Latest / Sukany4: The Walk and Talk Podcast / Michelle Nurdin - Kirkby Lonsdale - Travel Counsellor and Advocate for Kirkby Lonsdale

Transcript

Michelle Nurdin - Kirkby Lonsdale - Travel Counsellor and Advocate for Kirkby Lonsdale · Sukany4: The Walk and Talk Podcast

• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: Hello and welcome to Sakania the podcast, where inspiring business owners take me on beautiful walks and have even more beautiful conversations about entrepreneurship, community, and living with intention.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Sakania, and if you're new here, welcome.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're returning, thank you for walking with us again.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: Today I'm thrilled to be in the stunning market town of Kirby Lonsdale.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's nestled between the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: We're about to embark on a gorgeous circular walk from St.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: Mary's Church down the dramatic radical steps along the River Loon and past the legendary Devil's Bridge.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: I couldn't ask for a better walking tour guide and Kirby Lonsdale champion, Michelle Nerdin, founder of Not Just Travel by Michelle Nerdin.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: She's going to share her journey from being in a high-pressure corporate sales job to building a thriving bespoke travel consultancy right here in this beautiful community.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to talk about why travel consultants are more essential than ever, how to crack the solo travel market, what makes a good cruise versus a nightmare cruise.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: And spoiler alert, there is a difference.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: And why Michelle's husband believes Tyler literally changes you as a person.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: Michelle was very keen to share her passion for her hometown of Kirby Lonsdale, and it really does come through.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: We explore why this 800-year-old market town might just be the hidden gems you've been searching for, and how this tight-knit community rallied together after the devastating fire of December 2024.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: Before we set off on our walk, a quick favour.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: If you're enjoying these episodes, please hit that subscribe button and please leave me a five-star review.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: It really helps more than you know.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: And share this episode with one person who's thinking about a career change, who loves travel, or just needs a bit of inspiration.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: Right then, Michelle's ready, the sun is shining, and we've got a river path calling our names.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: Let's walk.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: Hi Michelle.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, how are you?
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: I'm fine, thank you.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: How are you?
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: Very well, thank you.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: Gorgeous sunny day.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't it amazing?
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: Beautiful.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: Oh really?
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm sweating already.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we do.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: This is a really nice gentle walk, so hopefully it won't be too bad for us.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: Oh that's good.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: So where are we, Michelle?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: So we are in the beautiful market town of Kirby Lonsdale.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we're starting off at St Mary's Church, and we're going to do a lovely, gentle walk along the river and past Devil's Bridge and all the way back into lovely Kirby Lonsdale.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: Oh beautiful.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: And is this where you've always lived?
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: No, I've lived here for about 15 years.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: We lived in Southport previously.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, did you?
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: We used to come up and uh visit Kirby Lonsdale a lot.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then about 15 years ago we decided to relocate because we just love it so much.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's just such a beautiful town, you know.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: Lovely community and everything.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: I mean you've got so many nice the church here, yeah.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's um I think it goes back to about the 12th century.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's really, really old historic town.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: I think and also um Kirby Lon's Dale is like mentioned in the Doomsday book.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: Is it?
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: Really um popular market town it was back in the day.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: We still have a lovely market here now as well, you know.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's really lovely.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: So you were um explaining the route before, so we're going along here to Ruskin's View.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: Ruskin's View, which is an absolutely stunning view, which was actually painted by Turner.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: Oh okay, and it was um actually deemed to be one of the most beautiful views in the country.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll have a look at that.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: Then we're gonna have a little walk down the radical steps.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: A lot better today in the heat going down than it would be coming off.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we're gonna walk along the River Loon, and we're gonna go down to Devilsbridge and then back through the town as well.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: Oh beautiful, that sounds ace.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: It is, absolutely, yeah, absolutely.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's just such a lovely place, and the community is is really great here as well.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: And we're currently walking through the dead centre of Kirby Lonzo.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: I think my most favourite joke.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: Every churchyard that you go through.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: Every churchyard, I have to say at least once.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, so how's your week been going?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: Have you been busy?
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, really busy.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm really super busy at the moment.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: I've got a trip coming up to China in the next few weeks.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: So yesterday I went to Manchester to get my Chinese visa.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow, okay.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, that's going to be absolutely incredible.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, really beautiful.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll just take a little bit of a look down here at the at the view.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: This is the radical steps down here.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll just have a little bit of a look at the view whilst we're here.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's absolutely beautiful.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it is.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't actually realise that we were so high up.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: This is the um obviously the Loom Valley here, so it falls away quite considerably, but yeah, it's just absolutely stunning.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I love that we got benches here.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: And it changes so much through the year.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I've got photographs here when it's covered in snow and beautiful days like this when it's so green, and the river it just is either it's obviously very low at the moment, but sometimes it's really quite fierce and very high.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's always a it's a kind of an ever-changing spot, really.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: Oh it's beautiful.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: Look at this, gorgeous, isn't it?
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: You could just imagine a movie scene here.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: A meat cute cute.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: In terms of uh your journey to your business, yeah.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: How did you get to where you are?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: We um I actually was um a travel consultant when I left school and um I absolutely loved it.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: I love everything travel, I always have done.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_02: And then oh I know chopping trees down.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, good timing.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: Right, we'll head down the steps.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I I um did I can see how difficult they are to walk up.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, gosh.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: Takes a good deep breath from the bottom to get up there.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's pretty steep, isn't it?
