Reading Time: 3 minutes

3D animation of photographers at Malham Cove

A few weeks ago I got the opportunity to visit one of my favourite Yorkshire Dales locations and for the first time it wasn’t even my suggestion! But if you’re striding out in God’s own county, you can’t be surprised if the heavens open and drop 10 gallons of water on you from time to time!

Drinks break at Malham as the rain starts

We had arranged to meet friends for dinner at the Lister Arms, Malham to celebrate their completion of the Three Peaks Challenge. By happy coincidence I’d been planning on doing a Photo Walk Social at Malham, so I figured we’d arrive nice and early and I’d drag the family up to Malham Cove for a recce. Not that there was much dragging, as all the family leap at any opportunity to go exploring the outdoors!

By luck, we managed to catch the RSPB on their last weekend based at Malham Cove. Using their telescopes we were able to observe two Peregrine falcons hanging out above the cove, sublime!

Reluctantly, we left the Peregrines behind and continued our ascent to the top of the cove.  Having made it to the top without too much drama, no sooner had we parked our backsides for a breather than the rain started.

The first few light drops were refreshing and quite welcome after our humid clamber up the hill. Then out of nowhere someone flipped a switch and we were in the middle of a monsoon. The rain was so heavy I could barely hear myself think.

The choice was to either head back down, very slowly, in the heavy rain or wait and sit it out. While I was laboriously and inefficiently explaining the rationale behind my suggestion of staying sat on a cold limestone floor with 10 gallons of water pouring on our heads; a gallant soul marched up, relieved me of my camera bag and exclaimed “Let me give you a hand, well I presume you’re heading back down, aren’t you?”. Terrified to appear unappreciative of this man’s gallantry, I reluctantly let out a “that’s very kind, thanks” and winced every time my precious camera bag swung off his shoulder and into the dry stone wall!

By the time we had negotiated our one year old and delicate Lurcher down, the clouds had passed. I was handed back “my precious” from our shiny knight, the price of its safe (ish) return was to allow a look of “you silly people” to be received with humility and without protest (very pricey indeed).

As we slowly meandered back, taking care not to cross paths with our rescuer for an embarrassingly awkward second time, we started to dry off. And by the time we made it to the pub we all felt we had very much earned our supper but maybe not quite so much as our friends who’d just completed the three peaks!

If you are interested in the  Walking Photographer Social at Malham please visit the Photo Walk Social page here