36. Hawes

CC Site
June 22nd - 23rd

A forty-mile drive through Kendal and out along the A684 eastwards though Sedbergh along Garsdale into Upper Wensleydale at Hawes. Sedbergh is a lovely little town, not much more than a village really and taken-up mostly by the school, founded in 1525. I stayed here once a few years ago in a funny old-fashioned hotel and just took a liking to the town.

It was Sunday and Hawes was heaving, packed with people, mostly middle-aged motor-bikers, not difficult to pack it as it is tiny, even smaller than Sedbergh. It is on the route of the Tour de France this year and has whole-heartedly entered the festival spirit of the race. There is bunting everywhere and displays in the shop windows and bicycles painted in polka dot patterns and all sorts of advertisements. The glorious smell of fish and chips was in the air, and I couldn't help but feel sorry for the race cyclists who will have to endure the enticing scent while looking forward to their suppers of pasta, bananas and vitamins. The information centre in the charming old stone-built railway station was selling Tour memorabilia, but at extortionate prices, £20 for an interesting but poor quality tee-shirt and £15 for a baseball cap. Ridiculous! I fancied a white tee-shirt with red polka dots and the caption “Le Départ, Yorkshire”, but the material was so thin I would have seemed to be in a wet tee-shirt competition; not a pretty sight. I was puzzled by the colour of the bunting, repeating sequences of red, white and polka dot pennants. Polka dot is for the King of the Mountains and white for the Best Young Rider but I don't know what red is for. And why were there no yellow and green pennants for the race leader and the points classification leader? Strange.

Hawes - a picturesque village

After doing my food shopping on Sunday I had a lazy day on Monday, finishing “Rendezvous with Rama” by Arthur C Clarke (brilliant) while sitting in the scorching sun and getting my medication from the Health Centre. Wherever I have travelled I have found the people in these NHS health centres friendly and helpful. Where would we be without the NHS? Defend it to the death! 

Waiting at the station (to be restored)

 

I also enjoyed listening to Test Match Special on the radio. Graeme Swann has been drafted in and he is just brilliant and has made a big difference to the programme. I sent an e-mail to them asking if he could become a permanent fixture, replacing Geoff Boycott, but they didn't read it out on the air and didn't reply to me. Disappointing. Swann's experience of the game is bang up to date and his anecdotes are topical. Sadly, England's performance didn't match the excellence of the commentary team. The bowling by the pace attack, particularly by Anderson, was pathetic and Alistair Cook, supposedly the captain, did nothing to influence the game. He really has to go now, surely? Also, I'm very tired of the bowlers, especially Broad and particularly Anderson, looking and behaving like sulky teenagers if they don't get success. English cricket really is in a dreadful state now, I think. And you think the footballers are useless?

Don't fancy a Category 1 climb on this!

I watched the World Cup matches on Monday evening, but still can't see anything special in Brazil. Matt is supporting Chile now that England are out, and I think they have a good chance of beating the hosts.