Day 16 - Lord Stones to Blakey Ridge

Yeah, the weather has cleared making for lovely walking on the North Yorkshire moors.  Heather as far as the eye can see.  This has to be one of the most purple landscapes in the world.  There are grouse everywhere, popping up out of bushes at the edge of the path, giving me a fright, then letting lose with their gurgling laugh.  Grouse have a warped sense of humour.

A sheep with the dreaded Blue Bum disease

Ancient boundary marker between two lord's lands.

For anyone who is wondering how difficult grouse shooting is - here is an unmagnified mobile phone photo of a grouse (centre of picture - not to be confused with the sheep in the right of picture).  Grouse have to be some of the stupidest / tamest birds in the world.  As long as you can hit a target the size of a chicken, with a shot gun, at a range of 4m, you'll be fine grouse shooting.  We found that mostly grouse just ran down the path in front of us.

Toward the end of the day we come across two 15cm long animals locked in combat on the path.  Subsequent research on the internet identified them as weasles.  We sat and watched the fight for five minutes.  It was like watching a gladitorial contest - between two socks.

Distance walked today: 20km