Despite the very pessimistic weather forecast, Mum and I headed to the Mendips for a rainy day adventure.

We set off in a mixture of overcast skies and sunshine from The Rock of Ages in Burrington Combe, past the caves at Sidcot Swallet and up to the trig point at Beacon Batch. We soaked up the views while we had them, as we knew we were unlikely to seen them again on our way back later in the day.

We then headed down past Charterhouse Farm, and took refuge from the wind behind a farm wall to sit and eat our lunch.

The dog, Padfoot, off course tried to help….

This footpath was busy on this day, as there was a running race routed through the farm so we cheered them along when they came past whilst we sat on our bottoms!

After lunch, we hiked down to Black Rock, before adventuring up The West Mendip Way on the North side of the Gorge. It got super misty and atmospheric hiking along here- which I loved! It was humid though so we felt like we were boiling in a bag with our waterproofs on.

It was cool to see the gorge from the North side as neither of us had gone this way before. (Disclaimer: I potentially might have gone this way during my Bronze DofE but that was over 10 years ago and I can’t remember it that well!)

To have a respite from the rain, and a sugar boost, we had a hot chocolate and a shortbread biscuit in Café Gorge.

We then walked into Cheddar before picking up a footpath to Tuttors Hill and past Batcombe Quarry.

We then encountered cows! Thankfully, we had a positive experience (which was a relief after having recently been chased by cows on a run). We were feeling quite anxious as there were soooooo many cows in the field and some had young calves with them. We also had the dog with us too, so we just kept calm and quiet and walked pretty swiftly through the fields. Thankfully the one cow that did take notice didn’t charge, and it only started following us right near the end of the field where we had the safety of a gate.

Still a bit buzzed by adrenaline, we walked past Tynings Farm and headed up towards Black Down at top speed. Instead of going straight over Black Down, we went via the woods of Rowberrow Warren. The woods also held the mist which looked super cool.

Then we descended back to The Rock of Ages, totalling our walk at just under 20km with 676 meters of elevation gain.

Thanks to Mum for being an adventure buddy, even on very very soggy Saturday!