Thursday, December 12, 2013

Rydal Cave Hike, Lake District, England

During our visit to the Lake District, we wanted to hike out to one of the caves. We parked by St. Mary's Church in Rydal. The trail head was across a busy street. The trail itself is across a swollen (at least it was swollen at the time) river, the Rothay.

Cautious children

What's that tree doing in the middle of the river?

The path soon rose up the hillside, leading us to some greener pastures.

A nice meadow

Our way led to a stile separating the path from a small road. The children have mastered stile-technology, so getting through was no problem.

Stile in the distance

The kids didn't even need my help

The road became a spooky path after a short way.

Expecting the Headless Horseman any minute!

The hill is leaking!

The path brought us out to some amazing views of Rydal Water and the nearby hills.

Rydal Water

J and a hill

A spooky tree--they should move it back by the road!

With the recent rains, plenty of little waterfalls and rivulets were pouring down the hill.

J washed out by a waterfall

Subterranean river becomes terranean!

A full creek

Sadly, the hill wasn't the only thing getting wet. The children's feet were a little water-logged and they became grumpier as they went along. Eventually, they decided to turn back. I went on for another couple of minutes and discovered the cave!

The turn in the path to the cave

The cave in August camouflage

The entrance

Unfortunately a small but substantial chasm separated the cave from the path where I was. I could have climbed down and back up (maybe) but it would have taken too long to catch up with Mommy and the children.

A pity about the pit, it was worse than the picture shows

I headed back down the path and soon caught up with the children. We did see the hills again and played some poohsticks at the river before we returned to the car.

Hill with a farm on the left

The Raging Rothay

A quick trip back to the hotel provided dry socks and shoes so we could have other adventures.

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