Kildale Mine & Christmas Meal

On a very snowy day we met up with the Scarborough guys in Stokesley for breakfast, following large amounts of snow over the previous week. We headed up towards the village of Kildale, thankfully following a tractor which was gritting the narrow road. A trudge up the hill in the snow rewarded us with an excellent mine, with extensive passages and calcite decoration. We didn't have time to fully explore, however we were underground for a good three hours. Some extreme dodgyness though!

We departed the mine at 4pm and were soon on our way down the Bilsdale road to get to Hutton-le-Hole for our Christmas meal. As we reached Helmsley the snow started coming down and it was touching-go whether we would make it over the hill and into Hutton-le-Hole! We got down to the pub around 5:30pm with the snow coming down thick and fast. Within half an hour it was confirmed to us that it was to be a one-way trip for today! After shovelling a space for our tent around the back of the pub then we hurried in to spend six hours drinking and eating!

It continued snowing for five hours, setting down a foot of snow and making camping a chilly experience. The following day was bright and sunny but very cold, with thermometers reading -14oC!!! (My frozen fingertips agreed). Thanks to a snowplough passing through during the night we were able to escape Hutton by 10am, after spending half an hour scraping the ice off car doors to allow them to be opened! We took it in turns to take a run up at the hill, with Garys heavy Laguna only just having enough momentum and grip to make it up to the highest point by the campsite, and it was downhill from there.

An excellent christmas meal!