Up in the clouds

Over the weekend Adam and I went for a walk on the Malvern Hills with friends Tom and Suzie. Unlike our previous walk, where we had beautiful blue skies and sunshine, this day had low cloud and light rain. Despite the inclement weather we decided we’d go ahead with our planned outing.

After parking in Great Malvern we walked up through the Rose Bank Gardens and up a steep path to St Ann’s Well Cafe. The beautiful building the cafe’s contained in was surrounded by mist and the autumn colours of the trees. It looked like something out of a fairytale!  My companions told me it’s worth a visit in every season to experience the different beauty each change in weather brings.

We were all a little puffed by the time we reached St Ann’s, so decided tea and cake was the best way to energise ourselves for the remainder of our walk.

It didn’t take long after we left the cafe to reach the sparsely vegetated tops of the hills. The cloud wasn’t budging at all but it added a somewhat mythical and magical quality to the walk.

Because of the mist it was difficult to determine just how many other intrepid walkers were on the hills. Often you could hear people talking but couldn’t see where they were. When we reached the Beacon (the high point of the hills),  we realised we weren’t the only people braving the conditions! Despite the lack of scenery, Tom insisted on getting a group photo.

We trundled along the hills heading north, descending into grazing land and woodland. The grass was damp from rain the night before, and I think all of us nearly lost our footing on the way down!

By the time we finished the walk, we’d clocked up around 9.5km (6 miles).  The only thing left to do was head to the pub for a pint to reward ourselves.  You know what the funny thing was, right as we were about to go inside, the cloud cleared on the hills! A good excuse to do a repeat trip soon.