Head for the Hills

Well the fishing was short lived but not through anything apart from mother nature with torrential rain lifting every main river in the Dales, flood warning sirens going off in a few places and block roads due to flood water, so it was a day to head to the hills away from it all, so grabbing the walking bag and camera off I set high up on the grouse moors above swaledale.

The views up Swaledale.

One of the many waterfalls I came across on my walk

A couple of shots of the many grouse that were out on the moors, nice to see such a healthy environment with me also spotting my first yellowhammer, a bird that I has eluded me up till today & although I didn't manage to get a photograph of it , it was a nice sight even though I was sucking air deep into my lungs after a steep climb, it certainly perked me up.

The encounter I had whilst taking these next couple of photographs made me chuckle. In the middle of nowhere, with no marked paths on the map, I even followed the beck upstream just for ease of walking & stumbled across this small waterfall. Half way through taking the photographs I heard a noise behind me & turned to see 3 lady walkers  stumbling across the heather waving at me...They were lets say geographically embarrassed and were looking for a track which was over 1.5 miles east of the current location so after a small map reading bearing lesson off they set in the correct direction, my good deed for the day done. 

Heading in the opposite direction to what the female walkers set off in I was soon heading back down into the trees and with an abundance of wild raspberries picked as I went it was a good day to be out for a walk. I notice that the hazel nuts are starting to ripen on the trees and it makes me wonder where 2019 has gone, its passed so quickly this year with us almost into August already.

One last set of waterfalls before heading back in the direction of the car, a distance of 9 miles covered from the start, most uphill but some beautiful views across the dales so Im not complaining and to see this last photograph before heading to the car certainly put a smile on my face.

A farmer with a sense of humour.