Days in Symonds Yat and on to Oxfordshire

Symonds Yat and the River Wye

Our second week of housesitting in the beautiful Symonds Yat looking after four cats, four hens and two sheep, with time to spare for days out:

Saturday was time to take mum back, and we’d left it till Saturday as she’d been invited for an eye appointment at the QE Hospital. We think this was the referral made by the GP between private appointments one and two, but hey, we’ll take it. He had a good look and has ordered three more tests, as well as blood tests carried out on the day, all good if they ever contact her for appointments... A big supermarket shop and then we returned to Symonds Yat, it felt like a long day, but well worth it.

This is a little section of the O.S. map of Symonds Yat showing just how many walking trails there are. We're in the centre towards the top, just left of the hotel marked by the river. Biblins bridge passes over the river at the bottom of this map, so we walked from the house down the hill to the river (150m descent), back round the river to the hand pulled ferry (near the top) and back up hill to the house

Homecooked smoked salmon eggs benedict - fabulous!

The weather forecast for the week was rubbish, so despite having bought two new climbing ropes we decided in the end not to take the climbing gear with us, the car is full as it is. This however was probably a mistake. Sunday I wanted to chill and watch movies, we’ve been watching the Olympics highlights every day, which is great, really enjoying it, but it’s not quite the same as a movie, but it was sunny, so we had to go out. Not a long walk, but everywhere is downhill from the house, which makes it uphill on the way back! Then we had to do our own shopping. We hadn’t been keeping up with the hens so we thought we must try harder, so bacon and mushroom Quiche, he did really well, it was yummy, but he’d slightly overdone the filling, so the leftover that wouldn’t fit in his homemade pastry case I turned into spaghetti carbonara. It was a big quiche, so there was three meals, I did have to make a beef curry as something had leaked on the packet, so it needed to be done. But that was the only egg free day, as we then got adventurous and did eggs benedict with asparagus and smoked salmon. Very luxurious, but how can you make hollandaise sauce, and poach the perfect eggs all at the same time?

Panthro cat looking through the window pretending she's locked out - she isn't!

The ruins of Tintern Abbey and the Wye from Devils Pulpit

With every day being forecast to be rubbish, but dawning sunny, we had to keep going out, so we went back to Tintern and walked to the Devils Pulpit. That had some serious 'up', just to make a change. Here's a short Relive video with lots of photos of our walk: Click here

We then drove back to Yat rock and did a walk from there to English Bicknor, down through some really pretty woods to the river before coming back up again through farmland. Have a look at our short Relive video with lots of photos of our walk. Click here 

Brian standing on the actual rock of Devils Pulpit. It doesn't look much, but it's actually a separate pinnacle with a short easy scramble to get up on top of it. So legend has it that the Devil himself preached from here to tempt the monks of Tintern from their holy path, without success. The abbey was built in 1131 and became one of the most prosperous abbeys in Wales (The abbey is in Wales, but the Devils Pulpit, being the other side of the River Wye, is actually in England). Ironically, it was the 'Defender of the Faith' Henry VIII that removed its powers for good in 1536 during the Reformation

The log cafe at Yat Rock on our walk to English Bicknor

Then he found a walk from the house past where we had to go to feed Cheetara, different woods, across the river on the hand pull ferry, along the riverbank, over Biblins Bridge and back up via Arthur’s cave. We met a couple as we came out of the woods asking us if Arthur’s cave was up there, it wasn’t, they were a long way in the wrong direction, but we had a lovely walk and chat with them, back to, and across the river before we carried on to the cave, but they arrived back at their car so went off somewhere else. Here's yet another short video with lots of photos of this walk: Click here

Walking down to the river through quite lush vegetation

And down to the river at a clearing in the trees

So Thursday, finally, it rained, and rained, so we actually had a day in and I got my movie, after we’d cleaned ready for our departure on Friday!

We thoroughly enjoyed our sit, though Wily was the star for me, he went to Brian for strokes, and yesterday he stayed in his little house for fuss, out of the rain, without overly worrying that he was trapped. The hens would come running and follow you like you were the pied piper, and the sheep were very easy and just made us laugh.

Symonds Yat is an amazingly scenic gorge. The Wye sweeps almost back on itself as it circumnavigates the hard limestone of Yat rock. A railway used to run along the river down there then head off through a tunnel under Yat rock and reappear far off to the left to pick up the river again after is big detour round the rock. The track is now a walking trail and the tunnel sealed off

Now we are near Faringdon in Oxfordshire with Puck, the cutest little Burmese cat. Loves his cuddles and fuss who is going to be a joy. It’s only a week which we already know isn’t going to be long enough.

We came across these old lime kilns near English Bicknor. They had become completely overgrown, but are being cleaner and restored by volunteers. They were used to fire the limestone at 1000 deg C and were one of many in the valley, all sited next to small quarries

This is a little wren, the UK's smallest bird. They have a very distinctive upturned tail, but it's obscured in this photo by a tree branch. Being small they are very quick and trying to get a decent photograph is incredibly difficult, this was the best I got

This is a very zoomed in photo of all the people on Yat Rock. I took it from the same place that the photo three pictures up was taken from. You can't see the people in that photo, but they are there! In the photo three up Yat Rock is about three quarters of the way along the skyline from the left. It's a fabulous vantage point giving views all around

Little Wily cat getting quite confident allowing strokes from both of us

This was the walk we did from the house and this is on the hand pulled ferry across the River Wye at Ye Old Ferry Inn. It's a steep walk down the hill, we went across the river here, walked along the west bank, back over Biblins bridge and back up hill via King Arthurs Cave

The rapids of the river Wye! This is as fast and as much white water as you get on the Wye. It is nevertheless fairly exciting if you're a relative kayak beginner and good training ground for kayak slalom racing. Who knows, we might be looking at future Olympic champions here! 

Walking over the Biblins bridge. There are very few bridges in Symonds Yat, there is a road bridge over some 4 or 5 miles up one way, but no other road bridge the other way until you reach Monmouth in Wales. This footbridge was built by the forestry commission and the only other ways across are by two hand pulled ferries. We went over on the one above, but the other one is not running at the moment. Other than that, you swim across or hire a canoe!

Biblins youth campsite. It's much bigger than this and there are many scout and community youth groups camping here. Looks like a lot of fun, camping, campfires, kayaking, hiking and climbing. Proper outdoor activities!

The steep uphill walk from the river up to King Arthurs Cave. She's still smiling at this stage!

Finally at King Arthurs Cave. It's not particularly amazing, but interesting enough

You can walk inside, but not very far. This is about as far as you can get

And this is Brian taking the photo of Jackie above

There are a few other small caves along the walk, I wonder if they all join up underground. There might be little holes going off into the rock, too small to squeeze through by the look of it, so it's quite possible

So today (Friday) it was time to say goodbye to the pussy cats, hens and sheep of Symonds Yat and head off to Longcot in Oxfordshire, North East of Swindon to look after Puck cat for a week. Lovely little cat, house and village and lots of new countryside to explore (including the 3000 year old Uffington white horse hill figure). We've hit a very windy spell in the weather just now, hope it drops enough for us to walk to the top of a hill!

Puck cat seems very friendly and approachable. This was within an hour of us arriving - we're going to like it here!