The Land of Harry Potter, Heartbeat, Steam Trains and Waterfalls

  This is a continuation of my Yorkshire tour - to Goathland and Grosmont. The deal went that I drove and Mum would fill the car up with petrol (tactical skills on my part) so off we went. With Mum's Sat Nav and BBC Radio 2 accompanying us along the journey (a sacrifice I had to make), we had an easy journey ahead. The country roads were treating us well, not much traffic and beautiful sunshine. All going great until we hit the moors.

   I didn't notice that we had entered the North Yorkshire Moors National Park area until a huge blanket of cloud covered the road so that I couldn't see a darn thing, just at the moment that we hit a sharp bend that descended rapidly downhill causing me almost to head straight off road into a pile of grazing sheep (i'm a good driver usually, I promise). It was at this point that I remembered this steep decline from my journey to Whitby last year - it is what I would most definitely class as a mountain. I carefully descended the massive great thing, around the bend and with a sigh of relief begged Mum to drive on the way home (ain't no way you'll get me driving UP that!)
  We arrived in Goathland (the land of Heartbeat and Harry Potter) and set off on our planned 8 mile walk, mother dressed in every colour and prepared with sticks - she knows. Following the directions was going so well, we saw a huge waterfall, followed the river, even directed some girls along the way claiming that we knew what we were talking about - then we hit a dead end. A few houses lined up and a 25% gradient on each side that I was not prepared to climb so we backtracked and scrapped the directions, following the old railway path to Grosmont.

   It was a pretty walk but my brand new trainers and total lack of fitness was not prepared for the full 8 miles so when we arrived in Grosmont and found that there was an option to get the train back to Goathland, we immediately booked and sat down with a cuppa to await the one and only daily service, bless!

   Arriving back in Goathland very shortly after departing Grosmont (why didn't we get the train there too?!), I realised that the Steam Train that I thought we had been riding was in fact a standard diesel one and the big black thing chuffing along to the platform as we left, puffing out copious amounts of STEAM (clue in the name) was a Steam Train! So, there we have it, Goathland ticked off the map and all sights seen.

   Onwards and upwards!

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