Sunday Times Where Was I?

Near as I can figure it this week, the answers are

1) Hawes

2) Richard Whiteley

From the initial clues given and the fact that the Eastender Himself has been hiking there and completed the Yorkshire three peaks challenge not once but twice and lived to tell the tale (he was revived by the post hike pints of Theakston's old peculiar and the fish and chips at the pub in Horton in Ribblesdale), we are placed squarely in the middle of the Yorkshire Dales national park, one of the most beautiful areas on the big British island (the visitor should fully expect to encounter Hobbits there, no bad thing either, the Eastender is a fan of Hobbits).

As we live in a non simultaneously apprehended universe, it is not really possible to say which is the fastest or the shortest river but the ones listed as such in the guidebook for the region, are the river Swale and the river Bain, respectively. The village is Bainbridge and it has a Roman fort called Virosidum next to it. If you head southwest from there, you come to Semerwater, which is the largest natural lake in the county. Cam high road, from the satellite image, is straight enough to be a Roman road, so the author is likely to have crossed this, while travelling northwest from Semerwater. The highest road in the Dales national park is Beggarman's road, which joins Wensleydale to Langstrothdale.

The Christmas eve rail accident in 1910 occurred at Hawes junction (now named Garsdale). From looking at the satellite picture, Garsdale is not a town, more of a one horse dorp, so the first town the author is talking about, is likely to be Hawes (this also appears to be more of a large settlement than a town). If you drive south from Hawes, along Beggarman's road, you come to a fork, one goes to the south east and one goes to the south west, the south westerly fork comes to White Scar Cave (discovered in 1923 by Christopher Long) which contains stalactites which are called 'Witches fingers'. 'Carrots', refers to the orange coloured stalactites in the cave. If you continue down the road, you come to the village of Ingleton and if you turn left there, you come to Giggleswick and Settle. The social reformer, Benjamin Waugh, who started the charity the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), was born in Settle c1839. Richard Whiteley, the Countdown host, went to Giggleswick school and the school theatre there, is named after him......