Personal

Being a tourist

The original plan was to spend this week in America.

Money, schedules and airlines got in the way. But they didn't stop us recreating the trip in miniture today.

Instead of driving through the Adirondacks we took in six Dales. Instead of Ben and Jerry's ice-cream factory we took a tour of Wensleydale Creamery. And to top it all off, instead of Niagara Falls we found ourselves at Hardraw Force.

Here it is in all its glory: England's highest unbroken waterfall. You slip two pound coins into the palm of the barman at the Green Dragon Inn and they point you in the direction of the footpath out back.

Offer me a curtain of water thundering two hundred feet down into a wide lake and I'll take the trickle of water jump off a rock into a pool any time.

Perhaps the bar staff put your two quid straight into the meter that feeds the taps at the top.