Rusland Valley
Still wet, still windy and yet another named storm, Imogen,
is approaching.
Thankfully there was a unpublished lull before her arrival
and a dry spell loitered over the north west for a day.
As wind threatened to buffett walkers off the tops,
if not surround in a dismal layer of grey, so we stuck to the lower fringes of Cumbria.
Sandwiched between the hills and the sea,
rivers meander across flood plains and
small drumlin hills host clean, green woodlands.
Heading a little south from Newby Bridge we soon swung west and over Canny Hill to Backbarrow.
Splashing through muddy paths and tracks before dropping down to the River Leven as it headed seawards.
‘Fit to burst’ an apt description of the river banks. It lapped up to the footpaths and around the roots of trees. Having left a trail of debris along the wrong side of the path from a few weeks, or was it days, ago.
Clearly within the tidal range we watched that interesting phenomenon as the wind and tide pushed the water up stream rather than down and headed up Rusland Valley alongside Rusland Pool.
Flood plains flood, and so there was a challenge picking a way over to Ealing Hearth from Fish House Bridge.
After almost, but not quite, getting wet the only steep bit of the day, over the hills to Town End to meet some Herdies and their brown faced cousins.
Not sure what breed these were.
Before we drifted up towards Finsthwatie and back to Newby Bridge.
The map