Two days in the Yorkshire Dales to visit caves and to walk : Part 1, The Journey and the Hotel

Last week, I took my two off days in the middle of the week to proceed to the Yorkshire area. Travelling to Clapham, where I had booked a night's stay at the Brookhouse Guest House. 

The journey from my home to the hotel took nearly three hours. I had to take a bus to the Blackpool North station (10 minutes, plus a waiting time of 15 minutes), from where a rail-replacement bus took me to Preston (50 minutes, plus a waiting time of 11 minutes); from here, it was a short rail-ride to Lancaster (24 minutes, plus a waiting time of 12 minutes); and, a railroad journey of another 40 minutes to Clapham. However, this does not finish the journey. From the station, it was a long walk of 1.7 km to the guest house. This is a sleepy village in the Dales, and there were no taxis or any people on the roads, so, it was pretty much down to me by myself as I walked the distance to get to the guest house. 

Here are some photos of the route I took from the Clapham station to the guest house:

No one on the road - a very quiet but pleasant walk

Ewe with her lamb in one of the fields

Another one with two lambs

This is the ram with a pigmented face quite different from the ewe

All kitted up for the strong, cold wind and the showers that are a part of the UK climate

Arriving at the Brookhouse Guest House

To be honest, the day was a sunny one with the temperature in the high single digits. It soon moved on past 10, and stayed around 10-12 through the morning and into the early afternoon. Arriving at the guest house, I rang the bell and was immediately welcomed by Mr Alan, who, I later learned, is the sole proprietor, manager, service provider and chef of the property. I was shown to a very well-kept room on the first floor. Interestingly, the rooms (all 4 of them - and similar to each other) - were named after localities around Clapham. My room was called the Ingleborough room. It was a single room with a nice double bed, streaming sunlight, a TV with Freeview channels, and a very clean and well-accessorised bathroom-cum-toilet. 

Some photos of the guesthouse and the facilities:

The flight of stairs

The Ingleborough room

Room 1: corner 

Room 2: Wall decor

Me inside the room

Room 3: Bed and TV with tea and coffee machine

Restaurant 1

Restaurant 2

Alan, the proprietor, chef and everything else

Restaurant 3

Restaurant 4

After leaving my luggage in the room allocated to me, I set off immediately to go to the Ingleborough caves. More about this in my next post.            

Travelling to Arnside on the 15th of April to attend a program the next day at Leighton Moss: Birdsong for Beginners

At Leighton Moss RSPB Nature Reserve, they always have something or the other going on. During the months of spring and summer, they have a monthly program of familiarising bird lovers with listening to birdsongs. Well, they are using the word "songs" in a slightly loose way; actually, birds communicate with several different kinds of vocals that include the full-flavoured song, but also includes different kinds of bird calls such as the territory call, the alarm call, the no-reason call (which means we haven't yet figured out the reason) and the other inter-bird clucks and tweets that we know little about. 

To attend this early morning program, I had to travel to the neighbourhood an evening earlier. I stayed at a YHA (Youth Hostel Association)-affiliated private place called the Arnside Independent Hostel. Located on Red Hills road uphill of the Kent river, this place offered a lot of bells and whistles for the room, which, alas, was terrible. I paid £47 for a night's stay which is a check-in after 17:30 and a check-out at 10:00 the next morning. The room was about 50 sq. feet of carpet space with an attached shower (but no toilet) and a double bunk bed. It was not only too small but located beside a busy corridor that links their sitting room and restaurant to each other. 

Arnside Independent Hostel and Study Centre

Lovely view of the Kent river from the picnic area of the hostel

Their resident cat

The footpath that climbs down to the bank of the Kent river

A multi-site arrow pointer at the bank

View of the Kent river and the far bank

In the restaurant, I had a dinner of lamb tagine with rice. The lady cook informed me that a tagine is a Moroccan preparation that is made in the oven. The lamb is added to a gravy made from onions, spices and cooking oil. It sounded much like the way Indians and other south Asians cook their food. It tasted nice too!

