Walk 23/2008 – Higher then Dovedale.

Sunday 5th October 2008

De–Ja–Vu and another outing for the Peterborough Paddlers

As a repeat of a partially abandoned walk the previous year, the day held remarkable similarities for Simon and Owen who were the only to have been on both outings.

We started from the Dovedale car park at around 10 o’clock with rain falling and the wind blowing. It struck Owen and Simon a little odd that for a planned reversal of the walk before that we were going in the same direction as the previous year. Of course as it turns out we had reversed the actual walk that time to!

The walk took us immediately up the only peak of the day, Thorpe Cloud. It was a steep assent to the top where it provided a good view of the surrounding area.

We made our way down and into Dovedale. Here we found the river Dove to be in flood. The stepping stones looked more like rapids than stones.

We followed the tarmac tourist path along the valley. We needed to find a path up to the top of the valley so we could make our way around. This path did not show up well on the map and Alan was a little disappointed with the repeat walkers’ ability to remember exactly where the path was. Well it was a year ago! Stopping at ‘lovers leap’ [no one took the plunge] we could finally strip off our water proofs and at last hope that the weather was not going to make a faithful repeat of the previous year.

Finding the path we made our way up to the top and continued our way through farm and field along the valley top. Along the way we stopped to examine a man–made opening set into the hillside. It could have been a shelter or a furnace. We could not decide what it was for. Perhaps we had a better guess last time, check the report.

We stopped at a farm and viewed some young calves that were penned up. Lunch was taken just above Milldale about 20m along from last year. From this spot we had a good view of the torrents of water in the river.

After lunch we continued down into Milldale. Here (as I’m sure you will be grateful of) we departed from the route of the previous year. As you will find the choices to go the easy way back the previous year turned out to be a wise decision on that particularly horrible day........

Whilst pausing in Milldale and watching the ducks we observed a sign next to a partly overgrown path. “This path is impassable after heavy rain” or words to that effect “Surely we won’t be going that way” we said .....

So making our way up the path hoping that the British safety culture was sure to cause the sign to be an exaggeration we started along the natural bank of the river Dove. Dodging some deep puddles and river overspill we were becoming evermore confident of our ability to overcome the odds. Some distance on, just before our route was to depart the river we found the reason for the sign. At the bend in the river the water was directly in our path washing against the rock face for 5 to 10 metres. Not liking the look of the water there was some discussion about what to do. Splitting into two groups, the intrepid Alan was off with his boots and tested crossing the water whilst Owen and others tried to make their way around the top of the cliff.

The top route turned out to be challenging. Quite steep you had to hang on to trees to support yourself. After a good try it turned out to not be passable.

On returning from the top Alan was found to be putting his boots on from successfully making it along and back along the cliff front through the water. He said that it was no problem. [Ed – yes, and you lot didn’t follow me so I had to take my boots off again!] Now we all took off our boots to paddle our way along. The water came part of the way up your shin and you could feel the mud between your toes. The one thing Alan had neglected to tell us was how cold the water was (VERY Cold!). We all made it along with no problems.

After drying off we again climbed up above Dovedale. We made our way along the route until we found ourselves in a farm. In front of us were a herd of cows and in the next field a very large bull. [Ed – was it here that Chris had a hot flush?] We thought the bull was on our path. After much intense map reading and peering into the distance we concluded that we did not have to go into the field with the bull after all. Dodging the cows in the nearest field we continued along.

The remainder of the walk was tough on the legs as it was mostly across an incline. The sun was getting low in the sky by the time we arrived back at the cars around six pm.

A good day was had by all.

Report – Simon

Pictures – Alan

Walk rating – Very Good

It’s a bit drizzly as we drop down into Dove Dale.

There has been heavy overnight rain and the river is high.

Just as well we don’t need to go over the stepping stones.

We wondered about the use for this structure at the top of the hill.

The weather has cleared and the views stretch out in front of us.

A fantastic blue sky now.

We have to take a bit of a detour around the flooded path.

Unfortunately here there was no detour and it was boots off. Andrew seems have brought his shopping.

Thorpe Cloud looks better in the afternoon sun than it did in the morning gloom.