Symonds Yat, Herefordshire

Its June again - this year has gone so quick :) But its lets go for a stroll and this time we all met up at Symonds Yat, which is in Herefordshire but very close to the Welsh Border. With the promise of Caves, rivers to negotiate, Peregrine Falcons - and fair weather the turnout was pretty good. Meeting at the Symonds Yat east forest commision car park - although I did get lost!! Helen, Paul, Helen, Adam, Gillian and her friend, Edd, Marta, Jon, and Wendy were present :)



We began walking away southwards towards the river wye, and downhill :) Taking a quick short cut to the rocky outcrop which looks over the valley. Far below was the Saracens Head - going there later :) Also there were plenty of canoeists battling against the currents and branches - it seems that the recent rainfall had washed debris down into the gorge. Taking a few photographs we headed on back through the woods and then down next to a stream running quickly off into the distance. Studying the map I knew there was a crossing at some point and we then stumbled on it - a pretty cool wire suspension bridge :) Had to jump up and down on it - although some of the members of the group were not impressed :)



We walked by the river for a while and passed a few old houses. We also passed through a campsite - although it looked pretty flooded! very pretty place for pitching a tent - but the tent might float away :) Back into the woods again we went. Quite a steep climb, it flattened out and we came up across lots of little caves. Investigating into King Arthurs cave I saw a bat, before he/she fleeted off as I startled it :(



We carried on a bit further up and out of the woods and ended up at a quarry where we sat down for some lunch. A few of us tried out our free climbing skills up the side of the quarry and waved from the top :) After passing some old derelict huts and another caravan site - we headed back into the woods and back down to the river and back across the bridge - checking to make sure there were no trolls under it :) We then headed up towards the pub for a pint/cup of tea!

We then had to climb back up the hill behind the pubs to the carpark - but the views were worth it. We crossed over the road and up towards another viewing spot where there were several RSPB volunteers with cameras and binoculars showing us some falcons :)

The weather staying on the sunny side, this was a great walk and definitely will return back here at some point..