Dubs In’t Dales 2017

This was our first trip to Dubs in t’Dales, although the show has been running for 6 years. It’s held at Camp Katur near Bedale in North Yorkshire and was much bigger than we’d anticipated.

We’d booked a Club pitch with the Brazilian Bay crowd, but, in the event, we were alone on the pitch after a couple of other vans dropped out, which gave us a loads of space and a very chilled weekend.

It took us about 2 hours to get there – fortunately, we avoided the A1 as we were coming from the west (apparently there were major hold ups, making for a difficult journey for those heading over from the east). We were soon pitched up and after a quick sandwich we headed down to the bar to check out what was going on.

The barn is a great resource at a show like this – being able to get inside is definitely a bonus for end of season events. We bumped into our friends, Andy and Sophie at the bar, with their son Oliver. It was great to catch up and to share a few beers.

We headed back to the van and tried to sleep, but a combination of party animals behind us (with music until after 3am, thank you very much) and an unsettled schnauzer, who needed taking out at least twice during the night, meant that we had a major lie-in and missed the cruise to Jervaulx Abbey on Saturday – never mind, we got to see them setting off.

More friends, Geoff and Dave, popped over to see us and it was nice to chat to them – hopefully we’ll all get together again at our end of season meet at the Cud Life in October.

There were plenty of traders, including Sophie, who’s furniture was selling like hot cakes.

There were also lots of schnauzers for Boris to join in with a barking session.

We were spoilt for choice as far as food was concerned – Alison had a pizza and I grabbed fish and chips, which we ate outside the barn. Meanwhile, inside, there was a drumming workshop which sounded great.

There was plenty going on, including a Mountain Bike exhibition, which we stopped to watch for while.

Our friends James and Sarah, the entrepreneurs behind Glawning, were exhibiting as usual – it was their last show of the season and they kindly invited Glawning Owners to their pitch for a glass of fizz.

We spent Saturday night in the Glawning, chilling around the stove with a box of red wine – perfect. Unfortunately, though, we had another bad night with Boris and had very little sleep again.

Sunday was a lazy morning – after a coffee we packed up and headed back, but not before stopping for fish and chips (twice in two days for me) at Banny’s in Colne. We had intended to stop at Billy Bob’s but we couldn’t get parked. We managed to park at The Bull near Skipton, but the kitchen was closed because they had no gas and a final try at a pub lunch at the Tempest Arms brought no parking luck either and led to us taking a massive detour before ending up in Colne.

As it happened, the fish and chips were great and only left us a brief 30 minute drive home.

There’s a full set of photos here: FLICKR

Things we’ve learned:

It takes Boris quite a while to get back to normal after he’s been at the dog sitters

Glawning Owners (and sellers) are a friendly lot

We’re too old for disturbed nights

Never judge a show until you’ve been

This part of God’s Own Country is one of my favourites – Alison liked it too, so it’s got possibilities as a future settling down place