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: Definitely not something to be doing this afternoon when it's really hot.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: They're pretty narrow.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: They are.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: And some of them are you know really, really difficult to kind of just get a footing on.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: They've obviously been here for a very long time.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: You can see where it's worn out.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: Let's pause our combo till we get to each other.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: Takes all of our conversation all of our concentration to get down these steps, I think.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you've got some really steep ones.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, just mind just footing here.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's really, really narrow.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: Oh goodness me, the drama.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: Quite a dramatic way for us to start our walk, really.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: So at the bottom here it says the radical steps were constructed in the 1820s by Dr.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: Francis Pearson of the parish, originally compromising of 46 steps with 11 landings.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: Eleven?
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: 46 steps.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, nearly there, nearly there.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm pleased it's dry.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: Oh god, you wouldn't want to fall down the steps, it'd just be straight into the river.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's beautiful and cool down here.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it is, it's lovely.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: I think this might be my new favourite, Michelle.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: You'll end up like me packing everything up and coming to live here.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's just gorgeous.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: There's something about water.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: Every time I'm near water, I just feel so nourished.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: I think we call it.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: I think we as human beings we gravitate towards water and fire, don't we?
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: We love a fire and we love to be near the water as well.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: Not in a pyromaniac kind of way.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: More in a more in the drinking of glass of wine next to the fire kind of a way.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: A fire pit kind of way.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um travel consultancy then.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I started doing it when I left school and loved it.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: I love everything travel.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: But, you know, it didn't pay the best money, and um I was kind of pursuing jobs that that paid more really.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: So I ended up in various customer services roles and eventually fell into uh sales and business development, which I did for many years.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um but it's obviously a very high pressure, yes, high pressure job and took me away from home a lot because I want to spend as much time in Kirby Longsdale as I can.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: And then a couple of years ago, I was just in a situation whereby I was presented with an opportunity to leave that kind of commercial corporate world, and I thought, what do I love?
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: What do I want to do to start my own business?
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so the natural thing for me was to go back into into travel because I just love it so much.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I set my business up um two years ago.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: And what is it called?
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not just travel, um travel by Michelle.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, I deliver like a full-on kind of concierge service, really, for everything.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, whether it's somebody booking a family holiday or whether they want to do an around the world trip, it's just taking that hassle out of uh booking holidays, you know.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and could your clients be anywhere in the country in the world?
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I really am very proud of the work that I do here in Kirby Lonsdale.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: The majority of my customers have been local.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, have they?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: That's and the support I've had from people in the community has just been fantastic while I've been getting the business up and running.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: And now a lot of my business is kind of word of mouth, so it tends to be quite local people.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: So, what does a concierge service look like?
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, um a lot of people are really busy, they know they want to go on holiday, but they haven't got a time to kind of sit down and think about what's going to keep everyone in the family happy, yeah, um, what's going to suit their budget, etc.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah so first and foremost, it's about finding the right holiday.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, so just finding the right holiday for people, taking that hassle away from them.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then once we've done that, anything that's related to your holiday, okay, whether it's insurance, right, uh car parking, whether it's excursions, anything like that.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's just like I like to think my customers just kind of we talk about the holiday, we book it, and then I deal with everything else for them.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: So if um if I was say in Mexico and I wanted to do something while I was there, yeah, do I contact you while I'm there?
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, or in advance.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I can certainly either book things for you or make recommendations.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's really really interesting.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: When I worked in travel consultancy before, yeah, with the internet, by the advent of the internet, travel consultants kind of fell out of favour a bit.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: So people were like, Oh, we can do all this ourselves, we don't need anyone else to do it.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: Hi.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, cute little doggy.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: Hello.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: What a cute thing.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um so they fell out of favour a bit.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, nowadays there's so many things that can go wrong with travel, yeah, whether it's political, whether it's you know, things like the airport closing down or whatever.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: And you might remember a few years ago when Thomas Cook collapsed, yes, there were thousands and thousands of people all kind of around the world and they just didn't know what to do.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: So that was terrific.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, the answer now is if you book through a travel consultant, whatever problem you've got, you literally just message and that person deals with it all for you.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: And people just like that security a bit more now, I think.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: It just seems to give people a little bit of extra peace of mind and a time of uncertainty, to be honest with you.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that Thomas Cook incident was terrible, wasn't it?
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: It was absolutely and so many people just were in such a bad situation.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: Without the support, like you were saying, so it would be very stressful.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and of course it doesn't matter what it is, if somebody breaks their ankle, god forbid, when they're on holiday, and they don't know what to do about getting home and this kind of stuff, it's just one message away to one person to deal with that when you're already dealing with stress and hassle, and somebody just kind of takes that away from you and sort of helps you and supports you a little bit.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: And how much do you get to try before you um recommend sort of the perks of the job, I guess?
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: I do try to travel as much as I can, really, to be honest with you.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, we do get some great offers.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm having to go on a um a conference on a cruise ship in the Bahamas in November, which is really horrendous, to be honest.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: I feel for you.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to China, that's very much part of the research.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, China itself is really kind of coming back into fashion for travel.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: Because you know, over COVID and stuff, it they've really suffered, you know.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: But people are really wanting to get back out to China again now.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: So you know it's being able to advise people, and if if you've done something first hand, of course, you're always going to sell it better than if you haven't, yeah, you know.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: So yes, I do try to sample the goods as much as I possibly can.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: Good for you.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: So, what's the most interesting place you've been to?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: I love Thailand, me too.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'm a big fan! Big, big fan.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: There's so many diverse places to go in the country and so many different things to see and do.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: But wow, the people are amazing, aren't they?
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: They are so warm and kind, gentle people, yeah, really, really lovely.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's got such a homely vibe for me.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: It has, yeah, and the food is incredible, isn't it?
