Mee Outdoors Photography

There are different kinds of paths you find when hiking, with the highlights being:

The Good, Official Path. These are clear and easy to see regardless of weather and tend to behave fairly consistently.

An Established Right of Way. These routes may be a bit hairy at times but, you know, it’s generally obvious where you’re off if you keep your eyes on the land and check in with a map regularly.

A General Direction of Travel... Not ‘a way’ at all, but may hide natural wonders and other gems that can only be discovered if you intend to Go A Bit Rogue.

Unsurprisingly, I’m musing over the third here.

Do you ever look across the countryside and wonder ‘what’s over there…’ especially when there’s no obvious way to where ‘there’ is?

I used to do this all the time as a kid, relishing any opportunity to pick up and just walk for the sake of it.

Doubly unsurprisingly, this is something I find I often luxuriate in as an adult, even through the actual wandering is far from luxurious.

In my experience, it doesn’t take long in the Northern national parks to wander off the main path and into a version of wonderland, where even the sheep don’t trot.

Our route on this day was simple: follow to the path to the intake, and follow river into the hills to find… well, whatever may happen to be there.

First step off The Good, Official Path felt like a leap into another world. With the richest vegetation stretching across the land and within the river.

Every millimeter seemingly (or legitimately) buzzing with one form of life or another.

Rather than looking towards wild country, I began immersed into it.

Before long, land was futile, so we walked up river for no other reason than to see what what there. And then to delight in just how glorious this particular pocket of the natural world was.

As a general note to myself though, it is not best to do this in early July.

The bracken has already developed an unhelpful attitude, and the horseflies were quiet ravenous. Type two fun in that respect, but I couldn’t change these adventures for the world.