Calling it a walk is a bit tame, it was an adventure. All of the images are mapped via Panoramio onto Google Earth locations, click on the link above to go to Panoramio.
There is a nice little map on a bit of slate stuck to the wall of the dam, it has some relation to the reality but not a lot, it suggests 2 1/2 hour round trip with some high dangerous bits and turned out to be over 5 hours with a lot of high dangerous bits, only worth a go if you like edging your way across cliff faces clinging to cables while goats kick little showers of rocks at you or stepping carefully along wet slimy paths little wider than your own two feet with hundreds of vertical meters above and below. I think it would be a lot safer on a dry day...
4 of these were looking into the turning space at the edge of the dam when I arrived, they smell awful.
This is the map stuck to the wall of the dam and gives a vague idea of the route sort of folded up on itself. Tiempo 2 1/2 hours - took me a tad over 5 although I did not rush and did get distracted here and there but I think you would need to jog the lot to do it in that time.
Danger zone - not an understatement, if you have wild young children turn back now :-0
The steps get steeper and steeper and slippery, there is a sort of keep your eye out for Gollum atmosphere about the pool but its better to keep your eyes on your feet and the path ahead.
A lovely place for a swim on a Summer day I imagine.
There are many opportunities to look down with out having to leave the path.
Doesn't look to dangerous in the pic but the path has been wiped out by falling slabs and a handy cable is now pinned to the rock to hold on with, the far end of the cable is pinned to the few slabs that have not yet fallen, not a good place to play Hannibal and take an elephant for a walk.
That is the far end of the cable and the little ledge I had just stopped being on, goats threw stones at me as I crossed; they missed, gulp ha ha err gulp, I thought and walked on.
Knee deep in leaves this canal winds its way along high above the valley floor. The path is along the top of the wall for much of the first hour of the journey. The wall is built on the edge of a cliff for most of the first hour of the journey. Sat by the little house and burned my lip on the home made veg stew I had in my Berghaus flask, ate some stew, walked on then got burned again an hour later when I ate some more, excellent flask, stew not bad either.
The canal wall you walk along can be seen far right near the bottom, you may need to click on the photo a few times to zoom in, it passes behind a tree or two then you can see a dot where the tunnel starts, it cuts through the buttress and comes out in the trees a few hundred meters later. The path heads off around the cliff, its not very wide but is very high and edgy. After the trees the path exits stage left below that rock chute looking bit. I wonder why they build a canal there, at times I wondered why I decided to walk along it.
It started peeing down, so I took shelter in that tunnel and was drawn in, at first my feet stayed just dry then just wet then I was in over my knees finding my way by the flash on the camera. That bright dot is the light at the end of the tunnel. I found the first of the occasional clusters of bats by brushing them with my head, this lot seemed to stay asleep despite the camera flash.
I almost picked up my flute when I left home, wished I had; the acoustics were good, the flute would have been better than my grunting out bits of The Lewis bridal song:
Step it gaily, on we go
Heel for heel and toe for toe,
Arm in arm and row on row
All for Mairi's wedding.
Heel for heel and toe for toe,
Arm in arm and row on row
All for Mairi's wedding.
While I checked the depth of the water by Flash.
This lot did not even open an eye as far as I could see. Two to the left and two to the right and one in front by itself - formation sleeping.
And the sun had come out as I came out of the dark into another green world.
More rain so a bit with no photos then just as I was thinking this has to be a couple of hours and it has not started to circle back, it did and lead me up a lovely ancient old track.
After the track is some road then back to views - wow kind of views.
Goats pretending they did not throw stones nor never would, I did not believe them. I saw a lot of goats, they look kind of like they think they are cool and they look confident skittering about in silly places where they really should be belayed on the cliffs but I saw 5 separate lots of goat bones just on or near to the path, they may be reckless, feckless fools who fall off a lot when no one is looking. Most of the ones I saw were fairly young.
Getting closer to the quarry the main path runs way above it but there are others that skirt the top.
I guess a tiny narcissus, extremely shiny and tiny daffodil.
The path is a lot easier up here
Lovely flowers in this strange little dam.
The lovely flowers there are thousands of them less than 1 cm across living in the stream here.
I couldn't work out why there was a tiny dam across this stream or why there is a big bung in a big hole above a lower pipe. I would not like to be the chap who takes the plug out.
Then a big rocking rock it didn't move when I tried but looks like it could be rocked by a few people, rather near a big drop though. The more I look at it the more it looks like an alien ant head.
Not sure what it is but just as I was thinking wow wilderness no windmills, this appeared.
Paths are very well marked not much chance of going off track, reminded me a bit of Dwayne Dibley and his spray can.
Not sure if these are heathers but they look like tree type of heathers and are in full flower in mid March
And close up they almost look like heather
And then it started raining again so no more photos.