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: You can't go wrong.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I've literally eaten Thai food since last Friday, and we're on Wednesday, and I've met my friend for dinner last night and we had Thai.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: Just bought those big Thai curry paste.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: Top hack.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: If you have a soup maker or a slow cooker, just get the curry paste, throw it in that, and throw in your vegetables or your meat or whatever.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: Soupmaker's my favourite because it's done in like 30 minutes.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: And you don't have to stand over a pot.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: And it makes like a bit of a curry type.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so whatever you want to do.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: So with the soup maker, I would um put everything in, come from the gym after work, put everything in soup maker, have a shower, cooked by the time you get down, and then if you want to whiz it up, because I'm vegetarian, right?
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: So sometimes I'd use it to whiz it up and make a sauce for pasta, or you can or a pizza sauce, yeah, or um keep it chunky and have it as a soup or a curry.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, who would have thought we'd have been getting cooking lessons in our work this morning?
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: That sounds fantastic.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, such a time saver.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a big fan of work smarter, not harder.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: You know, somebody that works self-employed, yeah.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, I'm really, really having to focus on that.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, it's really hard to get so much done when there's only the one of you.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so the eating part, yeah.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, the eating part falls to the side, doesn't it?
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, absolutely.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: So that's where you need your hacks, yeah.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, definitely.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: So Thailand, sorry, complete tangent because I just get so distracted by food.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it is just such a beautiful destination.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I just love to travel everywhere, really.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: I love new places and experience in different cultures and that sort of thing.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: But certain places that you go, my my husband, who is not a particularly emotive person, yeah, came back from Thailand and said, I don't know what it is, but there's something about going to Thailand that changes you as a person.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, isn't that?
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, oh my word, that's just the best.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: That's really moving.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's very true though, you know, because we spent a lot of time with local people, we went on loads of uh trips, and there's a local girl that took us around some incredible places.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: We saw um things like the tsunami museum, the memorial there, which was so moving.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, but we saw elephants and oh just incredible.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, look at this Michelle.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't that beautiful?
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's just stunning.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: So, like we said before, this just changes every time you come on this walk, it's never the same.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I know what you mean.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: You can see the same view a hundred times, and it's different.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: You just never tire of it.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's regretful wearing shorts now.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: Because you're getting bitten.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: I do, but it's okay, I'll just do the river dance.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: During um Covid times, this walk was just an absolute saviour.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, of course, it was very warm at that time.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: The river was really low.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we had along the path, this lovely river path, there were all the painted stones that the kids had painted.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's so nice.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: So they brought them down and put them all the way down the river path.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was beautiful, that's really nice, and again, so community absolutely, isn't it?
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's so nice, especially at that time when you couldn't really see your people.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: No, exactly.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm feeling so calm, isn't it gorgeous?
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: Calm and chill.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: And it's cool here, it's out under the trees.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: It is, yeah, it's really nice.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: Just gonna have a quick quick scratch.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: You must feel like you're taking a dog for a walk.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I won't say what I was gonna say.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: No, I'm not gonna do that.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: I might jump in the water though on the show for a quick swim.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: So what's the stretch called?
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: This is the river by the river, the popping.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: So this is obviously the river loon.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: This is the river path that takes us up to Devil Spring.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: Very, very dog friendly here.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: You'll see so many dogs.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: So, what do you do um in your downtime?
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I have two border terriers.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we have a camper van.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: So when I'm actually travelling, we tend to actually go land in the camper van.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, when you're not traveling.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: I think I'm just a bit of a nomad to be honest with you, much as I love to be at home.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I do also like to kind of get out and travel.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, we'd love to try and get around the UK quite a lot.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: And then we get we have a house in France, so sometimes we drive down there in the van.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: Do a little bit of touring around there as well.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: So it's your favourite UK top spot, and do you organise holidays for people around the UK?
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, yeah.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: So I would book everything from a weekend break in a lodge to an around-the-world cruise, you know, so and everything in between.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but in the UK, oh, do you know what?
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: The Lake District takes some beating.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it really does.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: I love the lake district, and obviously, we're on the doorstep of it here.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so it's just you know, sometimes it's just a case of packing up the van and just heading north, really.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: Scotland as well.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: Scotland is starting.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's absolutely beautiful.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: There's so much to see in this country, you know.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: You don't always have to travel very far.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you don't have to feel the pressure to get on a plane.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's okay to have a staycation as such.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: So get jump in your car or the train.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, yeah, and trade travel's great as well, isn't it?
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, apart from yesterday when I went to Manchester, it was a bit of a nightmare.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: Was it?
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: We just have days like that, I think, when the whole network just seems to go into a bit of a halt.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it is a bit of a risk, but then it's a risk taking a flight, isn't it?
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: So it is, yeah.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: But you know what's so popular now is cruising out of the UK.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I went, I did a Norwegian Fjords cruise a couple of years ago.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: From the UK from Newcastle, and it was fantastic.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: Was it?
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: We were literally off the ship when we got back and back in Kirby Lonsdale for half past ten in the morning.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, no hassle whatsoever.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: And how long was the cruise?
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: That was for a week.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: That was for a week.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Norwegian Fjords.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: I've never cruised before.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm always worried I'm gonna get bored.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: Oh no, they said do you know what they say?
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: There is a cruise or a cruise line or a ship for everyone.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it just depends what you want out of it.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so I'm going in a couple of weeks' time, I'm going on a my own holiday, which is the Virgin Voyagers cruise.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, and you know, that's the one that really suits me.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I love that one.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's great food, it's adult only, it's a bit more sophisticated entertainment, lots of really great live music.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, with it being under the Virgin brand, it's all about live bands and stuff like that.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: And Virgin is such a strong band, as soon as you say Virgin, you it conjures up all good things.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and we're going to Croatia, the Greek Islands.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so that's my that is my cruise.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: And what happens?
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: So, do you sail overnight?
