Thursday, May 13, 2010

Lathkill Dale from Middleton

Today rather than walk from the house we decided to take the car into the Peak District National Park and do a walk which is a part section of the LDWA 6 Dales challenge. We drove to Middleton where we walked down to the River Bradford, this is the good flat path along the valley & typical of what we will walk on today. This strange feature is a wall on legs over the river The first part appears to just be large ponds, but they are linked by narrow weirs on the far bank An arched bridge
Lambs across the river bank
We are now following the River Lathkill into Lathkill Dale
We stop for a break & the dogs enjoy a splash
A pair of mallards come over hoping we have some bread
And plenty of fish in the beautifully clear water
We think Lathkill Dale is the most beautiful of the six dales we have walked in the LDWA event, it is so tranquil as the river meanders through the dale.
The weirs are across the whole river, just dropping a few feet at each step
We stop for lunch and afterwards the dogs are ready to chase after the stick again
We then retrace our steps, the water was a beautiful turquoise blue in places, the camera hasn't really picked that up
One of the larger weirs
Looking back up stream
We return to the village of Youlgreave & the River Bradford
Its the best sort of walk for Bess as she can be in the water for most of it
Back to the wall & bridge
And the cliffs as we return to Middleton
We have had a great few days & done some lovely walks together, Crag sums up the energy we have used & the tiredness in all of us in his own special way.....

1 comment:

Anne&Ian said...

Lovely pictures from splendid walks. Thank you for sharing your 6 Dales 'Base Camp' with us. Foxtwood is a great site, excellent modern accommodation with plenty of walks (strenuous and easy) at hand. We had never realised what fine scenery there is in the Staffordshire Moorlands area - the Peak District got a better publicity agent but not all the good views.
Thank you for sparing us all 6 dales!
Anne and Ian