Tuesday in the Borders
Tuesday 13th April 2021
A packed itinerary today and I think the best day of our holiday. After breakfast at the cottage we headed to nearby Puzzlewood for an atmospheric wander around. Next lunch at the Saracens Head in Symonds Yat, followed by an after lunch walk up to Symonds Yat Rock. We then headed to Usk to visit Vera's grave before heading on to Undy to see Bec, Dave and Jessica in the garden of their new house.
Forest of Dean and Wye Valley April 2021
John's Pictures

08:19:02
The view from one of the bedrooms at the cottage this morning - a frosty start to the day!

10:06:10
Miniature ponies on the way into Puzzlewood.

10:06:49

10:09:04
A tree at the entrance to Puzzlewood.

10:10:57
Heading into the woods...

10:12:30
From here on I became rather snap happy and I won't attempt to caption them all...

10:12:59

10:13:34
Chie and Erika in Puzzlewood.

10:13:46
I believe these moss covered stones are locally called Scowles, and this site was formerly used for mining iron ore, thus the unusual landscape.

10:14:55
The trees since regrew after the mining ceased, create this otherworldly place.

10:15:01

10:16:33
Erika was also taking lots of photos as we went around.

10:17:10
Not entirely sure the sense of the place comes across in the photos but it was pretty magical.

10:18:29
You take the low bridge, and I'll take the high bridge?

10:18:40
Wild garlic!

10:19:40
I think the walkways through the wood are nicely made - all using higgledy piggledy branches.

10:19:54
Chie and Erika on a bridge.

10:19:57
I think this was the aforementioned high bridge.

10:20:59
Looks quite jungley here.

10:21:54
Nice bit of sunlight shining through the trees now, helping the jungle theme.

10:23:42
Erika wandering through the enchanting landscape.

10:24:31
Some steps and some moss covered rocks - or should I say Scowles?

10:29:11

10:29:36
There was loads of wild garlic around the wood, but somehow it seemed inappropriate to pick it here.

10:32:51
Erika having a bit of a sit down.

10:38:00
I think this is at the furthest extreme of the wood now, before we turned round and followed a different path back to the entrance.

10:42:35

10:46:25
The return route took us through more "valleys" and chasms between the Scowles.

10:48:23
I brought my little tripod along and used it to take this self timer shot of the three of us.

10:49:33
Erika also used it to take a picture with her ipod.

10:50:03

10:50:41
I like the effect of the sunlight here, even though it's a bit washed out.

10:52:03

10:52:34

10:52:43

10:53:31
I thought these reddish taints in the rock might be iron ore deposits?

10:53:35

10:54:24

10:54:52
More valleys and chasms here.

10:55:27
Some more wild garlic, and an interesting white flower.

10:55:33

10:56:00

10:56:31
More flowers.

10:57:28
Now this sign fits the song a bit better.

10:58:10

10:58:35

10:59:41

11:00:33

11:04:11

11:08:10
A last parting shot of a huge covering of wild garlic as we were leaving Puzzlewood.

12:15:18
For lunch we headed to Symond's Yat, and significantly our first pub visit of 2021. This is at the Saracens Head.

12:15:50
Erika reviewing some of her photos from Puzzlewood while we waited for our food to arrive.

12:19:06
The three of us at the pub. Didn't take a picture of our food as I wanted to just get on with it and eat it!

12:55:10
Views of the river Wye from Symonds Yat.

12:55:33
Weather looks a bit nicer facing this direction.

13:03:30
We decided to walk up to Yat Rock after lunch.

13:09:20
Another sign pointing to Yat Rock.

13:10:38
Chie and Erika pausing to swap shoes.

13:13:46
Some violet coloured flowers (are these in fact violets?) growing next to a mossy rock.

13:14:33
The path up to Yat Rock, and the girls seem to be messing about with footwear once again.

13:15:35
Oddly a log with lots of coins stuck into the cracks. Why?

13:19:49
I found a patch of wild garlic and paused to pick a few leaves.

13:24:29

13:25:26
More flowers.

13:33:18
At the top we stopped for an ice cream. I'm not sure why we're all sitting so far apart here!

13:33:23
Another attempt with me actually in shot now.

13:43:00
Erika and her ice cream.

13:45:28
The view from near the cafe.

13:47:52
More views from Symond's Yat Rock.

13:50:31

13:50:57

13:52:43

13:53:12

13:53:19

13:53:35

13:53:42
I particularly liked this view. I think that's Coppett Hill and Ross on Wye in the distance.

13:55:13

13:57:44
The bend in the Wye where a scene in one of the Harry Potter films was filmed.

15:18:23
Later on we stopped off in Usk to visit Vera's grave. I thought this blossom by the entrance to the church yard looked nice.

15:21:03
Erika made a daisy chain and left it for Vera.

15:21:05
...and this tiny little posy.

15:21:48
The church.

15:26:52
We had a little walk around Usk, this is one of the houses Vera used to live in there.

17:16:02
Erika and Jessica in the garden of her new home in Undy.

17:38:06
Cherry blossom in their garden.

19:51:38
A bit of a sunset later on.

21:58:43
When we got back to the cottage in Clearwell I had a go at night photography. The trees are obviously in the way a bit here, and there's some patchy cloud, but those things aside there's a decent number of stars here.