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, absolutely.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: You you'll go, you'll get on the ship at the end of a day in port and you'll set off usually about 6 pm.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you'll go for dinner and what have you.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: Go to bed, and then the next morning when you wake up, you're somewhere brand new.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: And you don't have to unpack your case or anything.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's like a another Greek island or another fjord or whatever, it's just amazing.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: In the port towns, like what how how long do you get in the port towns?
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: Generally the best part of a day.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: So docking anytime from eight in the morning.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you get the odd overnight, but most of them tend to leave about six or seven in the evening.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: So you can either do an organized excursion or just go off and do your own thing, which we quite like to do really.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, just go and have an explore.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: I guess it depends what you want, because actually it sounds like quite a nice way to introduce yourself to a country or countries.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: And then decide where to go back to to go deep.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, okay.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's just that for me, it's just about.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: P unpacking my case and then seeing so many amazing places and you know it just it's it really suits me.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: But I I honestly think if you get it wrong, yeah, it's a bit of a nightmare.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: I've I've done it.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: I went on a huge ship that was very family-oriented and it just wasn't for me.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that's where a travel agent comes in.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: We know these uh cruise lines, yeah we visit loads of different ships um in port and what have you as well.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: So we understand the culture of each different cruise line, yeah, and the skill comes in matching that up to people really and getting to know your clients.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's that relationship you know that you build with repeat customers, yeah.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know what it is that they want and what they don't like, so yeah, it becomes easier to kind of find the right holiday for them then.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, it's not something I would consider, but when you said the Norwegian trip that speaks my interest.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: We did it sort of in the autumn time, and all the leaves were really kind of turning and falling and stuff.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: So that was beautiful, isn't it?
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't it lovely?
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the colours were beautiful, but it was just that time of year where you wanted to get a bit wrapped up and cozy and go find a lovely little bar with some nice Norwegian food and stuff.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: It was lovely, you know.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: And that's one of the great things about living in this country is the changing of the seasons, and I love that.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, we are quite lucky we have seasons, actually.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: We do, we are, and you know, it's like I love spring when it comes at the end of the winter time, but then I love the winter of all getting wrapped up and yeah, but I have to say I think probably autumn is one of my favourite times.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: I think autumn's my favourite.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, obviously summer and spring.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: All of them.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: All of them, all of the seasons.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: I just I'm not a massive fan of ice, but when it gets icy on the road, I mean I don't think many people are.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um I tend to hermit intentional hermiting and Netflixing.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know the first year we moved here?
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, because we live a little bit remote, a couple of miles out of town.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: And um the first year we moved here, there was a massive snowfall.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, was there?
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: A huge snowfall, and we literally couldn't get out because our driveway was on a little bit of a slant and we couldn't get out of our home in the car.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: So we said, oh, we need to go and buy a four by four.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_01: So we did.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's barely snowed since.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: No cruising around in a gangster car.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: But the first year we were kind of like, oh my gosh, this is just so the weather's so bad here.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: But it was kind of a really particularly bad year.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think it's ever snowed as bad since.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: Four by fours are quite handy for the rain as well, aren't they?
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they are.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, there's a lot of single track roads here, so it's easy to get by people and stuff.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, low cars are are good for days like today.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: But generally, if you want a practical car, it does need to be a little bit higher.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: So this is Devil's Bridge then.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we're walking up to Devil's Bridge now.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: So why why are we so why is everyone so taken by this bridge?
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's very beautiful, yeah.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's very old.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, allegedly it was built by the devil.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of the time when you see bridges called devil something, yeah, the devil would swap a soul for the first person that crossed the bridge.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: And here the the legend has it that apparently an old lady tricked him by sending her dog over first.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: So the poor dog must have got possessed by the devil.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: Because that should be my dog thinking about it.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: This is a fabulous um area where everyone kind of gathers.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: So um you get a lot of the motorbikers will gather at the weekends on the other side.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: There's a little snack van here, so it's a real destination for the bikers.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: It is, isn't it?
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: I have been here when there've been loads of motorbikers.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: But you'll see the view from up the middle of the bridge here, it's just stunning.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because um loads of people jump off the bridge, don't they, into the water.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, they're something it's actually illegal and it's really quite dangerous.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: But people do like to chance their yeah.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, but look, there's some people down there having a little dinghy and a picnic and what have you.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's an awful thing.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: They are, aren't they?
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: What a nice way to spend your summer, isn't it?
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect memories of childhood.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's so nice.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: Incredible.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I can see why you love it, Michelle.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, and actually, just to stand here and breathe.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, it's enough, isn't it?
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it is.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: When I was waiting for you in the churchyard this morning, it's just so quiet.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, it's just it's just a peaceful place.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's yeah.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: So, what do you do in your downtime then in Kirby Lonsdale?
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I have to say I am a bit of a social butterfly.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: So Kirby Lonsdale has got some fantastic pubs and restaurants.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I do like to mingle in the pubs and restaurants.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we've got some great independent shops, so it's nice to have a little bit of a wander around and do a little bit of shopping.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and we have some really great sort of um community groups as well.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: So Kirby Lonsdale Ladies is a lovely social group that was set up by a friend of mine.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: And we meet regularly for coffee and uh sometimes go for drinks in the evening.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_01: Just you know what, just getting to know people.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, when I was in my previous um role, I was working away a lot, so I would either be working in I used to work in Ireland and various places.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't get out in Coblonsdale very often.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't feel like I knew very many people.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_01: But ever since it is, yeah, and ever since our friends are all kind of scattered around the country, really.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: But since I've been um running my business and I have gone to some of the community groups, and do you know why I know so many people now?
