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Just seven months and three days since we last went there, three of us and the dog took a hike to Bolton Abbey Strid Woods again yesterday and whilst the weather wasn't a lot different to the last time (New Years Eve) it was a lot more humid.
As we set off a light mist of a rain started to fall, the sort of rain that you don't even notice because its so fine, it just seems to hang around in the air like a thin and damp gauze in front of your face but after you walked half a mile you realise that your soaked.
Unfortunately I'd dressed for colder wetter weather and with a t-shirt and sweatshirt already on and now wet I had to concede to the elements and don the waterproof jacket - it wasn't so much raining as the humidity was visible in the air and it soon got very warm inside the clothing.
Its a nice walk, a couple of miles up one side of the river, cross at an aquaduct and then back down the other side, the river still being in almost full spate after the recent deluges and looking back at the photos that I took in December last year, which may or may not appear as if by magic when you click this bit, it wasn't hugely different other than the leaves on the trees yesterday - from recollection it was a warm wet day in December too, our British micro climate does not really distinguish too much between the seasons anymore.
A presumed victim of the recent floods spotted by Jodie laying in the shallows of a branch tributory of the main river, a small dead deer washed up on a shingle branch, and all along the pathway a nice new addition to the wooded walk - sculptures in metal and wood every quarter mile or so hidden in the trees, some already damaged and vandalised - who does that sort of thing, this place is well out of the reach of your townie vandals, its not the haunt of teenage gangs, its a place where families and old fogies go for a gentle five mile walk along a wooded river - which one of those groups of people sees a sculpture along the way and decides that they have an overwhelming need to damage it ? Fuckwits.
At the end of it all we had a tired, wet old dog who, if popular folklore is to be believed, is around 63 years old now in dog years, I don't believe a word of it as at nine years old Jake still looks and behaves like a puppy to me, still can hear a chocolate biscuit being unwrapped from three rooms away, and still whines with excitement every time we get his lead and harness out for a walk like yesterday.
In an attempt to behave like a normal family and "do things" together, at least three of us, and the dog, today took a long walk in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
The half the excuse that we needed was the fact that Jodie is now well and truly signed up for a four week trek in South Africa in 18 months time and we realised last night that the furthest that she has ever treked in her 14 years on earth is...not very far at all.
So we went on a trek to the Bolton Abbey Strid Walk today.
Just as an aside I've also joined this web site which lists loads of walks in National Parks, didn't need their services today but we might do another one tomorrow over Embsay Crag which looks like it might need map reading and compass skills - that should be a laugh as my first question is "whats a compass ?" - I really should check all this stuff out first with our Ned who has walked around the world twice to date with the aid of a big map and a compass.
I've attached a Flickr slide show to the toolbar on the right with a group of piccies that I took today, it really was quite pleasant, a nice four and a half mile walk up one side of the River Wharfe, across an old victorian aquaduct and back down the other side, starting and finishing in the Cavendish Pavillion cafe which was full when we got back so I never got to stuff down the Mars Bar that I'd been craving for after the first mile - lesson number one learned on hike number one - take Mars Bars.
This next bit will probably bore those who prefer not to be reminded that they have sedentary lifestyles - listen to me, I sound like a proper greybeard with a knapsack on my back and a compass round my neck, striding off over someone's private moorland - the pictures ...
Heading up river, nice colours eh ? Yes the river is a little full at the moment, its the rain you know. Its also a really reddy brown at the moment with all the peat that is washed off the fells at this time of year, what ? No it doesn't look at all brown in the photo does it, it is though.
This is the start of The Strid, a 200 foot narrow gorge where the normally wide and docile river is sucked through at impressive speed, only 6 feet wide at its narrowest it presents an irresistable challenge to fools who want to die in an attempt to jump across the always wet and always slippery rocks - fall in The Strid and you don't come out because what you can't see from the surface is that its approx 20 feet deep at this point and those rocks that you see are undercut into huge caverns where the water simply swirls around and around without exiting, go under at this point and you genuinely don't appear at the other end for several weeks.
I've seen The Strid during a drought year when the water was only a few feet deep and the sight is truly awesome when you see just how far undercut those rocks are, its not hard to see why people disappear here and why its a favourite spot for suicides including a honeymoon couple some 15 or so years ago who disappeared at this spot the day after their wedding and were not found for several weeks, there is no safe way of searching those underground caverns, you simply wait for The Strid to spit the bodies back out when its finished with them.
So that made a nice way to pass an afternoon then, I really enjoyed our little hike, even though true backpackers will scoff in our feeble attempt to gain some kudos in their world of compass bearings and waypoints, bollocks to you all, we'll just follow the arrows on the paths until I learn which way up the map goes.
Jodie has 18 months to learn all of this stuff or get eaten by a lion, so that should be motivation enough.
PS - Poor Jake had a bleeding paw when we got back to the car, just checked it and he's scuffed the skin off two pads, bloody soft dog, thats him signed off for tomorrow then.
