The Back Of The Back Of Beyond

Every week or so I like to take Arlo a walk we haven't done for a while and this afternoon we headed for the Iron Girder Bridge walk. As we approached the main path I noticed a field with the gate open so headed a different direction with the aim of a loop. It started well, but as we traversed down the slope towards Edgelaw through trees we reached a point where there were too many fallen trees, so traveresed down in the opposite direction.

This loop involved crossing the river, in my leaky wellies so hoped it wouldn't be too deep, it wasn't, but my feet were wet. The proper path was only about 10m away, but there were ferns taller than me and lots of looping thorn bushes. When we do these walks, I tend to let Arlo to choose the route, but he kept getting blocked so I had to take the lead every so often. It was 10m but that was a tough 10m. 

Sometimes when we go these walks and Mrs C joins us, she'd reach a point when she'd wished she'd never come. This time I reckon Arlo felt that way. But we were on the path and could head back to the Iron Girder Bridge and he was free again. Usually Arlo is fine with the bridge and will cross himself, he did go over it, but wouldn't come back. When I called him he took the river route instead - he is crossing in the bottom right of the lower photo. When we first found this bridge I didn't want to cross it until a few visits later, you have to get into the zone and concentrate. I wonder what Arlo was thinking, he isn't usually phased by things like that. We were both a bit exhausted by the end, won't be doing that again!