It had rained a lot in the night and we had to pick our way through the muddy fields.

The rain had just stopped and it was quite hard going up the steep hill.

Clouds still covered the sky as we crossed the fields at the top.

From this vantage point we had a view of Rudyard Lake…

…and out over Leek…

…and a view towards the Roaches.

We headed down into the valley…

…at times the ground was very slippy, as Alan can testify!

At the bottom we followed the path between two streams…

…where the water rushed along from the recent rain.

A solitary duck patrolled the stream…

…and the ponds were fuller than normal.

It was easy going along the path.

A highland cow inspected us as we passed by.

We circled back by Rudyard Lake, it was here we took our break…

…on the dam.

With care we crossed the stream.

We all managed to cross without incident…

…before heading up to Horton Church…

…and its accompanying vicarage.

Finally we headed down towards our cars, arriving just before the rain restarted…

…and added to these additional pools. We were fortunate in completing our walk without getting wet!