Driving through the English countryside is just a party for the eyes. Especially being a country girl, the huge green paddocks, the flocks of sheep and the quiet roads tend to bring on a sense of home. It was a particular windy drive through Derbyshire and the Peak District, I felt a bit ill as Dad buzzed around the tight corners pretending he was a Formula 1 driver. On the plus side, Britain is quite a small country, so we didn’t drive anymore than 3 hours at a time.
Before reaching our destination for the day, we had to stop by the Suffolk Horse Spectacular and County Fair in Kentford, Newmarket. We had spotted an ad for it in the local paper and being total horsey nutheads, we couldn’t miss it. We reached Kentford and found the fair grounds rather easily. A county fair is similar to what we would call a show back in Australia, with horse events, demonstrations and delicious food stalls! Due to our limited time frame we stopped in for lunch and watched the beautiful Suffolk Horses parade around with their shiny chesnut coats and beautifully braided manes.
It certainly was different to what we were used to, but it was great to watch. The care and detail these people poured into these heavy horses was incredible, it made me miss my ponies at home! Unfortunately we had to keep moving to reach our next stop for the night.
We pulled into Youlegreave at around 5:30pm, just in time to enjoy a drink in the outdoor area of the pub we were staying at before the sun went below the horizon. Youlegreave is a cute little town (another cute little town!) in the middle of the Peak District. We were staying at the Farmyard Inn, in a room called the Stables. Though I think we would have been better to stay in the Pig Sty because of the mess we made once we unpacked our gear. We were starving by the time we got ourselves organised so dinner was first priority. The Farmyard Inn was the epitome of English pub fare with specials of the day including steak and ale pie, fish and chips and my jeans worse nightmare, chips drowned in gravy. Of course, using the excuse that this technically was our first proper English pub meal – because you can’t really count London – we went all out. A short awhile later, we decided that probably wasn’t the wisest decision because we were so full we couldn’t move. It was absolutely delicious though, deliciously bad. Deciding a walk might do us good, we had a jaunt around the town before it got really dark before heading back to our room to conk out in a food coma.
Tomorrow is my birthday!! We’re off to the Yorkshire Dales to see more lovely countryside and visit some markets.
Stay tuned!
J. x
A Blonde and Her Passport 