Part 2 Round the isle UK trip Living off the grid in Yorkshire Dales

After we left Manchester, we headed up north to our next stop to the Yorkshire Dales. As we were driving up the motorway, I were surprised to still see snowy top mountains in March. Little did I know that we would actually be driving right through them half an hour later.

離開曼徹斯特後，我繼續北上到約克郡谷地。我們在高速公路上駕駛時感到很驚訝，因為竟然在三月天還可看到白雪皚皚的山脈頂部。當時還沒料到我在半小時後竟然會走在這片山路上。

After meandering through the slippery mountain lanes and stopping to take a lot of photos, we eventually reached our bolthole for the next two nights an hour later.

我們在這條蜿蜒曲折的小山路上緩慢地行駛，一邊欣賞美景和拍了些雪山照片，一邊又要小心翼翼避開迎面而來的車輛和路上積雪，結果我們在小路上走了一小時才到達目的地。

When I was planning my road trip I wanted to stay somewhere in the Yorkshire Dales that didn't detour too far from my main route, but remote enough to experience the Dales. I zoomed right into Google map till I found a B&B that caught my eye. Finally I came across a camp site at a little village called Keld that had some Mongolia yurts. Not very British I know, but I had never stayed in a yurt before and the photos looked absolutely stunning so staying there was a no brainer.

當初我規劃旅程時，是希望在約克郡谷地找一處較偏僻但又不太遠離我的主要途徑的地方。我在電腦上放大谷哥地圖看哪裏有心儀的民宿，結果在一處名叫Keld的小村莊，找到一個蒙古包營地。我知道這不是很英式，但我從來沒住過蒙古包，而網上照片看來實在太吸引，所以馬上訂了兩晚作為落腳點。

After the owner had checked us in, we wandered around outside. That was when we found out that Keld had no mobile signal. Initially that took me by a bit of surprise but after a couple of hours, it actually wasn't that bad a thing to live off the grid for a while. No phone calls and emails, no constant checking social media, just nature's beautiful sounds and the very occasional sound of a vehicle passing through.

抵步後，場主帶我們到房間介紹過後，我們在外面逛逛。這時候我才發覺原來Keld偏僻得一點手機信號也沒有，令我有點不知所措! 但過了幾小時過後，又發現原來這未嘗不是好事。沒有電話和電郵騷擾，不用經常無聊地上網查看臉書或其他社交媒體。除了非常偶然經過的車輛馬達聲，就只有各種優美動聽的大自然聲音。偶然過一下這麼寧靜生活真的很舒服呢！

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There were five traditional Mongolia yurts on the site, and public three bathrooms/toilets. In addition, the owner had built a brand new modern kitchen for self catering guests as there weren't many places to eat, especially in the winter when we were there. This was handy for us as we had bought some food along for emergency moments, and this was one of them.

營地總共有五座傳統蒙古包，及三間共用的廁所。場主又蓋了一座全新的廚房，裡面有冰箱和煮食設施給人客使用，因為附近尤其在冬季，沒甚麼用餐地方。我帶了點食物以便不時之需，今天剛好用得上這個廚房。

The inside of each yurt was lit up by fairy lights and there was a separate camping light if needed. There were two separate proper beds which could open up to a double bed sleeping 4 in each yurt. At the back of the yurt was a comfy sofa, a large table to sit five or six, and a real wood burning stove in the centre of the yurt. There was even a small fridge with milk and a kettle so you could make your own tea. However since the kettle uses a mobile power generator, it took ages for it to boil, so it was quicker to make my cuppa from the kitchen. Nevertheless, its the thought that counts. The yurts were very cosy and warm inside but it was a totally different story when we had to go outside to the external bathrooms in the cold bitter pitch dark night!

