From Raglan we drove back to the Wye valley for a final afternoon walk. We parked on a wooded hillside above the river and a short stroll through those woods brought us to a series of….
…limestone caves and arches. Just the thing for a walk with children. They particularly liked this…
…small tunnel, which they could climb up to and crawl through.
The largest of the caves…
…is, almost inevitably, King Arthur’s Cave. We had a thorough poke around inside, but didn’t find an sleeping knights awaiting England’s hour of need. (Hard to take a penalty in armour anyway, I should think.)
We did find some small calcite features…
Next on the itinerary was the top of the Seven Sisters Rocks. TBH and I walked along the river below these, years ago, and I remember them being quite impressive.
The views from the top are certainly excellent.
Of course, there’s always one who has to go that bit closer to the edge than everyone else…
A stroll down through the woods brought us to ‘The Biblins’, where there is a suspension bridge over the Wye…
The river was brown and swollen and running very high…
We’d seen few other walkers in the woods, but the riverside path was very popular. It passes through more woods and some riverside meadows. We watched tree-trunks chugging past at a fair rate of knots.
Also a crow riding a raft of tangled branches, like a corvine Huckleberry Finn.
In normal circumstances, just short of Symonds Yat East, there would be a small island in the river.
Not today…
And under normal circumstances it’s possible to cross the Wye here on a small chain ferry. If I remember correctly from our previous visit, it’s one of the bar-staff at a local hostelry who pulls the ferry across the river. You can just make out the green boat in the photo below…
Hardly surprisingly, with the river running so high, the ferry wasn’t operating. It had been our plan to cross the river and climb back to the cars via a different path and more caves, but it wasn’t to be. I suppose we shall feel duty-bound to come back and repeat this walk some time. Damn! Leaving the others to enjoy ice-creams in the sun, Andy and I returned via the Biblins bridge and a more direct track back to the cars.
It was a lovely end to what had been, despite the mostly dodgy weather, a really enjoyable trip. Thanks to the Surfnslide crew for putting us up, and putting up with us, it was much appreciated.
Beating The Bounds 