Nice Tri'.

Well, they said rain, but look what greeted us when we drove to the Oldham area, Dovestone reservoir, to be precise. A LOVELY day, with blue skies and those photogenic white clouds. This is the reservoir and dam.

This young lad was enjoying the steep, grassy bank of the dam. How old do you get before you stop wanting to do this sort of thing?

 Looking across the reservoir to the Dovestone Moss moors we would be on in an hour or so, but first, we had a special place to visit!

The climb progressed beyond Dovestone to the two reservoirs higher up the valley, Yeoman Hey and Greenfield. Notice, the skies are not as clear now

Sue and Yeoman Hey reservoir.

As we were close to Greater Manchester, the sky was busy with air traffic all day.

The banks were crowded with flowers, a lot of these orchids were in full bloom.

As we made our way ever higher, our first goal was coming into view.

A glance back saw where our efforts had brought us to.........

.....and a glance forwards saw the trinnacle! This triple fingered rock was where we were headed first, today.

A small feeder stream for the reservoirs.

A zoomed shot of the Trinnacle, we would skirt round the left, and tackle the stiff climb up onto the moor.

We went by way of this river, tumbling over the rocks. See that steep bank on the right? That’s what we had to climb up.

Looking back down from halfway up the climb.

Sue, hands on hips, mops up the metres as she pushes to the top.

Our reward was this stunning view, and the Trinnacle. By now, the weather was starting to resemble the forecast a lot more, and it was clouding over very quickly.

Better get up there, before the stone gets wet and slippery.

Steady there.........

On the moor top is this memorial to James Platteson, an MP who was accidentally shot while shooting (bet the grouse laughed!!).

As you can see, it was now getting pretty bad. We’d sat in drizzle while we ate lunch, and now had to decide whether to carry on round the top and walk along that ridge on the opposite side of the valley or go down. I chose the latter, as it was getting steadily worse by the minute.

Just time to pay our respects at a cairn for two climbers who died in the Dolomites,

We left the top of the moors, and returned to the valley floor.

The weather now was slightly improving. I wondered if we’d been a bit hasty?

That ridge is where we would have been if we’d stuck to the original plan. The views from Slack head brow are immense and fantastic, but you DO need a good day (more like it was this morning).

The cloud was heavy now over the reservoir too.

We spotted this very artistic gate. It was obviously nature park-themed, and had all sorts of birds and animals & activities depicted on it.

This must be the best and most ornate gate latch I’ve ever seen – a frog and the head of a Heron.

We got back to the car, set off for home, JUST as the deluge came. We HAD made the right choice after all, as it just got worse and worse.