23. Monsal Head 31st August 2013

Parked at White Lodge picnic park again, this time heading across the A6 over the wall, picking up the obvious path which wound north alongside the river Wye. A stunning area on a beautiful hot sunny day and as stunning areas do it attracted plenty of visitors. Our light fleece Jackets quickly became fashionable skirts and prompted several comments from the passing walkers, ‘ Beautiful isn’t it!’… ‘ Georgeous! ’ and..’ It’s very hot!’ The wier come waterfall was very picturesque and we took a good few photos. Soon the impressive viaduct was upon us. We made our way up the stepped path to Monsal head where we enjoyed some liquid refreshment at the Stables bar, I think it was a prince Philip or some other Wincle brewed beer and a fruit based cool drink for the lady. On again along the high path and managed to find a clearing just off the path to eat our sandwiches and have a flask of tea from which we took in the fantastic views from that position. From there we carried on to Fins Wood where the path seemed to disappear. We could see the river below and where we had walked earlier from here but could not see a clear path down, we had gone wrong somewhere. There seemed to be at least three paths on the OS map but we couldn’t identify them. We decided to scramble down through the brambles which wasn’t very pleasant especially on such a severe slope.So glad Julie insisted on shorts this day otherwise we might have missed out on the holistic benefits of nettle stings and bramble scratches. The pain didn’t last too long and after a short distance I couldn’t feel my legs anyway and well you just get used to falling over after a while. After much effort and a couple of slips and falls we finally made it onto a proper path. Left was a private path so we had to virtually go right back to the nearest bridge to get across onto the other side of the river then head back along the path. I noticed that my fleece come fashionable skirt was covered in tiny sticky bobs which I had collected as we waded our way through the tall grasses. Putting this misfortune to good use I thought it was time for a dare… besides we needed cheering up after the difficult painful decent we had just encountered. The challenge was to see if you could flick a stickybob onto a passing walker without them noticing. Just as I was explaining the rules a party of slow walkers came into sight and one of them was wearing a cardigan( in this weather!)…Ideal ! I bottled it but Julie said she thought she could manage it. Impressed, I relaxed and looked forward in anticipation as to how she was going to pull it off…or rather how she was going to flick it on ! I had to wait until we had overtaken them and didn’t dare look round until we were a good way ahead. The excitement was killing me! She simply pulled her fist into her side indicating that it was a success. I was blown away !