蒙古包裡面掛上了一串串童話燈，既可取光又能加添氣氛，若要再光一點還有露營燈。每一個蒙古包裡有兩張單人床，但可以變做子母床所以最多可以住四個人。大門對面有一張舒適的沙發、一張可以坐五，六人的餐桌，而中心還有一個燃燒著木頭的真火爐。場主很窩心，放了一個電水壺和小小冰箱，裡面有牛奶，可以在蒙古包裡沖奶茶。可惜電水壺是用流動電池，煲水要等很久才熱，直接到外面廚房比較快。但畢竟這是場主的一番心意，非常窩心耶！蒙古包擺設雖然簡單，但感覺相當溫馨和舒適，跟外面伸手不見五指的冰冷夜晚，簡直是兩個世界！

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The next morning we went for a walk around the stunning dales. We left the camp site and walked a few minutes down the road towards the River Swale, ascending gradually till the beautiful Swaledale Valley and River Swale opened up in front of us.

第二天早上我們去遠足，從營地走了幾分鐘往斯韋爾河，然後慢慢往山上走。宏偉的斯韋爾谷地和斯韋爾河徐徐地展現在腳下，一望無際的美景盡入眼簾，的確令人嘆為觀止。

Yorkshire Dales has a long history of lead mining which peaked in the 1800's, and we passed by some of the ruins on our walk. One of them is Crackpot Hall and it is believed that a building has been on this site since the 16th century, possibly a hunting lodge, then a mining office and eventually the disused farmhouse.

約克郡山谷有悠久的開採鉛礦歷史，高峰期在十九世紀，我們經過了好幾個鉛礦遺址。其中之一是Crackpot Hall，相傳自十六世紀這個地點已有建築物，當年可能是間狩獵者的小屋，然後是採礦辦公室，最終變成這座現已荒廢的農舍。

A little further on we continued to ascend and took a turn into a gorge called Swinner Gill. This is another old lead mine location and the crumbling old lead mine spelt mill from the 1800's still stands proudly by one of the many waterfalls in the region. The downward journey from the gorge turned out to be a lot more challenging than expected and we literally had to scramble down parts of the valley sides. Eventually, it must have taken us about an hour to get back down to the River Swale, I don't think we've ever been so glad to get back onto the ground!

再走一陣子，我們轉入一個峽谷，這是一處叫Swinner Gill的老鉛礦位置。峽谷裡一座十九世紀破舊鉛礦建築物仍然傲然屹立，跟週圍的峽谷融為一體。房子前就是斯韋爾谷地著名的瀑布之一。從峽谷向下的旅程比我們預期中更具挑戰性及崎嶇難行，部份地方甚至沒有路徑而必須攀爬下山。千辛萬苦從山谷高處爬到谷底，怎知還有一條不太深，但水流比較急的小溪。最終我們花了大概一小時才能回落到斯韋爾河邊，真的從沒試過如此興奮可以再次腳踏實地做人！

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Our final stop in the Yorkshire Dales was to Tan Hill Inn for lunch, this is Britain's highest inn and was a short drive up the hills from our bolthole. It was just so surreal to see an inn in the middle of nowhere, and given its location it was actually quite busy. We spent a couple of hours there lunching and just wandering around before we finally bid farewell to Yorkshire Dales and headed off back into the real world.

我們在約克郡山谷最後一站是到Tan Hill Inn午飯。這是英國海拔最高的酒吧，從營地上山去只有很短的車程。酒吧在山頂上，四周只有白雪一片，沒看見其他建築物，好像去了一個超現實世界。儘管如此，這間酒吧卻相當繁忙，而且很多顧客也不像是遊客。我們逗留了幾小時，吃過午飯在四處閒逛，享受很特別的環境，才告別約克郡山谷，回到谷外現實世界。

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Our stop for the night was Carlisle, the biggest city south of the Scottish border before we continued our journey up north to Scotland. Next time I will share with you some beautiful Scottish lochs and the amazing Glencoe, the filming location of the James Bond movie Skyfall.

當晚我們到蘇格蘭邊區以南最大的城市Carlisle停留一晚，然後隔天才繼續我們北上蘇格蘭的旅程。下一次，我會跟大家分享美麗的蘇格蘭湖景和James Bond電影Skyfall的超美拍攝場景。

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This is part of my Revisiting Travels series, a repost of my post that I first posted two years ago
這帖子是重溫兩年前去旅遊和已分享過的文章