After dinner, I went for a stroll down to the Kent river and a beach alongside it. Well, strictly speaking, it is not a beach but a river bank, but it had plenty of sand on it. The walk down to the river bank was quaint. It was a pedestrian footpath that plunged down 100 feet over a distance of about 300m or so. Down at the bank, there were a few people, some with kids. Others were simply going somewhere along the thin cemented pathway that bordered and ran parallel to the bank. It showed directions to Silverdale (the neighbouring city that actually has the Leighton Moss reserve), the town centre, the church, the market and the Arnside railway station!

I took in the fresh air, clicked a few pictures, and returned to the hostel to spend the night. I did sit for a while outside the hotel in the bracing night on one of the picnic tables laid out here. Thereafter, with nothing else to do, I even went to the sitting room to sit by the fireplace and read a few pages from a book. There were others in the room, and I joined them for a bit to discuss matters related to travelling as a tourist in the South Lake district (the area to which Arnside and Silverdale belong). In fact, I learned that the Arnside-Silverdale area is one of UK's AONBs (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty).

In any case, I woke up the next morning (Sunday, Easter) to travel by a private taxi that I had hired by telephone a few days earlier to Leighton Moss. The driver, a lady by the name of Mrs Jane, told me that she and her husband ran this taxi service. She charged me £10 to take me a distance of about 2.5 miles. However, I am not complaining since I had no other alternative but to hire a cab. 

Will write about the actual program in my next post.

Please note: text in red are links. Click on them for more information.

A visit to the Ness Botanical Gardens and the RSPB Burton Mere Bird reserve- Part I: The Gardens

Having worked quite a bit from Monday to Friday this past week, I had already decided not to do any locum jobs when I got some days off. Well, I did get my well-deserved rest on the next day, but like the birding enthusiast that I am, I planned a bird-watching activity to a new place this time. I was researching bird-watching places near Blackpool. I had already been to Leighton Moss a few weeks ago, hence homed in on this new place managed by the RSPB (The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) known as the RSPB Reserve Burton Mere.

To reach this place by public transport is a nightmare. For me, it involved changing 5 times! I first caught a local bus from my hospital home to the Blackpool North (BPN) railway station. From here, I reached NESTON via four changes - from BPN to Preston by train, then from Preston to Liverpool Lime (again, by train), then from the latter to Berkenfield North by a rail replacement bus, then by Merseyside railway to Bidston, and finally by Merseyside local train to Neston. From Neston, I took a bus to its last stop - the Ness Gardens. As I said, a long journey indeed. But here lies the sweet recompense: I got to visit the Ness Botanical Gardens - a side dish that turned out to be so delightful!

Eventually, I would walk to the bird reserve and reach it only by half past one, but the botanical gardens were a pleasant discovery, quite by accident. 

These gardens were originally created by Arthur Bulley in 1898, passed on to his family after his death, and got bequeathed to the University of Liverpool by his daughter Lois Agnes in 1942. Bulley was passionate about collecting and planting herbs and plants from all over the world. The gardens are home to more than 15000 types of plants, and also host 600 species of butterflies, birds, mammals, insects and so on. The gardens are spread over 60 acres of woodlands and meadows. Entrance tickets are between ­£ 3-5 per person.

The visitor year began this week with the abundant flowering of the various kinds of snowdrops, white flowers that droop downwards and spread horizontally during late-winter and early spring.  Here are some photos from my memorable visit. Some cultivars of the snowdrops are not natural. However, they all look pretty. 

Over the entire year, they have many new things happening, and one can visit their website to know more. Currently, they had a children's treasure hunt and a paid snowdrops viewing program going on. 

I saw many other plants such as conifers, British lavender, different kinds of Rhododendrons, azaleas and more. I think the gardens are a bit incomplete. There was no education centre, so to say, no sections on xerophytes or succulents, and no mention of tropical trees or Bonsai.

Some more pictures follow:

After the visit, I came out into the reception area where I had a soup in their Garden Cafe. It had been a memorable visit. And totally unexpected ... as my original plan had been to go to watch birds at the RSPB Reserve Burton Mere ... but more about this in my next post. Thanks for reading. 

Over 5000 views, and some news on what is happening here in the UK

At the time of writing, I have actually had over 5500 views on my four and a half-month-old blog. This is extremely heart-warming and I thank all my readers sincerely. I am aware that many of you are, in fact, following my writing since a long time - and some of you are likely to remain one of my regular readers, come what may. To all the new readers here, a big WELCOME. 

