Wednesday 23 June 2021

Bit of a Detour

Well its been sometime since I last stretched my legs out in the Dales so Saturday afternoon I decided to head out & rectify this. 

I had a plan in my head & the place I wanted to spend the night & cross off another summit was a relatively short 8 miles walk so decided to take the long route around and added a 17 mile detour to my journey but I have to say it was great to stretch the legs again and I loved every moment of it bar about 10 seconds where I missed a photographic opportunity of a lifetime.


I was walking along the high path high up above the Dale where out of nowhere 2 arrow formations of the RAF Red Arrows  appeared 100ft or so below me flying down the Dale, I never even heard them coming until they were in my view & where was the camera...yep in the bag on my back, I could have kicked myself, so here is the scene that would have been a great shot, less for the Red Arrows in it.




The view up onto the high path was stunning looking back down the Dale from where I had come & the best part of it all I had it all to myself, as apart from standing talking to the gamekeeper at the start of my walk I never seen another soul for the duration of my 24 hour trip out.




One of the old Kiln's high up on the upper fells of the Dales.






The Dales are covered in derelict barns & farms where it must have been a hard life back in the day, but nice to see some life returning to some of the old barns albeit just a new roof to keep the stock covered in winter time.


After filtering up the water bottles from the stream it was time to head up onto the higher fells for the remainder of my walk where I knew water was scarce due to all the smaller gills & streams being totally dry.


 A couple of old what I think to be survey cairns for the railway far below when it was being built as they are not on the summit yet take up a prominent view of the railway far below in the Dale floor, which puts to shame what is actually at the summit, a mere survey bolt in the ground and a very small cairn.



The summit cairn







and survey bolt







& home for the night was soon erected afterwards as it was getting late on, which certainly didn't stop the bird song until late into the night with Black grouse, Red grouse, Skylarks, Curlew, Lapwing and a few others that I didn't recognise.


The walk back the next day was slightly less mileage and took in one of the deeper tarns located high up on the upper fells.



Nice to be back out again putting some mileage below the belt & ticking off another summit.

Be safe everyone.

4 comments:

  1. Hi George

    Those are some wonderful shots of the Dale's you got there, such a shame you never captured a picture of the Red Arrows as they passed by!

    Take care and stay safe

    Alistair

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Alistair,
      Yep could have kicked myself as the camera was only out the bag a few moment before they passed by but I never even heard them coming ah well we live & learn, Nice to see you still dropping in. all the best
      George

      Delete
  2. some lovely pics mate, don't forget about the fishing though. larry

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Larry, Nice to see you still frequent the blog. Fishing not dead, just utilising my time whilst the rivers are very low.

      Delete

Your comments will be added after verification by the moderator.