Doves and hawks

Day 12: a beautiful day. We bagged our first rocky peak and highest point to date (Thorpe Cloud, 287m), walked up Dovedale, which was just as gorgeous as I had been led to believe. Great company from Lucy, Charlie and Jevin the dog, who all finished the day in fine form. And no backpacks.

 Bird life did us proud: dippers, peregrine falcons, mandarin ducks, grey wagtails, treecreepers (heard not seen), redstart (ditto) and more.

After a gourmet salmon roll eaten on a fallen tree by the Dove, we supplemented our nutrition with ice creams at Milldale, and have now eaten even more gourmet paella courtesy of Lucy.

On to more of the Peak District tomorrow - meanwhile apologies for the terrible pun on Track of the Day but I do love “Dove sono”.