Breakfast with the Brontes

Breakfast in the lovely dining room, where we have on previous occasions had afternoon tea, with the Bronte sisters looking down on us wasn’t until 8.45 ( each guest room allocated a time on a first come first served basis ), which was good after consuming  a bottle of champagne after our lovely dinner last night!

It was raining heavily so what to do about our plan to do the Railway Children walk - or at least the first section if it - but it was dry and a bit brighter by the time we’d finished breakfast so we heroically ( foolishly ) set off leaving the car at the hotel.

We saw the KWVR train again as we crossed the line at Haworth Station so knew it would be coming past at some point on our walk as it returned.

The first part of our walk wasn’t too bad, even a bit of sun but very, very muddy underfoot. Luckily I had anticipated that and was in my Muck boots. Looks like it’s going to be one of those winters. I wore them all last winter but only once the previous one!

The last half mile before Oxenhope Station the heavens opened and we got soaked, it was raining heavily as I heard the train whistle and managed to get a couple of shots of it in full steam, as here. ( sharper in large )

We decided to go in to the station for some respite instead of crossing the line and continuing the walk up past ‘The Three Chimneys’ where we knew the path would be on higher and more open ground. 

We didn’t fancy walking back through all the mud so had the bright idea of catching the train which we’d just seen come in. 

Yes we could travel without pre booking and on this train - great but, no, the train wasn’t stopping at Haworth at the moment we’d have to go all the way to Keighley!

We stopped and had a cup of tea in the engine shed and then called a taxi to take us back to the hotel. Shame we couldn’t finish our staycation with the train but the taxi was probably cheaper!

A shame not to finish our weekend with the full walk but we’ve had a good time and are happily back home in the warm and dry! 
We will certainly be doing the walk again, we did it in the summer, when it’s a bit drier under foot!