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it just feels so lovely.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: You feel so much more part of the community when you know and it sounds very welcoming.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it is absolutely yeah, yeah, it is very much so.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: So we're just gonna follow another path now, which takes us down the side of the cricket pitch.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: And this will take us back up into town and then we can have a nice little wander through town.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: Fabulous.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: So your solo travel packages then.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, how did they go?
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: How did you come about that?
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know it's really hard for people who want to travel solo for different reasons, really?
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, some people just don't have the confidence.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: But a lot of it's scary.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: It is scary if you haven't done it.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes um the hotels will charge a huge premium for solo travellers.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: Why do they do that?
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: Well, for them it's it's it's a room, isn't it?
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it doesn't matter to them whether there's one or two people in the room.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: So a solo traveller is is generally paying double the money.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I like to try and focus.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: There are specific tour operators that cater for solo travellers where they don't have so much premiums on the rooms.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: I want to try and do more in terms of um social gatherings in town to get solo travellers to meet up.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's a great idea.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: So that you probably might find a travel buddy, you know, through that as well.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because actually travel time is so specific, isn't it?
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's quite intense if you're traveling with someone and then realize actually you don't really get on or your routine are different.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: Your body clock's different, you want to have lunch at different times.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: All of that matters when you travel.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: But a lot of people, you know, uh might like to go on like an escorted tour.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: But some of the tour operators that actually cater more for solos, so they might go on a tour of Japan, for example.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: But it's a it's quite a solo focused tour with other like-minded people.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay, yeah.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: Does the same apply for cruises then?
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, yeah.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: And again, cruises are great if you're travelling alone.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: Because there's always like a mix mixer, so they'll always kind of go right solo traveller mixer, 10 o'clock.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um yes, there are certain cruise lines that are better in terms of pricing for solo travellers.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, it's a great way, and this is what goes back to what we were saying before.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: There's a cruise line, there's a cruise for everybody, depending on you know, are you a family, are you a solo traveller, yeah, are you a bit of a party animal?
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: Are you someone like me that likes to actually be quite antisocial when you go on holiday?
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I go on holiday and I'm not interested in making friends.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'm actually just there to recharge, so I avoid eye contact with intention.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_01: I think especially if your work involves talking to people a lot.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I mean it was worse when I used to work in sales because I just used to spend all my time every day full on talking to people.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I used to go on holiday and just think I don't want to talk to anybody.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: My husband reads his book all day and doesn't really speak, and I'm just kind of chilling out.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: Just having that kind of quiet time, really.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, the cricket pitch looks lovely.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: I do like to watch a little bit of cricket.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I do.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_01: Not that I know what's happening, I just like the sound of the ball hitting my willow.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: There's something very British summertime about cricket.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_01: There is.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: It feels just so summery as well, doesn't it, doesn't it?
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: I definitely have holiday vibes today.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking about holidays and walking around in the sunshine.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I know, it's amazing.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I've got a couple of things in the pipeline.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: So we're about to launch the first thing that's going to launch will be uh my formal launching of um Loonsdale Cruise Club, and that's going to be very much about getting local people involved for um special offers, advice.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm going to run some events that are kind of getting people together with talks from cruise lines and that sort of thing.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: And as part of that, there'll be a focus on solo travellers as well.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: So then what I'm hoping will come out of that then will be to take some of those people that join that cruise club and then really start to move on to the solo gatherings as well.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_01: So these are things that I've got planned within the next few months to kind of start taking that forward.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and the nice thing about it is, you know, uh with it being such a lovely community in Kirby, we can run things kind of in a in the hall or wherever in the centre of town, and everyone will come together and you know share their experiences and that sort of thing, really.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so it's it's definitely sounding like quite a tight-knit community.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: So you were saying that there was a fire.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so um every year we have the most incredible Christmas event in Derby.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um we have oh yeah, absolutely.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: We'll put that in the calendar.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: The first December of the first weekend of December is always the Kobe Lonsdale Christmas market, and it's beautiful.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_01: So we have um stalls in the in cabins in the square, and there we have Santa, and Santa switches on all the Christmas lights, and it's absolutely beautiful.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: But last year, on that weekend, uh there was a terrible fire.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it was really quite serious, and it took out many um residential properties.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, sadly, one of the uh local residents lost his life.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'm sorry to hear that.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um and the town has suffered quite a lot from uh the de the sort of the aftermath of that.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_01: So it was in the main street where it happened, right?
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_01: So the street was closed for a long time, and so you couldn't get through the centre of Kirby for a long time.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: You can still witness the aftermath of it now, but but again, the community really pulled together and there was a huge amount of fundraising to help the people that were displaced by the fire.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, the traders really suffered because some of the businesses were just completely cut off when the road was closed.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_01: So that was an issue.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but the community just rallied together to help recover from that.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, and it's been a slow road, but I think we are sort of starting to get more of the visitors back, and we'll call in at the uh tourist information centre where the guys there have been really at the forefront of fundraising and and raising awareness for the town to get us back from that.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: We'll have a little chat with them and then.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's nice.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: That'll be good.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_01: So um, so obviously there would have been an impact to people's businesses, livelihoods.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, really tough.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_01: It was far it was really far reaching, you know.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_01: And we lost some beautiful buildings as well.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, a lot of history.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, Michelle.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I can see how how connected you are to this to the town and to the story.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: So we're still in the process of kind of recovering from that.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_01: People still come to the town, it's still beautiful.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_01: I guess it's gonna be one of these places that it's in, thank you, that is in someone's um annual travel calendar, absolutely, especially the motorbikers, yeah, and the Christmas market every year is just one of the names after the Christmas market.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_01: It was on the um night of oh gosh, that's I can't remember it was the Friday or the Saturday, but the town was full of people.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_01: Oh gosh, yeah.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, there were evacuations taking place at the hotels and stuff, very scary.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: But um, hopefully we'll have a you know a great Christmas market again this year.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, that'd be nice actually, won't it?