I have been struggling with the new kind of work in the UK. Having worked in Mumbai as a Paediatric consultant for over 2 decades, I left my practice to work as a Paediatrician in Saudi Arabia from November 2011 until September 2015. During those four years, I garnered a lot of support and encouragement from many of my friends and acquaintances as I set about gathering a new qualification: the Membership of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. I succeeded in my endeavour and was able to get my MRCPCH certificate during the first quarter of 2015.

One thing led to another. Eventually, exactly 4 years after I had left India to go to Saudi Arabia - viz. on the 16th of November 2015, I began a new chapter in my professional life by arriving in the U.K. to be part of the Paediatric team at the Blackpool Victoria Hospital in Blackpool.

It has now been over 4 1/2 months since I arrived here. A lot of water has flowed under the bridge. I have had my dark moments and my highs. What has kept me going is my continued enthusiasm to balance my work with enjoying life. Initially, I used to take my work lightly. Soon enough, I began to be censured by the higher-ups, who felt, and I would agree they were right, that I would need to be seen as much more serious about my responsibilities if I were to make anything out of my present job. I did exactly that, and today, I am happy to say, that I have travelled much more of the distance than where I was in mid-February 2016. Luckily, I even made time to go to India and met my family and relatives in what turned out to be my best 10 days of the last six months.

During December and January, I had already begun to travel short distances to see England. A visit to the Peak District and a walk down the Monsal Trail was a highlight of that time. In February and March, I continued my internal travels, visiting Manchester, and then, Liverpool city. Towards the latter half of March, I began to go on serious birding and photography trips, initially by myself, and later, in the company of an English birding and photography enthusiast, Mr Martin Lever. We went together to Stanley Park, and even the Rossall point to the north of where I live. The previous few weeks saw me make solo trips to the Lake District (Lake Windermere area) and to the RSPB Leighton Local Nature Reserve.  I saw many different birds,a few animals and a whole lot of naturally beautiful spots of the landscape.

In summary, it has been a mixed journey, but always with some positive outcomes. I am grateful for having got the opportunity to work in the NHS. I have not only learned so much, I have also made so many new friends, earned a modicum of respect from my colleagues, and had so much fun on weekends. 

What do you think?

To view my photos, visit me on Facebook, go to the "Photos" link and explore my albums; alternatively, browse this blog. Thank you.

Have had an amazing long weekend, and am happy to share with you what I did.

Dear reader,

My apologies for not writing all these days. The truth is that I just did not feel that words could do justice to the amazing time I had on the last long weekend. I say long because I got an entire 4 days o holidays last week. Friday was off on account of it being a Good Friday, while Monday was off to compensate for Easter Sunday. As a result, I ended up doing some fantastic things to make it all worthwhile. 

Friday, 25th March, 2016:

Early in the morning, I coordinated a visit to Rossall Beach to do some serious bird watching with Martin Lever. Actually, the beach visit was his idea, as he has been there several times. He assured me that we would definitely see new grassland and perhaps sea-birds on this visit. I caught up with him near where the 14 number bus takes passengers; we rode together to our destination, about half a km from Rossall Public school. From here, we set out among open fields to try and see birds. Initially, we saw some greenfinches, crows and starlings. 

Common Starling

Ringed Plover

Sanderlings

Common Kestrel

As we proceeded further, we were walking parallel to the sea shore. We saw many more birds and had a really good time. I will share more pictures in my next post.

Saturday, 26th March and Sunday, 27th March, 2016:

I spent the weekend exploring the Cumbria Lake District. I had planned some of the things I was going to do, but not everything. In the end, the unplanned things gave me an opportunity to do things which were out of the ordinary. On Saturday, I took a train to Preston, then changed to another one to Ormskirk, and finally, yet another one to reach Windermere at half past eleven. It was a wet morning, and as I had booked a hotel room at Ulverston, I would have no other choice than to wait for a bus that would take me there. However, I did something I had not planned: I took a short distance bus to the Windermere boat pier. There, I boarded a 45-minute "Islands cruise" and enjoyed my time on the lake. Returning to the pier, I then caught the same bus I was to take earlier from the station and arrived at The Sun Inn, Ulverston at about half-past two in the afternoon. I had booked a night's stay here through www.booking.com.

