First Day of Walking - around Grassington

Our first day of actual walking started at the National Car Park Grassington village and took in the villages of Linton, Thorpe and Hebden.  We crossed the river Wharfe twice to explore both sides of the dale, starting with a visit to the nearby Strid, which is called Ghaistrill's Strid and even though water levels were low was very exciting. A Strid occurs when the river narrows to a fraction of it's former width because of the particular rock formations at that site, you can see how the water is churned up as it flows through the Strid

 looking down the river

 We walked from the Strid along the river to Linton Falls in two distinct parts, firstly seen below a calm weir

 and secondly a more lively waterfall with a bridge over the river Wharfe seen below

 here's the view from the bridge looking the other way

 From there we walked on the other side of the river until we came across Linton Church, a delightful 12 Century church in the midst of green fields, quite a long way from Linton.

 We crossed this bridge over the river Wharfe and could have used the stepping stones, but chose Hebden suspension bridge instead. I thought I'd look up bridges across the river Wharfe and came up with this amazing list with photos of each one

 And in Hebden we came across this gold letter box by the Royal Mail to commemorate Andrew Triggs Hodge's Gold Medal in the 2012 Olympics for his part in the Rowing Men's Fours. On the link, this box isn't featured, but there's one in the main street of Hebden.

 We had afternoon tea at the fabulous Old School Tea Room in Hebden.
A superb first day and a lovely view from my room at The Rendezvous Hotel.

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