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like a year of trying to rebuild, yeah.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_01: And it'd be a nice celebration.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that sounds nice.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_01: What's your favourite part of the Christmas market?
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_01: What would you highlight?
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I just love the cabins and stuff in the square.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_01: So there's all they sell all sorts of beautiful crafts and uh beautiful food and wines and stuff.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_01: And we've got so many little independent shops as well.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_01: That during your Christmas shop we sometimes just do our Christmas shopping on the weekend of the market.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's right.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll go around all the different shops and sport local.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_01: Fish and chips, fish and chips shop coming into the town now.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: The milking parlour.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, the milking parlour ice cream, absolutely incredible ice cream from there.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's locally made.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's absolutely beautiful.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's a family business.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, is it?
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: Usually later on today, there'll probably be cues all the way down here for the ice cream.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_01: They must be getting themselves ready mentally.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: I know it's gonna be a busy old day.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it is.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm pleased we started early.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_01: So this is the market square.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_01: So on a Thursday we still have a market here.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_01: This is where the Christmas market is primarily focused.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the great thing is really um the number of independent shops we've got in town is just quite phenomenal.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, on a Thursday we have you know food here, we have crafts here.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_01: Oh okay.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_01: But it just you know, town has that slightly different feel about it on a Thursday.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_01: And it's really nice to do a town walk.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, absolutely.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_01: I think that the reason I love this walk is because it takes in all of that beautiful nature and the peace and quiet of it, yeah, but then we get to see this beautiful town.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, it's absolutely yeah, it's like a bit of both, isn't it?
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's perfect.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_01: And you know what's great about it is it's very quiet at the moment.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but today, if you were in the lakes itself, yeah, it would be busy, busy, busy by now.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas we're a little bit off the main track of that, so it's a little bit quieter.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we've got loads of great um pubs and restaurants here, but apparently, there's I think there's about eight pubs in Cobelon's Day, but apparently, years ago, when it was at its height as a market town, yeah, there were about 29 pubs and inns just in Kirby Long's Day.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, and a lot of them now have obviously changed into shops and stuff, but that's crazy that uh that's what it was.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_01: But is doesn't that show the sign of the times?
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_01: Because obviously community and socialising was prioritised.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, yeah.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I just love all the shop fronts and against the oldness of the buildings.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's so cute, isn't it?
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like the frontage of the of the sun pod there and stuff, it's just all so kind of old, but obviously on the left there we've just got the remains of the damage from the fire.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yes, okay.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I thought perhaps we could just have a quick pop into the uh explanation.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, let's do that.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_01: Just see the guys in there and just have a quick chat about what they've been doing.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_01: Sounds good.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_01: So we're almost on a full circle now.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, because the thing just stood there, yeah.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_01: So the whole walk has been a complete, complete circle.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_01: Michelle, I didn't switch on my garment.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so excited to be here.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_01: I haven't checked the walk, which means it didn't happen.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna have to do it again.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think I can switch on the microphone.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my god, I didn't record any of it.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine?
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_01: Let's not joke about that.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to attract it.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_01: If that ever happened, I think I would cry.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_01: But that's what you were gonna say.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_01: I was gonna tell you the mileage, but I can't now.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_01: But it must be two.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, probably just around about, maybe just a shop, two miles, something like that.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_01: But the great thing is it's a walk that anyone can do.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_01: Well, this is the thing, isn't it?
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's so gentle and so nourishing.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_01: You could do it with a pushchair.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, you know, if you if you're not a great walker, you could just bring your swimmers, have a swim.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, on the way around.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe not in January, maybe not.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_01: Just roll out into town and have some lunch or breakfast.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_01: There's literally about two places in the whole of the town that that don't permit dogs for whatever reason.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but everywhere else, dogs are welcome.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: Hi! Hi Michelle.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_01: Hi Marie, nice to see you.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_01: Oh Marie, hi! Hi Celia, nice to meet you.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_01: Good, thank you.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Kirby Long, sir.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the tourist information.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_01: So we did a circular walk from the church all the way down Ruskins View, down the radical steps, along the river, Devil's Bridge, and back up by the cricket panel.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you can see here that um when Turner painted the view.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow, it's incredible.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_01: He painted it very Mediterranean looking.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_01: It does look very Mediterranean, doesn't it?
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_01: And uh he obviously painted it when he made our um hills look a little bit more like the Lake District, do you think?
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_01: So he used that artistic license.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_01: He did, so do you do you think we should change the name to Turner's View?
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, is that is that actually a conversation that we have?
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well I don't think so.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_01: I think we would maybe but at that time writers were more prevalent than artists.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_01: So when they did these little chat books and things, they would put the pictures in.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, and the writing would be paid for, that's what everyone was and the pictures didn't have any meaning to the words.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, wow.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_01: Which was nice.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's interesting.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_01: So what we have here is we've got our lovely town information, so we're run completely on volunteers.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, do you?
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I don't realise.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_01: So we've got about 24 volunteers, which keeps us going.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we need it because we're open seven days a week.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow, yeah, and we decided that because we're this unique place between the uh uh Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales, we've got to kind of sing our own song, really.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_01: So but we've got absolutely fascinating stories to tell.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_01: So the young family that you just saw, they um they were busy in there writing their postcards, um, watching the stories, listening to how um Ruskin didn't actually know the view was named after him.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_01: And then Turner um saying, Oh yes, because writers are so proud of that.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_01: So for anyone that doesn't know who's Ruskin and who's Turner.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_01: Oh well, Ruskin is a famous writer who came and he actually didn't write nice things about the town at the time, um, but he got all of the press and everything.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_01: So and we keep saying that because he wrote it was the loveliest scene in England, we're keeping that.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay, yeah.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then Turner was a great painter from the 1800s.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_01: So he was on his great exhibition around Yorkshire and he came to Kirby Lonsdale.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you'll see his uh art in the Tate in other places as well.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_01: So morning Rose! How are you?
