Otley Outcome

 Wednesday 7th August 2024.            Otley Outcome 

Today’s outing would see six of the Lads explore a previous walk undertaken here in the market town of Otley It would be Colin, Malcolm , Glenn, Derek, Dave and Mark who would eventually meet up at the bus station just about midday due to some travel issues for a couple of the Lads. After the usual formal greetings they slowly weaved their way through the town centre and headed in the direction of the river, no sooner had they got into their stride when Mark spotted the wife of Ian Piercy, who had been a work colleague of the Lads, a quick hello to her has she took a photo of us all, quite a number of other residents of the town saying hello to Mark as we passed them bye.

As we reached the river a few points of interest were pointed out to us, ie, Tittybottle Park the 3 R’s printing press and the Hydroelectric turbine which used to supply power to the nearby mill etc. 

Our pathway now took us further along the riverbank until we reached a crossing point, now it was over the bridge to the other side and continue our journey passing numerous garden allotments on our way, eventually we came to the main road which would lead us back towards the town centre and our intended lunchtime meal stop, that was the Maypole Fish and Chip restaurant.

On this occasion the place was rather quiet with only 1 other table being occupied, we were soon found a suitable location to sit and with our meals ordered time now to discuss future plans etc. With our lunchtime break almost lasting an hour it was time to make a decision about how we would make the return journey to Leeds, obviously this decision would not effect everyone, Mark is a resident of Otley, whilst Malcolm lives in Horseforth. It would be the other 4 considering their options, take the X84 bus back as whence they came, or take a bus to Menston and from there catch a train heading for Leeds or a third suggestion take the X84 heading for Ilkley and catch a train there, this was the option that they took. 

So with the time now approaching 14:30 it was farewell to Mark and Malcolm as the rest of us headed for Ilkley, a journey of about 30 minutes, on arriving in Ilkley we just had only a few minutes of waiting time before the 15:10 train departed the station heading for Leeds, this journey also taking about half an hour. From Leeds we then took our respective journeys home also fraught with options, especially for Glenn and Dave.

Today’s adventure was a journey of options, do we walk 3 miles or so or go a little further, do we have a large fish or small, or do we take this bus or that bus, all in all I think we enjoyed our final choices, plus the weather was kind to us as well. 

Cheers Everyone.