From Ingleton to Princeton

What a difference a week (or so) makes - I'm now back in New Jersey with Kyle for a month or so, but just over a week ago I was wandering the Waterfalls Trail in the village of Ingleton ("Land of Caves and Waterfalls") in North Yorkshire, followed by a swim in the heated outdoor pool there.

It seemed like quite an inauspicious day, overcast and with intermittent rain both on the train journey to Lancaster and on the number 80 bus to Ingleton itself, and the start of the waterfall trail was pretty dark and muddy beneath the overhanging trees. The first part of the trail follows the River Twiss and the second section returns along the River Doe, so the sound of the rushing water is almost constant, with even the largest waterfalls seemingly hidden from view until you get close up.

Probably the most spectacular of many spectacular waterfalls - presumably well-fed from the recent rains - was Thornton Force (incidentally my choice of pseudonymn when I start writing thrillers: "Another novel from the pen of Thornton Force"). Getting between the two rivers involved a walk across farmland which thankfully also featured an ice cream van.

After walking for 3 1/2 hours, I was feeling like a swim. The Ingleton pool was last on my small list of pools that I'd planned to visit over the summer, and while it's not so large, the place is big on character, with the nicest voluntary staff ever - when I arrived it was full of kids fooling around but the woman running the cafe very kindly let wait until the break at 4pm then I could have a little swim on my own before they came back at 4:30 (so as long as I promised "not to drown"). The sun came out and for twenty minutes I had the pool to myself - blue skies above, blue water below, nothing else like it. Bliss!

At 4:30 the pool filled up again with the kids and also people who like me had finished the Waterfalls Trail. It was a lot of fun and a complete constrast to the tranquility I'd been enjoying a few minutes earlier. A hot cup of tea from the cafe was the perfect way to relax afterwards, although I was denied fish and chips from the Inglenook cafe as it's closed all day Tuesday. I ended the day waiting at the bus stop (where a crowd of Hasidic Jews were also waiting for their own coach).

(My pictures of the waterfalls and other things around Ingleton can be found on Flickr.)

The rest of the week was spent preparing for my trip back to the US, which is where I am now. It's great to be back with Kyle again! And the weather in New Jersey is definitely much warmer compared with when I was last here in January. We have plenty to do over the next few weeks, including some wedding planning (see Kyle's recent blog postings for some of what we're up to), but I know it's going to be fun. Stay posted!