In the evening, I visited the nearby Laurel and Hardy Museum, located inside a cinema house (Roxy). This is the only museum of its kind in the whole world. It is located here in Ulverston because Stan Laurel grew up here. The museum was small but interesting. Additionally, it screened L & H movies all the day on their big screen. 

While I had had a lunch within the inn, I went for dinner to an Indian restaurant located about 250 m away - the Naaz Restaurant. The food was good indeed. I had a simple dinner, though.

On Sunday, I first caught a bus to Haverthwaite station. Here, I boarded a steam-engine driven heritage train that took 18 minutes to take its passengers through a hilly route via tunnels and such, to Lakeside. 

As Lakeside is on the other coast of the Windermere lake, I had to once again take a boat to Windermere pier, and from there, another boat to Brockhole. This place has a lot of activities at its Tourist Information Centre. The Brockhole TIC serves to highlight a lot of lake district activities, but for me, it served as a portal to have close encounters with different kinds of owls (with some of which I had photos taken) and to examine several garden birds through a bird-hide that was located here. It was an amazing experience, as there were volunteers here who helped identify bird species I had not seen earlier. 

After this, I took a bus back to Windermere station, and then a return train journey that brought me back to Blackpool by six p.m. in the evening. 

All in all, a very interesting three days indeed!

What the surprise was

Nearly a fortnight later, I am ready to continue writing my blog as I was too busy to sit down and write. As many of you are already following me on the social media, you all may have guessed that the surprise I spoke about on my previous entry was my completely unannounced but well-planned visit to my home-town for 10 days starting 26th February 2016.

Hannah, my daughter, and I had discussed the possibility of my visiting Mumbai a few months ago; in fact, she was the one who had broached it. I had said it would not be possible as it would be too quick to ask for a holiday after my joining the new job in November 2015. She had got reconciled to this, but I began to think, why not. When I came to know that my entire family would be on a trip to a family get-together on the last weekend in February, I spoke to the doctor who arranges off-days and vacations in our department. I told him I needed some days off which could be deducted from my annual quota of vacations. He agreed with the dates I proposed. Once he sanctioned this, I booked my flight tickets and proceeded with the plan to visit India. 

A major incident occurred in early February which could have toppled the apple-cart. My brother-in-law suddenly passed away. My own family's participation in the larger get-together was dicey, as my wife Nishrin was suddenly bereaved. Over the next few weeks, the loss dulled somewhat, and many of my cousins, including those who had planned the get-together convinced Nishrin to, in fact, join in the do. As the day of the do neared, so did the day for me to fly. I finally took the host couple (actually, the ones who did all the arrangements for the do)  into confidence. I told them that I needed the address of the bungalow they had hired for the do, as I was planning to reach there as a surprise. The couple, Salim and Samira, were pleasantly shocked when I shared the news with them, as they had, sort of, accepted the fact that I wasn't going to be among the family at the meeting. They promised to keep the secret. 

A few days before the actual event of the get-together, my family announced in our extended family group (on Whatsapp) that their participation was on. I knew now that my trip and its objective of a secret arrival was going to be a success. I flew to India on the evening of the 26th, arriving via Abu Dhabi on a Etihad jump flight on the afternoon of the 27th. I had broken the news to my neighbour, who usually have a set of spare keys to my house. They had coordinated my arrival with me so beautifully! And had kept the secret as well. Had I not confided in them, I would have had no way to enter my own home on my arrival! 

All the chips fell in place, then, and I arrived to a locked house at about half past two on the Saturday, My immediate task was to dump my luggage and proceed immediately to a social event organised by World Vision India, a non-governmental Christian organisation that I am a part of as I have adopted some poor kids through their agency. They were having a big Mumbai Partners' Meet at a public auditorium in Bandra. I was supposed to meet my Mumbai-based adoptees here between 2 and 3 p.m. Although I was running late, I did manage to reach a few minutes after three, when the kids I had adopted were about to leave, having waited for me for over an hour with their mothers. I met them then, and had photos taken of our meeting ... but that's another story. 

