DofE again

DofE features highly in our lives from the gold practice in the lakes around Easter until the gold qualifier at the start  of July, this year is no different, except when we got home at 1 a.m. I didn't have to worry about getting up for work. Our group went to the Yorkshire Dales, from Ingleton to West Burton by way of Malham & Kettlewell. A wonderful area if the weather's kind, which it was.

 Stunning scenery, flora & fauna totally different from our acidic stuff and otherworldly rock formations like Gordale Scar, which had a walk-on part, so to speak, in The Dark Crystal & Malham Cove

with the almost unique limestone pavements. So much better there than the fragments you used to be able to buy from garden centres for rockeries.
We passed Gaping Ghyll, a tiny hole leading down to a cavern which could easily hide St Pauls. Imagine being the first potholers to have found this after many dead-ends, I hope they had a good stout rope! The steep side is fenced off, but you can see down it from the stream. There are many small ones, some easily accessible. I think I'm a bit old&stiff to go down them now, but dabbled when I was a student.

We saw many "Common" Blue butterflies, sadly not very nowadays as much habitat has been lost, but this one was dozy as newly emerged

Another new flower! A mountain pansy, I've seen the little yellow & purple heartsease many times, most recently in my lawn & vegetable patch, it chooses to avoid the flowerbeds, but this bigger smiley-face one is a first.

Our group did really well, we were all set to get home at a reasonable time when a frantic phone message sent us back for the other group as Andy had been helicoptered off Pen y Ghent with a broken leg, leaving half his girls stranded & almost resigned to another night's camping. We all wish him a speedy recovery.