Tag: River Wharfe

Another Day in the Dales … revisited

Since the Yorkshire Dales – or other popular destinations – are understandably still not keen on receiving hordes of visitors, we’ll have another Virtual Walk, and revisit a post written in May 2014, shortly after we returned to England. It’s for Fandango’s Flashback Friday, and for Jo’s Monday walk.

ANOTHER DAY IN THE DALES

Burnsall –  Howgill –  Middle Skyrehome – Gill’s Laithe – Troller’s Gill – Appletreewick (often pronounced Aptrick locally) –  Kail Lane – and Burnsall again

What’s not to like in a walk that passes through places with such enticing names?  It was Rosemary who led the Ripon Ramblers yesterday and she’d organised not only a splendid walk with varied Dales scenery, but a warm sunny day too.  Here are my picture postcards from the day. Click on the images you’d like to see enlarged, or to have a slideshow.

  • We crossed over the ancient packhorse bridge at Burnsall to begin our walk.
  • Then we walked along the River Wharfe past farmland, using the Dalesway path.
  • Sometimes we had open views.
  • Here’s the River Wharfe
  • And here’s a view across to the hilltops.
  • A disused ancient limkiln
  • Approaching Trollers Gill
  • Trollers Gill
  • Drystone walls still divide the ancient field boundaries.
  • Northumberland sheep accompanied us along this bluebell-strewn path.
  • A lonely stunted tree.
  • Hawthorns on the skyline.
  • Limestone scree and drystone walls.
  • A view across the Dales
  • … and another …
  • Sheep grazing
  • Those sheep again.
  • A view across a drystone wall.
  • A view glimpsed through hawthorn blossom.
  • Back to the River Wharfe again.
  • Burnsall – our starting and finishing point.

Fandango’s Flashback Friday

Jo’s Monday Walk

Snapshot Saturday: waiting for a fish dinner

Waiting.  That’s what herons do.  Ever patient, they stand in the shallows, or on a handy rock: maybe even in the low branches of a sturdy riverside tree.  Immobile unless frightened by the sight of a human passing too nearby, they’ll stand and stand until suddenly …..stab! That long spear of a beak plunges down and secures a fish dinner.

Here’s one we spotted on the River Wharfe near Grassington a few months ago.

A heron fishing on the River Wharfe.

This second photo is a bit out of focus, but I like it anyway. I took it only about a fortnight ago, walking along the River Skell one evening.  The heron cocked his head and regarded us with some interest.  He didn’t fly away, but looked at us looking at him.  That’s quite unusual.  In the end he flew off, empty-beaked.  Perhaps he hadn’t picked a good spot.

Heron on the River Skell.

 

This week’s WordPress photo challenge is ‘waiting’.  Apparently there is no challenge next week, so …don’t watch this space.