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_01: Actually now.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_01: Rose is one of our volunteers.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um we we what we do is we try and take local crafts people.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_01: So obviously that's a print, that's not anything.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_01: But the um people do wood engravings, aren't they?
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_01: And Stuart that does these wood engravings, everyone lives within about a 10, you know, 10 to 20 miles of where we are.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_01: So you can see just behind you here, um the box wood is what he uses to make the wood engravings.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I see and then he makes everything backwards.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow, that's gorgeous, aren't they?
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_01: And he did an exclusive range just for us.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_01: So these are all the wood carvings, are they?
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, beautiful where it just draws you in and I think he's done a stunning job.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_01: So this is six of seventy-five.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then you'll see Ruskin's View, Devil's Bridge, and then Swine Market.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_01: So it's carved into a block by a crane and then pressed.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_01: So it's very different from something like this.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_01: So this one is um what he calls uh dry point.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, but Brian Heinmarsch, who does these ones, he carves into the paper itself.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow, okay.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_01: And this is excellent of clap and fours, and that's probably about as four hours.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_01: Details, crazy.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's stunning.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_01: We've got some fabulous craft people.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_01: Christine does uh silk painting, oh yeah.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um and she also does the big silk scarves.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay, yeah.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_01: Have you been to our um coffee stops and everything?
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_01: Have you been to the Royal Barn yet?
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_01: Oh well, you're in for a treat.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_01: We tend to we get one product for each of the places roundabouts.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_01: So Devil's Bridge IPA.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um this is our local Kirby Lonsdale brewery, and uh they do little paddle boards full of uh delights of their beers.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_01: But they also roast their own coffee.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_01: Well, check them here as well.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_01: So they're open morning till evening, and yeah.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_01: We say if you come to Kirby Lonsdale, you should do what we call a safari supper.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_01: Have you heard of that?
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_01: No, is that is that um starters made some goods in different places?
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly, so that you can go through the delights of everywhere.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_01: And because we've got Because we've got the lovely cobbled lanes.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_01: We say go up and down in each of the lanes because you'll find something lovely.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_01: So in Avanti, just down um halfway down the street, they've got a wonderful courtyard.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_01: So they specialise in Portuguese wines.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, very well.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_01: And then around the corner you can go to number nine, which has a beer garden and they do um cocktails.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_01: Oh and they do fantastic wines.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_01: That sounds um.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_01: How many tourists do you get on average?
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_01: Do you well we our numbers are down this year?
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, partially because of the road being cut off as well.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_01: But we get, I don't know, it's something in the range of you know one to two hundred thousand.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we are kind of trying to increase that um through working with the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales and Lancashire, yeah, all those different areas and trying to put us on the map a little bit more.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I love that you kind of when you said it was between the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales, it's a nice little segue actually, and in terms of it being a town, yes, it must absorb a bit of both areas.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_01: It is, yeah.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_01: People come because they like not just the eateries and everything else, but they like the ancient market.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that's 1227, so that's um King Henry the eight.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh King Henry the King Henry the And so soon we'll be celebrating 800 years.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow of uh the charter market.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_01: So that really puts us on the map, doesn't it?
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we were talking about we went uh we walked down the street and we were talking about obviously, as you mentioned, the issues that we have had since the fire and the um the tourism suffering on the back of that.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_01: What kind of things have been happening to kind of really try and get us back on the map?
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_01: Has there been kind of fundraising?
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, uh so immediately after the fire, the recovery team came in and that was brilliant.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_01: So the whole town got right behind everything, and we had uh fantastic support from our local Response Affairs Council, so everything went into emergency measures, and um afterwards we ended up um now we're in phase two where we are saying build back Kirby Lonsdale.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_01: So we're just about to launch a new fund this week for building back.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um you can see from the site that uh we've got a long a few years ahead of us in working.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_01: One of the things that impacted tourism at the time was that we um the road was cut off.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that's that's I was a big advocate actually of pedestrianisation.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_01: I have to eat my hat because we lost the Christmas sales, we lost everything as soon as the road was closed.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_01: So you didn't know.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_01: What about the Christmas market this year?
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_01: Is it still going to go out?
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_01: It is, and we're gonna have a huge celebration.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_01: So it's already booked for the 5th, 6th, and 7th of December.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and uh we've got everything starting to we're working on that already.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_01: We were talking about it when we were walking through that the the um cabins that we have in the square and everything, it's just such a fabulous atmosphere, isn't it?
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_01: That weekend.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_01: I think once you come down Mitchell Gate and you see those twinkling lights on the trees, yeah, everyone's got one on their house, it's beautiful.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, such a lovely place in Christmas, it's lovely all the time, but Christmas time it's even better, it's beautiful.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_01: Fantastic.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so the the whole town you know comes around that.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I think we've got so many independent shops, yeah, local treasures.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um I mean, if if I count upon one hand, I think it's like three or four of the nationals, isn't that amazing for a town this size?
