Once again everyone elected to go the short route & it looked like it could be wet, but in the end we out-ran the rain coming up from the south & apart from a short shower while we were in a cafe, we stayed dry.
But I began the day with the hood up & side windows out as we headed up onto the moors almost immediately, at one stage new tarmac had been laid - not really fresh, but in the last few weeks. As we drove up into the cloud base this tarmac was steaming lending an eerie air & another layer of strangeness to the sheep licking it - I mean 500 acres of grass & they're licking the tarmac?
Linda & I stopped in a scenic spot for a little photography & then we came down off the moors along winding hairpin roads & found our café tucked up a side alley & very nice it was too (flapjack laced with marmalade - mmmmmm), though the ladies in charge wagged fingers at us because we hadn't called them, apparently 10 cups of coffee at once is a challenge.
While we were there it rained quite heavily & we thought we were in for a soaking, but by the time we'd left it had stopped & apart from the hoods being a bit wet, we got away with it.
From there it was back up onto the moors passing Tan Hill & calling in to Brough Castle ice cream parlour for quite a long visit while I walked around to the back of the castle for some photos & a hoard of small children watched cows & stoked lambs.
After that we were held up by traffic once or twice - up until then any vehicles ahead had almost instantly turned off or pulled over - except for one woman in a Range Rover who held up some of our party doing 25 - 30 along the centre of wideish moor roads. A late re-fuel in Darlington embroiled us in traffic, but it melted away long before our hotel & we repaired to the bar with cries of "EPIC!"
Personally I thought it was the best route I've written, a little bit of knarly technical, some hairpins & a lot of fast moorland roads, other opinions are of course available.
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