorge-ous gorge, perhaps!). Add on a stop at the most strategically placed ice cream truck Iâve ever seen in my life (right at the intersection of several very popular hiking trails), and you have the most pleasant afternoon in existence!
Post-hike, we drove over to another nearby town called Settle4, where we did some light shopping and of course, some more strolling (I must say, Iâve really been enjoying my English countryside strolls recently). Highlights of Settle included talking with the lovely Arnold on a park bench, and eating some delicious fish and chips at The Fisherman (highly, highly recommend).
Arnold was getting also coffee at the the Ye Old Naked Man CafĂŠ (we were both clothed though, I can assure you), so naturally, I asked him about the really nice gravel bike he was riding. I later learned that it cost 10,000ÂŁ, and Arnold was going on an âeasy 80-mile rideâ. Nothing easy about that, Arnold!
He also told me that he was retiring in two weeks, and traveling to France and SE Asia with his wife to celebrate. Arnold, I know youâre literally never going to read this, but congrats on finishing up a great career and have the best travels ever.
After exploring Settle, our group drove over to Austwick (where we were staying in a LOVELY cute cottage), had some more tea, and were off to bed before an early rise tomorrow. I also tried a whisky with soda water (courtesy of Libbyâs dad), and felt it immediately. I literally have no alcohol tolerance anymore.
This is crazy.
If youâre wondering about my strange pajama outfit in todayâs photos, it was the only pair of clean pants I had at this point in the trip. Donât worry, this was the last day that was the case.5
Friday, April 18th
We woke up around 6 am on Friday for an early start to an epic day â we were doing the Three Peaks Challenge!
Yorkshire has a ton of dales surrounded by hills, and some of these hills are actually quite large. If youâre feeling generous, you could even call them mountains.
Someone had the genius idea to climb three of these mountains6 in one 24-mile loop, and then other people were like âthatâs a great idea, Iâll do that tooâ (or something like that). Now, itâs a challenge to do all three in under 12 hours â one we were going to undertake!
We got to the start of the trail at around 7 am, and were quickly off. Our entire group made it to the top of Whernside in under two hours (it was SO windy at the top), then Libby, Brooke, and I split off into âTeam Alphaâ to go ahead and finish the other two peaks in the challenge. Team Bravo (Libbyâs parents, Eleanor, and Jacob) were off to climb the second peak, then detour back to the cars.
The second peak, Ingleborough, was a stunning and beautiful climb, with gorgeous views and extreme wind at the top. And on the third peak, Pen-y-Ghent, the weather turned really bad. Like really bad. Iâm talking gale force winds, horizontal rain in our faces, it was just crazy! Honestly, it was a really cool experience, and I'm quite happy that the weather turned bad when it did.
Iâd heard so much about how quickly British weather can change, and it was awesome to experience that firsthand for a little bit. Having that insane rain and wind for all three peaks would have been miserable, but having that for just the last one was actually quite cool and a very fond memory.
Some other notable highlights from the epic hike:
Sheep! So many sheep! Big sheep, little sheep, tiny sheep, baby sheep. Sheeps of all shapes, sizes, and colors!
Brooke cut my hair on the descent from Ingleborough. Itâs not like I need my hair that much anyway, since itâs all coming off right before I start the PCT on May 11th (much more on that in a later post, donât worry)
There were cafes in between each peak, where we stopped for some lovely and much-needed warm coffees and brownies. One of these cafes was at the best unmanned British train station in 1996 and 1999 â not really sure what happened in 1997 and 1998, but it couldnât have been good
Great conversations and great vibes the entire time. Libby and Brooke are amazing company on a long hike!
The random church we stumbled across, where you could make your own tea. Thank you Jesus
Horses, and the subsequent feeding of apples to those horses
Libbyâs dad was waiting for us at the bottom of the third peak (thank goodness), picked us up, and we headed back to our amazing cottage to get ready for dinner. We ate at a delicious inn in town (inn in, lol), where I was graciously served with a delicious lamb shank. It mightâve even been from a lamb I saw running around that morning!
Back at the cottage, we had some time to kill before bed, so we made some Aperol spritzes and I got another haircut from Brooke. This time, it was using some huge scissors she found in the kitchen, and it was⌠great! Chrissy7 might be out of a job soon.
Saturday, April 19th
Saturday was the last morning in our lovely cottage, and it was indeed lovely. We had a nice breakfast, packed up quickly, and were out of there by 9. Bye bye Brooke and Libby, and see you in London!
Eleanor and Jacob were driving back to Manchester, so I got a ride with them into town and was dropped off at the train station (thanks so much for that, yâall are godsends).
Edinburgh, here I come!
Some more interesting anthropological observations:
Students in the UK have much less school spirit and donât wear nearly as much merch. Jacob explained to me that this is because each sports industry has its own recruiting pipeline separate from the universities, so the uni sports teams arenât that good. Since the sports teams arenât that good, the students donât have nearly as much school spirit. And since thereâs no school spirit, there goes the merch-wearing.
Some more axiomatic differences:
The dryers here are electric, so you have to drain the water from the machine after every dry cycle. We didnât know this, and had to rerun the laundry again because it didnât dry at all. lol
Farmers can shoot dogs that are bothering their sheep. I know some US states have the castle doctrine (looking at you, Texas đ), but I feel like shooting someoneâs dog would not fly in America at all. Iâm pretty sure that if someone shot an American dog, their owner would shoot right back
Media appendix:
Interesting side note, but the word dale is derived from dĂŚl, Latin for âvalleyâ. Similarly, the words âdellâ (a small, forested valley) and дОНина (Russian for âvalleyâ), also derive from dĂŚl. Cool stuff, though I donât actually know how to pronounce âdĂŚlâ
Libby is Brookeâs friend from UCLA, and she and Brooke are going on their own epic trip around the UK this month! Weâre intersecting twice â once in Yorkshire now, then in London at the end of April. Libbyâs parents, sister (Eleanor), and Eleanorâs boyfriend Jacob are also joining us for the Yorkshire trip, and will be mentioned throughout this post :)
American chips, which a Brit would call crisps. Iâm an American writing this blog, so Iâll stick with chips
In the Yorkshire Dales, pretty much every place where different dales meet has some sort of cute small town
This sentence implies that Iâm no longer going to have one pair of pants after today, so it can be interpreted as me either having more than one pair of pants, or none. Fortunately, it was the former case, not the latter. Unfortunately, not having any pants would make for a funnier story
Ingleborough, Pen-y-Ghent, and Whernside
My wonderful Vietnamese barber in Antioch
Such a beautiful retelling of our adventure!