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so um everybody who comes in, they are this is why we come to Kirby Lonsdale.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we love the scenic views, yeah, we love the uh walks that we can do from the door, yeah.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_01: We've got plenty of places to stay, and we can eat and drink our way round.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and actually that's a really good point because you can travel anywhere in the world now and there's nothing new, and we're at risk of that you know, local identities being lost to globalization and capitalism.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really great.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_01: But coming to a place like this, we can see independence being supported and celebrated, which is great, yeah, absolutely.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, and that takes residents and that takes visitors and everybody really celebrates that, so you know, Christmas this year is gonna be good, yeah.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, yeah, absolutely.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna put it in my calendar.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um absolutely must be fantastic, honestly.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_01: It really is.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_01: With seven hotels and boutique BBs on the high street.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_01: You've got plenty of places to stay.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_01: Why would people come to a tourist information office?
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_01: So we do two things everything from the basics like where to get the bus, you know, uh people are looking for information on uh what they can do in the day.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but primarily they come for us to share the stories.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_01: So they want to know about the town, about the fascinating stories.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_01: So we do a guided tour as well that starts just from the monument there.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um and we start with the ancient market, okay, and then we walk around the town towards the church.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's a beautiful meander, yeah.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that sets everybody up for um enjoying all the history that we've got here.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_01: We get a lot of people coming in for cycling, okay.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_01: So big cycling groups, um, lots of walking, and invariably we get the surprise factor.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_01: So people who pop in and they say, I just stopped for a coffee, I didn't realise you had this all here.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um we we should we sort of share with them.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so our job is really to say, come back and see us, and then come back and stay.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I think if we didn't have a place like this and it wasn't sort of self-funding from the town, yeah, it wouldn't people come and visit.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_01: Anybody loses anything, this is where you find it.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_01: If you beat your classes or whatever, probably gonna be handed in here.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, everyone says it's so honest around here as well, you know, and that is just that is unreal.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it's we've got two schools in the area.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_01: So um, I had two work experience students last week, and they uh the week before they broke up, and they uh they were fantastic.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_01: So um even though the population of Kirby Lonsdale is about 2,000, yeah, the school is another one and a half thousand, which takes in all of the farms and all of the areas around about.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_01: So we've got a lot of young leaders, yeah, we've got a lot of people who um took one from year ten and one from lower six.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_01: They just steep themselves in the history, they do some tourism and they also do um merchandising.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so that's really good.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's a great experience.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah and understand how special it is.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, and hopefully we can show you one of the films because the primary school, we had 30 of the uh the little ones, yeah, six, and they it's on the curriculum.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow, okay.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_01: So the local history of the town.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's a good thing.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so they come in and they watch three films and they go to they go to Devil's Bridge, they go to Ruskins View, they go to Swine Market, and of course the ancient market as well.
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_01: So great.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_01: They brought all their parents back.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_01: Oh that's brilliant.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um I know how this works.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but they were showing showing the history of the town themselves, and isn't that great at 10 years old?
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that is like whatever you're doing, the magic's working.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, that's what we want.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, well, thank you.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for taking time out of your day.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_01: No problem.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_01: Really nice to meet you.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, should we finish up?
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think we're pretty much done really.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, cool.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you very much.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, it's been absolutely delightful.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I really enjoyed it.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_01: Not too sweaty.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_01: No, not too much really nice and slightly.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Screenia.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_01: Michelle, thank you so much for sharing your story and for showing me around this absolutely stunning town.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to remember those radical steps for a while.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_01: They really are radical.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_01: A shout out and thank you to Marie and Rosie at the Kirby Lonsdale Tourist Information Office as well for being so generous with your time.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_01: That was such a lovely addition to my walk around your wonderful town.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_01: For everyone listening, if you haven't been to Kirby Lonsdale, please add it to your list.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're thinking about your next holiday, whether it's solo adventure, a family trip, or one of those I just need to disappear for a week kind of holidays, please reach out to Michelle.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_01: Links to her business are in the show notes.
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know, this conversation has really got me thinking about a few things, and I want to leave you with some questions to ponder.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_01: Firstly, Michelle talked about how community support literally built her business.
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm curious, how connected do you feel to your community, whether that's your town or your street or even your online circles?
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're feeling disconnected, what's the one small step you could take this week that could change that?
• 53:35
  SPEAKER_01: Secondly, when was the last time you returned to something you loved but abandoned for practical reasons?
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_01: And what would it take to bring that passion back into your life?
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_01: And finally, we live in a world where we can do everything ourselves.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_01: We can book our own travel, we can build our own websites, learn anything we want to on YouTube.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_01: But my chat with Michelle makes me consider that sometimes the most valuable thing isn't independence, it's actually having the right person in your corner when things go wrong.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_01: So who are your people?
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_01: And if you don't have those people yet, how do we find them?
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_01: So before you go, here's what I'd love for you to do before the next episode drops.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, please leave us a review on Apple Podcast or Spotify or wherever you're listening, and please let me know what you loved about this episode.
• 54:38
  SPEAKER_01: Number two, please share this episode, screenshot your favourite moment, tag me on social media, and tell me whether your team cruise or team land-based holiday.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_01: Are you a solo traveller or do you need people with you?
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm really interested, I want to know.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_01: Thirdly, if Michelle's story resonated with you, hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_01: We've got so many more incredible walks and talks coming up in season three.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_01: You wouldn't want to miss those.
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_01: And finally, if you're in the UK or planning a visit, seriously consider a trip to Kirby Longdale, support the Christmas market in December, pop into the independent shops, have a pint at one of the eight pubs, and tell them Sakany the podcast suggested you visit them.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_01: Let's show this resilient community some love.
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_01: While you wait for the next episode, here's my challenge.
• 55:39
  SPEAKER_01: This week, do one thing to strengthen your community connection.
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_01: One coffee, one comment, one conversation.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_01: You just never know where it might lead.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Sir Kanya.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_01: This has been Zerkania the Podcast.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_01: Catch you next time, and until then, let's head out and explore.