Aerin
A Bohemian Gothic World experience:
Yesterday I went for a walk from Millers Dale in the Peak District (UK). Intended as a short 1 - 1/2 hr 5 mile after lunch sort of a thing.
3 1/2 hours later we got back, all in one piece but rather tired.
The thing that took us the longest was walking through a nature reserve called Monks Dale. Now, imagine if you will...
The bottom of a narrow, deep tree lined gorge where it is hard to imagine sunlight ever reaching.
At the bottom of the ravine, a stream: sometimes visible, sometimes not. The stream bed littered with fallen boulders and rocks, often covered in thick moss. (Might have been some skulls there, didn't look.)
The *cough* path (nice neat dotted line on the map). Sometimes, seemingly part of the stream bed itself. Basically a set of ankle turning rocks and mud with extra tree roots, sometimes several feet above the stream bed, often narrow, always slippy. Found this quote from another walker "This was like walking through a jungle - very overgrown and indistinct slippery paths."
It got to the stage where we considered retracing our steps, and maybe would have done had not we spied another single set of footprints going the other way. Or if the way back hadn't seemed so hellish.
Finally, finally the end seemed in sight and what did we see but..... stepping stones across the (in this part) fast running stream. (Not deep, luckily.) They were c. 2 ft tall squared off blocks of stone, just enough to balance with both feet on but toes and heels over the edges. I got onto one and my legs refused when I asked them to 'step'.... if the stream had been slightly shallower I would have paddled. I'd had just about enogh.
Anyway I got across. We then found a small notice which said something like "The path across the woodland section of Monks Dale can be tricky to traverse in wet weather" and pointed out an alternative route over the Limestone Trail. HAH! Tell me now would you?
I showed my husband the World card when we got home, and that's definitely where she was. Definitely. I have never matched a landscape so precisely before
, not LITERALLY. (Pictures intended to represent real places don't count.)
Do you have any landscape stories to share?
Aerin
ps http://www.jdhphotography.co.uk/photo_724867.html some of the path
pps I love walking, we had all the right kit and so-on... but this is one of the hardest paths to walk I have been on (DON'T do mountaineering)
ppps my google search for the place turned up some rescues of people who turned ankles / fell on this path. Am not surprised.
Yesterday I went for a walk from Millers Dale in the Peak District (UK). Intended as a short 1 - 1/2 hr 5 mile after lunch sort of a thing.
3 1/2 hours later we got back, all in one piece but rather tired.
The thing that took us the longest was walking through a nature reserve called Monks Dale. Now, imagine if you will...
The bottom of a narrow, deep tree lined gorge where it is hard to imagine sunlight ever reaching.
At the bottom of the ravine, a stream: sometimes visible, sometimes not. The stream bed littered with fallen boulders and rocks, often covered in thick moss. (Might have been some skulls there, didn't look.)
The *cough* path (nice neat dotted line on the map). Sometimes, seemingly part of the stream bed itself. Basically a set of ankle turning rocks and mud with extra tree roots, sometimes several feet above the stream bed, often narrow, always slippy. Found this quote from another walker "This was like walking through a jungle - very overgrown and indistinct slippery paths."
It got to the stage where we considered retracing our steps, and maybe would have done had not we spied another single set of footprints going the other way. Or if the way back hadn't seemed so hellish.
Finally, finally the end seemed in sight and what did we see but..... stepping stones across the (in this part) fast running stream. (Not deep, luckily.) They were c. 2 ft tall squared off blocks of stone, just enough to balance with both feet on but toes and heels over the edges. I got onto one and my legs refused when I asked them to 'step'.... if the stream had been slightly shallower I would have paddled. I'd had just about enogh.
Anyway I got across. We then found a small notice which said something like "The path across the woodland section of Monks Dale can be tricky to traverse in wet weather" and pointed out an alternative route over the Limestone Trail. HAH! Tell me now would you?
I showed my husband the World card when we got home, and that's definitely where she was. Definitely. I have never matched a landscape so precisely before
, not LITERALLY. (Pictures intended to represent real places don't count.)Do you have any landscape stories to share?
Aerin
ps http://www.jdhphotography.co.uk/photo_724867.html some of the path
pps I love walking, we had all the right kit and so-on... but this is one of the hardest paths to walk I have been on (DON'T do mountaineering)
ppps my google search for the place turned up some rescues of people who turned ankles / fell on this path. Am not surprised.
