OVER HILL AND DALE

A short break in the dramatic county of North Yorkshire offers Susan Taylor riverside walks in unique countryside

Having ordered breakfast croissants from the campsite’s Coffee & Bread Shed, along with a baguette for lunchtime sandwiches, we enjoyed a quick game of boules then strolled down a footpath to the water’s edge.

Day was fading to twilight and the sky from blue to orange, with the setting sun reflected across the rippling water.

You’d be forgiven for thinking we were on the Mediterranean coast, until I add the trees silhouetted against the sky, and the rolling hills I could just make out beyond.

So then, Loire or Dordogne? Understandable assumption, but no. We were actually about 30 miles north of Leeds, in a pretty, tiny village called Appletreewick (definitely a ‘blink and you miss it’ kind of place), on the banks of the equally pretty River Wharfe, in the valley to which the river gives its name – Wharfedale.

Relaxing in the sun 

We were enjoying a few days of fresh air, rest and relaxation at Masons Campsite, which hosts the aforementioned café and boules court for the enjoyment of visitors.

We arrived in late afternoon sunshine and decided to do nothing more on our first day than explore the immediate area and begin the process of winding down – cue a short stroll to the river, followed by a ploughman’s for dinner and a glass or two of white wine outside our ’van.

We woke next day to glorious sunshine and a blue sky, so after devouring those freshly baked croissants, we decided to stretch our legs on a walk by the river. The Wharfe twists and turns for 65 miles from the centre of the Dales until it joins the River Ouse, forming a natural and very scenic boundary between North and West Yorkshire.