Lost in the woods

Cathy and I went for a walk which took in Monks Dale, a delightful but steep sided and heavily wooded valley full which (despite what the picture suggests) is full of wild flowers at this time of year.  

The extra shows the dandelion carpet at the top of the Dale.  By the time we reached this point it was clear from the sky that we were potentially in for a soaking in the near future.  At this point Cathy and I had only about 2 miles to go, but it was 2 miles down Monks Dale - a dried stream bed littered with boulders and fallen trees, not too bad in the dry, but pretty treacherous underfoot in the wet.

The Dale itself was very interesting to see and well worth the effort involved, but the only shot that I have of it, is this one of Cathy, standing by one of the many impediments to progress.  As I took this, the first spots or rain began to fall.  I would have stopped to take more pictures, but getting back largely dry and in one piece seemed more important at the time.  

Luckily for us, the rain largely held off and while the rocks turned a bit slippery underfoot we made it safely through the Dale without either of us turning an ankle or falling.  We had decided to reward ourselves with a nice pub lunch at the Anglers Rest afterwards, but had to run the last few yards as the heavens opened.  The lunch was delicious, all the better for knowing that we had earned it.