A grand day out

We had to drop Andrew off at Clapham station today, and decided to take the opportunity to have a little trip to Malham Tarn, where I had never been.

It is such a tranquil setting, very calm, a little drizzle was no problem.

It is a National Trust site and well maintained, and one of the outhouses was originally an orchid house. This has been restored and given a stunning stained glass window! Around the corner was a locked plant enclosure with some of our favourite Lady's Slipper Orchids growing inside. What a lovely surprise!

Along the lake shore we found some students wading about with nets, and looking under rocks in the water. In their bucket were these strange looking fish, Millers Thumb or Bullheads. I enquired if they were for supper, but they seemed to be collecting them for scientific reasons, and needed to catch 70! We left them to it.

The clouds began to thin, and we were all puffing rather when over the next hill we spied an ice cream van hooray!

After some refreshment we made it back to the car and set off towards home on the scenic route via Malham, and the amazing Malham Cove which is a great rock face at the head of the valley.

Eventually we got back to the Skipton road and knew where we were at last.

Phew!