We took the B6138 across the top and found Little Valley Brewery in a large converted farm building in what is basically the middle of nowhere. We were met by the owner, Dutchman Wim van der Spek, who gave us a thorough tour of his premises and towered over us while he did so. He also showed us his bikes and told us about some of his own travels including a trip to Nepal where he met his wife (they weren't married at the time obviously, the story would be a bit wierd if they were, most people tend to meet their wife in their own house rather than a distant country and besides which it doesn't make for much of a story if you just meet your wife somewhere).
This was the one and only organic brewery that we visited (the produce was organic, not the actual building) and of course there is more to learn here - Little Valley Brewery.
Another fascinating tour over, we would remember Wim's 'Moor Beer' for a long time even though it was his least popular, the conditions we tried it in were apparently absolutely ideal and it was bloody tasty. Sam also developed a fascination with his name and I believe he is currently in the process of trying to become Dutch. Wim gave us a couple of bottles and I lugged them across the country for the entire day, a mistake in retrospect as we had beer on tap only yards from where we stayed this night.
From the brewery it was straight down the longest coninuous hill in Britain into Hebden Bridge, a stop in a cafe for a fry-up, then on down the A646 to Burnley. We could have taken a slightly different route but mornings were always slower and we had as usual spent longer than we should have in the brewery. The cloud had kept us cool beforehand and the valley through Hebden and Toddmorden had shielded us from the sun, but when we hit Burnley it was getting very warm. The British summertime had arrived and people would be tanning themselves outside for the next 4 weeks right.............................
At Burnley we rolled into Moorhouse's Brewery, a sizeable establishment - about the same as Butcombe maybe - set right in the town. We were shown round by the head brewer, a nice bloke who suffers from my inability to remember names, before being taken into the pub opposite the brewery for a chat with marketing manager Mike Hiscock and a pint or two of Moorhouse ale. The brewer told us a few horror stories about the temperature that he sometimes had to work in, the old buildings not being the best for ventilation maybe. Both men told us of the coming expansion, a seemingly massive upgrade from a 30 barrel to 90 barrell brewplant. Confident directors are certainly not in short supply there! Inexplicably I forgot to take any photos so you will just have to guess what it would look like if we stood next to someone from the company.
From Burnley we headed towards the Forest of Bowland, a very misleading title as there were few trees on the whole, for a forest anyway. A pretty strenuous climb out of Sabden was followed by a descent that seemed destined to give me the highest top speed of the trip. Sam had hit 52mph in Devon, while I only managed 49mph. The reason for the difference was that I realised that there was a junction at the very bottom of this hill and decided not to pedal over the top. Exactly what difference 3mph is supposed to make if anyone pulled out in front of me I don't know. Hitting 49mph down this hill in Lacashire I was all set to continue into the 50s when my sunglasses flew off my head and I had to about turn. Annoying that my bit for speed was scuppered but it did answer an earlier question of how fast do I have to go before my sunglasses fall off. Anyone who has travelled at 50mph on a bike will know there is a fair amount of wind resistance buffeting you around at that speed and I am amazed my sunglasses stayed on that far.
We headed out of the treeless forest through Settle and into the Yorkshire Dales for what turned out to be a very pretty end to the day. It took a while to get to the end though, the temperature may have dropped to a sensible level but we were getting tired and the road seemed to drag on further than it should have. The B6479 gave way to the B6255 and we sat on the side of the road for a while by Blea Moor. When we started again the turn we were looking for was just around the corner and we began to descend into Dent. One of the reasons we were flagging towards the end (75 miles in) was the amount we had climbed from Settle without realising, about 300m I think and the last 7 or 8 miles was ludicrously easy, in fact we were only slowed by some people in a car who we were able to overtake after a couple of miles. Very little peddling was involved and we arrived at the George and Dragon in Dent at about 7:30pm for a fairly strange, but very welcome episode.
This is Sam piddling in the Dales. The problem is that beer makes him wee, generally 4 minutes afterwards. Also tea has the same effect. Actually water goes through pretty quickly as well and the fact is he hardly drinks anything else, so pretty much drinking makes him wee very soon after. And then again 3 minutes later.
The George and Dragon, owned by the owners of Dent Brewery, provided us with a meal and a couple of beers. We also got to stay in a room there free of charge for which we are very grateful. We had a really good shower (shower quality is a massive concern on a camping trip and can make a large difference to the day) and fell asleep in comfort. During the night it rained and signalled the end of the British summer. That didn't last long.
Day 10 review
Mileage = 82
Breweries = 1
Pints drunk = 10ish
0 comments:
Post a Comment