HELMSLEY: Lots of driving, ocean, a scar, abbey ruins

We went from E.Keswick to F.Far Arnsdale (to see
the Atlantic Ocean) to G.Gorsdale Scar, to H.Helmsley

Fr 20 May 2022

Driving through the countryside

We spent much of today's rainy day driving through the English countryside, on the eventual way to Helmsley. I think Doug deserves a medal for his driving today. I thought it was already hair-raising enough to be on the left-side of the road in general, and to cross opposing traffic on right turns instead of on left turns. Today's driving on tiny country roads took my road anxiety up a notch (and that's just as a  passenger). 

This photo gives some sense of the narrow 
clearance; some roads were narrower than this...

Imagine, you are on a tiny, single-lane road, between immovable stone fences, going at a reasonable clip (~30mph) around curves and over hills. You never know when all of a sudden a car will appear, coming right at you. You each squeeze over as far as you can to your side of the road, and fortunately (for us, today) manage to just pass by each other with a few inches to spare. Sometimes, wisely, one car stops until the other one has gone safely by. I totally understand now why most English cars are so small! 

A few roads were so narrow that they provided passing pull-outs every now and then, to help cars get by each other. We simply lucked out on those roads, with having no traffic, and never had to resort to trying to find the pull-outs. But in general, there's not convenient places to pull off of these roads—as I mentioned, in many areas there's a STONE fence on each side of the road, so you can't simply pull off the road if you want to stop for some reason. 

On the other hand, the English countryside is lovely—very green, and full of sheep and stone fences. I really enjoyed all the crazy town names; I'd hoped to list some for you, but only have time for one now:

Ocean

Doug had a hankering to at least glimpse the ocean from England, so we took a detour down from the Lake District to go to Far Arnsdale for a quick glimpse of the Atlantic. It was a bit disappointing, I think for Doug, though we both dipped our hands in the water, to touch the ocean. And I got to use some nifty pay toilets there.

Gorsdale Scar

From the coast, Doug next drove us to see the Gorsdale Scar, an impressive limestone ravine with two waterfalls spilling into a stream. He thought we should see something in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, plus it was also a good way to break up the driving.

Abbey ruins: Rievaulx, Byland

We barely made it to the Rievaulx Abbey ruins before closing (actually we were one minute late but they took pity on us and let us in). The Rievaulx and Byland Abbeys were both started in the 12th century, for Cistercian orders of monks. They were clearly once beautiful, majestic buildings, but both were vacated and largely destroyed during the years after King Henry VIII's Suppression in 1538. The first four photos are of Rievaulx, the next four are of Byland (the sun came out briefly at Rievaulx, then it got cloudy again). They were a sad reminder of a very different time.

Kudos to Doug

I want to put in a good word for all of Doug's planning and logistical arrangements! It takes a lot of work to figure out what to do and where to stay, if you're on your own and not part of a group tour. At least now there's Google maps to help with the navigating, but it's still a lot of work to make all the itinerary choices. He's done a wonderful job, and it's thanks to his efforts that I have the time and energy to write this blog. (Rick Steve should get a shoutout, too—we use his guidebook a lot.)

Next Post

Tomorrow we make the short trip to nearby York and return the car by noon. The rest of the trip, going to London after sightseeing in York, will be by train. I will be both relieved and sorry to part with our little orange Vauxhall stick shift!

Not sure what these are, but there were two of them,
right by the road!