I will end this entry here, and continue my visit experiences over the next several entries. Do read on. 

Thanks for visiting my blog ... do put in your thoughts into the comments section. 

My first solo-trip: A walk in the woods - Monsal Trail - Part 1

On last Friday, the first day of the new year, I woke up with a thought of going somewhere to spend the next few days, as I have no weekend and holiday duties. I searched for nearby places of interest, and came across descriptions of the Peak District National Park in Derbyshire. This region of the UK is located south-east of Manchester, and includes many locations such as Buxton, Ashford-in-the-water, etc. One of its attractions is a trail known by the name Monsal Trail. It is the route of an old railway line that ran from Manchester to London and was used by commuters and cargo trains from 1860 up until 1968. Once modern railway lines were built, the route fell into disuse and was refurbished over the last several decades into a woods walk, some 10 miles long, from Wyedale on the west end to Bakewell into the south-east ... the trail passes through some very picturesque woodlands, from Wyedale to Cheedale, Millers' Dale, Litton, etc, till it reaches Bakewell in the south. For nearly 60-70% of its distance, it follows by the side of the meandering Wye river. 

More famous for visiting during the spring and the summer, the Monsal trail can be accessed throughout the year. To reach there, one has to either start at Wyedale, join it at Miller's Dale, or start from the Bakewell end. I chose to pick up the trail from Miller's Dale, a place that can be reached by a 15-minute bus ride from Buxton. As I was travelling alone, I decided to only do the trail from my starting point to its western end at Wyedale. 

Armed with this information, I booked a hotel room on Friday morning. It would be a single room at Hotel Portland in Buxton (£ 40 per night for B & B). I informed the gentleman that I would reach there by evening. I began my journey by taking a train from the Blackpool North station. I had booked the journey online, so I had to just go to a ticket self-serving machine, insert my debit card for verification, and print out my tickets (£ 26.40 return). I took a York train, got off at Preston, then changed to a Manchester Piccadilly train, and at the latter station, changed to a Buxton train. The entire journey took about three hours, including the two changes. I arrived at Buxton a little before 5 p.m. It was a cold and windy evening, and I had almost no difficulty finding the hotel I was to stay in. It was located on the main road ahead of the Palace Hotel, the Buxton college and a few private residences. The owner, a Mr. Robert ___. recognised me from the phone call I had made earlier. He and I chatted for a while on various issues concerning India and my life in it earlier. I really enjoyed his company. He is around 60, with a wife, two daughters and two grandchildren. He manages the hotel all by himself through the entire day, sleeps in there all the six nights from Monday until Saturday, and only goes home on Sundays, when a friend of his turns up at the hotel to manage it for a day. I guess he gets a helping hand on each morning when he serves a full breakfast for all his guests. I met with the lady who helps him out the next morning. 

I went to my room - No. 31 on the second floor. It was a small but clean room with a double bed, a table, two chairs, a cupboard in the wall, a well-appointed bathroom with a toilet, two side tables and a lamp, and a large window with a view of the town below. 

Portland Hotel

My room

Another view of the room with the table, the TV and the cupboard (white
in colour with two knobs)

I could hardly see anything, as it was already dark. I watched the ITV channel for an hour before I decided to go out for dinner (the hotel does not serve lunch or dinner). There were several restaurants that I looked at before settling for the "Indian Palace" Restaurant on the main market road. 

This was a busy place, and I was quickly led to the upper floor, where I was allotted a table to myself. The waiter, one Mr. Husain, a bearded guy who told me this was a Bangladeshi restaurant in reality (and that he, himself, was a Bangladeshi). Around me were other guests - a six-member party of three Caucasian couples and a three-member Asian party of a couple with their young daughter who spoke to each other in either Hindi or Urdu. I settled in to order. My order was tandoori salmon tikka and chicken vindaloo with chapatis.

Indian Restaurant, Buxton

Upper floor

Salmon fish tikka

Chicken vindaloo with chappati and papad

After dinner, I returned to the hotel and watched some more TV before turning out the lights at midnight. I was looking forward to my outing the next morning ... please click here to go to the next day's description.