Crinkle Gill

I think I prefer the first extra, but somehow it had to be a shot from within the depths of the Gill today.
A friend recently reminded me of this special place, it must be two decades and more since I last visited. It has to be a contender for the best hidden gem in the Lake District.... but is is a well guarded secret. Access to the Gill, and the truly stunning gorge it runs through (I tried and tried but there was just no way I could capture the scale, 10ft wide in places with steep dripping 100ft cliffs either side) is guarded by an actually difficult climbing problem - a delicate Traverse on tiny wet holds above a pool my 4ft walking pole couldn't touch the bottom of.....
To make it more fun all the holds slope just the right way, I managed into the gorge OK, but it would be a swim back out if you couldn't continue!

Eventually, via a delicate traverse out of the spectacular Amphitheatre, cascading waterfalls everywhere, you emerge into Mickledore (not the Scafell one, that would be witchcraft...) about as special a place as I know anywhere.

I'd gone seeking the chance to meditate. I can lose myself easily now in the simplicity and complexity of movement, I can let my subconscious work in the repetitive numbness of swimming, but I wanted to see if I could focus on one issue, bring all of me to it, in the sort of place I feel most inspired.
It half worked, I may actually have chosen somewhere too good - I kept looking at lines to climb, places to pitch a tent, view to absorb. But I did make progress with the issue I wanted to address, so I guess I'll keep trying.

So many words and I've not even mentioned the climbers Traverse, the river of stones or the Great Slab... Let alone the chap with the twisted knee I helped off The Band as the gloaming faded through dusk to dark.

Soul fed, feet sore, mind refreshed.

Philosophy Friday
We are the cosmos made conscious and life is the means by which the universe understands itself.
Brian Cox.