Yesterday with the family we walked in Upper Swaledale around Muker and up into Swinnergill Kirk a small gorge but great fun to walk through. The Kirk bit indicates that repressed Catholics back in the 17th century used to hold their religious gatherings in a cave just above the gorge. We saw the Yoredale series of rock in all it's glory , a sequence of limestone sandstone and shale like a rock sandwich. The gorge had changed from when we were there a few years back and it had a great feeling of instability because of the rock falls that had occurred. Clifford put his hand on one large boulder as he steadied himself and it started to slide down so he got out of the way pretty quickly. Clambering through the gorge was fun and we saw the two shells of a small bivalve fossil sticking out of the limestone when we climbed over the waterfall. We walked back high up on the East side of the valley a walk I had never done before in all of my 40 years of going up there. Taking care seemed to be the order of the day because the path went straight to a 30 foot drop into another hidden gorge on the hillside . Well, at least I know that Miles always takes care when he is leading. A good responsibility for him. Coffee and ice cream followed at Muker , Fish n chips at Richmond and double Star Trek when we got home. A great walk and a good end to the holiday.