Only for the Adventurous

This part of Blacka is inaccessible for the tenderfooted, the trainer wearers, those who draw the line at getting their feet wet and their clothes scratched. It is also one of the most rewarding parts. You simply do not know what you are going to find here. The sad, prescriptive, desk bound set of conservationists will hate this for its rampant growth of all that they don't like and can't control. I just pray that they never get their dreadful vehicles and machines down here and try to tame it.

For some time at the top of the slope above a fox had been looking down on us, his colouring showing vivid in the morning sun. He was camera shy however.

The wilding of this little valley is one of the greatest assets of Blacka Moor and serves to highlight the benefits of leaving nature to go its own way. Red deer are at home here and various other mammals put in an occasional appearance. The fallen trees and the untamed streams and falls overhung by thorn and holly make progress difficult. But often rewards and difficulty go together.

The worst thing that has happened here is that SWT's ghastly cows got into the valley last year and spent a lot of their time around the stream. Their huge overlarge hooves and heavy frames created swampiness where the ground had previously been walkable. Yet these beasts, supposedly there to 'manage' the vegetation (utter nonsense), can have no purpose in this area.