Rilla Mill and Henwood - without too much rain

Guess what? The weather forecast was wrong and we had a day with hardly any rain. Not no rain, just not as much as expected. Hardly anything in fact. Another good stretch of the legs.

A very varied route, starting in Rilla Mill and walking up to close to Minions via the Marke Valley. We then headed to Henwood and went back to Rilla Mill, through Darley. It was around 7 miles and I'd class it as moderate - there was a fair bit of uphill

A panoramic view as we leave Rilla Mill. Kit Hill is the bump in the distance and, for one fleeting moment, the sky has a few blue patches

A muddy track through the woodland. Nothing special, just a typically post-winter folorn looking stretch of trees. The buds are not yet breaking and the undergrowth has yet to shoot forth with the flowers of wild garlic (no flowers but we could smell it) and bluebells. Joys to come

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A muddy track at the start of the Marke Valley. This would, undoubtedly, have been used to access the mines

I don't know who was more surprised, me or them? Not what I expected to come across whilst sloshing up the track

Buildings and stack associated with the Salisbury Shaft within the Marke Valley complex. Copper and ti wenre the main metals extracted and the hey days of the mines were in the early and mid 1800s. It's an area for pottering around, avoiding falling down any open shafts, the various remains and trying to put form to function.

It may be muddy, it may be wet but the air is fresh and clean. Lots of Spanish Moss hanging from the trees is a good indication of a pure atmosphere

Further up the Marke Valley and entering the domain of the Phoenix mine complex. Here are the remains of two circular buddles used in the metal ore seperation and purification process. Water is an essential part of this and the nearby stream would have provided what was necessary - and then some

The photograph belies have steep and ackward this set of steps were to negotiate. The good news was that they pretty much coincided with the highest point of the walk. After that, it was all downhill - mostly

Some of the buildings associated with the Phoenix United Mines. That on the left housed two rather large boilers at one time. But, this time around, we didn't explore further as lunch beckoned

Lunch stop with a view - a reservoir associated with the Phoenix Mine at Minions. A restful spot and, just as we were finishing up, the temperature dropped and the only 'real' shower of the day came down

A verdant track dropping back towards the Phoenix mine. A lovely wall of moss covered stones on the left - a very vibrant green

A short stretch of lane walking towards Henwood village, with the granite peak of Sharp Tor dominating the view. Ascending it was not on our route for today but it must be some time as we've never done it

If you have plenty of granite to hand, why not use it to block up an old field entrance. In this particular case, I think the uprights were 'repurposed' from an adjacent dilapidated barn

Mmmm, this is what I call a proper puddle! Requiring a little deft climbing along the bank on the left

Just a very pleasant pastoral view, looking across to Kit Hill in the distance. It's probably 10 miles from here to our house which, with binoculars, we could probably make out

Walking down through Darley Wood, we came across a few numbered nest boxes. These weren't for birds but were part of a dormouse monitoring project. I wish them every success (and, thank you, Mary, for the information)

Another unexpected encounter - four domes associated with the Caradon Observatory, belonging to the Caradon Astronomical Society. Situated at the edge of the Bodmin Moor Dark Sky area, they are ideally placed to view clear skies, unpolluted with light from urban areas. They also seem to be ideally placed, with a telescope at the correct inclination, to look into our bedroom

Not the sort of road sign that we normally see in these parts. They appear on the lanes around the Lower Lake Shooting Grounds - clay pigeon shooting rather than anything more objectionable

And let's finish with the sound of running water.