Hurry up hoomans...

Missy is pretty good at working out which way to go. 

Today's ascent and subsequent circumnavigation of Black Combe has to go on record as one the most "nearly nice actually horrid" walks I can remember in a long long long time.

I like steep, so wasn't personally bothered by the initial climb, but I also know clients don't, and, seeing we were heading into cold wet cloud didn't help. 
At the summit (600m asl, done from sl) the wet straight off the sea windchill felt about 4-5deg C. My client started to lose the use of their hands and I had to zip them into warmer clothing. The same client has a near pathological dislike of up & down, so a long loop avoiding cliffs and gullies was planned. 

Dropping out of the cloud we got the day's best view (extra), and then, just to torment us, the sun came fully out once we were half way down. 
Once we hit the valley floor it should only have been 5km back on public right of way trails... And it was. 5km of completely not there trail where the Bracken was mostly above my head. A machete would have been good. 
And let's not mention the impenetrable gorse forest. I didn't know Gorse could do that, but the marked path through it was impossible without a commando crawl. 5km took nearly 4 hours. 

 Black Combe, on the right day, is a spectacular hill. 
Just make sure you do it as an up and down from the South!