The first thing that struck me about Richmond was that it was clearly a market town. It does not require something of the scale of an expedition to the North Pole to find that out. The X27 coach stop is right in the market square. The town was, in a way, unsettling. Here was a Georgian market town with some really venerable looking, but not pretty, buildings and at the same time you could see a whole lot of modern shops, all in one go. Why should that make it any different from Cambridge? Cambridge is as much a hotch-potch of history and the modern! Very simple. As I stood in the market square, right after getting off the bus, I was in what was a very open space and the contrast was just a bit too obvious to the eye. Very well, I would rather not get into trouble waffling about these thoughts, but rather get back to business.
Business! Whenever I travel, I start my business at the nearest Tourist Information Centre. One generally finds old lady volunteers there who are particularly efficient in pointing to the right guide leaflets and suggesting places to visit, given the time available to you. And it was no different here. The only difference was that the weather was crappy. I generally travel in fine weather, with nice blue skies and warm temperatures. It was not cold here, by any standard except the tropical one, but the sky was a dull grey and it was windy. And the wind brought with it droplets of water that struck my face pretty much continuously. These are minor things anyway and would hardly deter me from walking around the countryside with my cameras and kit. I came out of the centre armed with a minimal map of Richmond marked with public footpaths. In my mind were those walks that the volunteer had pointed out as particularly worth taking.
Even as I am writing this, I am taking a look at the crumpled piece of paper containing the map that was given to me by the lady at the Tourist Information Centre. I will definitely not win an award for map reading - I might, for completely misreading maps. This was made very clear as I kept studying the map and walked in a direction that was completely opposite to that I was supposed to take. But at least, not being a complete dumbo, I was able to realize my mistake and get back on track. And once I realised I was walking in the opposite direction, it was rather easy to retrace my steps and go in the other direction without the help of the map at all. Cool! Though I must say that some of the streets that I came across on this walk looked completely adverse to anybody's well being, like the one pictured below!
Then I was headed towards the Castle Walk. Richmond has a castle, believed to have been constructed soon after the 1066 Norman invasion of England, in ruins. And this walk, which includes an ascent of some dimensions that did leave poor me somewhat breathless, goes around the castle ramparts affording views of the castle as well as the river Swale several tens of meters below. Just a few words about this river Swale. This is the fastest flowing river in England and this part of the Yorkshire dales lies to the North and is called Swaledale, after the river. So, back to the walk. I must once again emphasize that it was really windy and on several occasions I was resigned to sit on the benches provided along the walk rather than try walking against the wind. And just whenever there was some sort of a let up in the wind force, I managed to set up my tripod and get a few shots of the river and the slopes on the other side of the river.
Having completed the castle walk, following a descent on to the Riverside road, I crossed over a bridge and got to the other side of the river, where there were a number of woodland conservation walks. One of the walks I took here, once again involved a tiring ascent, and unfortunately did not afford great distant views. But it was still a lovely experience as it was different being lined by trees yet to get over the autumnal shedding of leaves.
The next walk was easier, involving a stroll by the riverside and definitely offering chances for creative photography which, unfortunately, I was not in the mental shape to take advantage of. It was one of those days, when you can have even your best cricket batsman scratching around for ages and scoring nothing. And I, being terribly humble, am hardly the greatest cricket batsman (read photographer!). And yet I did get a few decent shots I am somewhat happy with.
This walk was then followed by a stroll on the Riverside road, towards the Swale falls, a rather small waterfall. Once again, as a consequence of my poor photographic form I was unable to make good use of opportunities available. My best shot of the falls is below. It was near here I chatted with an old couple who were tourists as well, and who, to my great surprise, were not aware of the name of the river and it was left to me to enlighten them.
Post water-fall was lunch time and I ate at this restaurant called Seasons which is located in the old station building, which I believe, is no longer in use as a railway station.
Thus rejuvenated, I started walking back towards the castle. This time I wanted to get into the castle rather than walk around it. After all, if it were a castle then it should provide a vantage point to view the beautiful dales that make up its estate. These were sights I had hardly got till now, with woodlands blocking the view. Further, giving some food to the brain helps as I soon realised that the best way to capture these landscapes was to remove the wide-angle lens and put on the telephoto one. And is what I did. And may be, in all the wind, that was where my sensor caught that large piece of dirt! That did not matter much to my photographic ambitions - I could clone out the stuff in Photoshop. It is a totally different matter altogether that it has prompted me to finally send off the camera to the repairer for a sensor cleaning exercise, all paid for by my nice camera insurance company.
I shall go on record here saying that the wind had become totally incorrigible. While I was shooting from the castle ruins, my tripod was being rendered almost useless by the force of the wind and I am still unable to comprehend how it managed to give me a substantial number of pictures without noticeable shake. The wind was so strong that when I was talking to mum over the mobile phone form the castle, she was able to hear the howling gusts. Well, getting back to the sights, there were two broad classes - one, views from the open terrace and two, views through little, shapely gaps (the castle builder, God bless his soul, would want to call them windows). Irrespective of whether the views were from the open or through these gaps, they were gorgeous. From one side, you would get to see almost entirely open valleys with woodlands, the nature being disrupted at the most, by a single road that was definitely not busy with traffic. On the other side, was a view with a greater diversity of subjects: from the buildings of Richmond in the foreground to the valleys in the background. In short, this is a place I would recommend anyone to pay a visit, for both an experience of a historic market town as well as views of the dales.
Then it was time to get back to the Richmond market square to take the bus back to Darlington, something I did without putting a foot wrong and then to take the train from Darlington to Peterborough and on to Cambridge! The end of a day that gave me great pleasure and a lot of pain to the back and to my legs!!
Fore more images, please see http://picasaweb.google.com/aswinsainarain/RichmondYorkshire_dales (though, personally, most of these pictures will hardly be on my personal fav list).
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