I've been suffering with my neck again this week and haven't been able to walk very far, which is most frustrating. Anyhow we decided to head to Bowlees for a little wander with Tim dog. It's one of our favourite places to visit as there's loads of great walking around there, and there's the added bonus of the waterfalls! When we were there last month I picked up a book on wild flower walks in upper Teesdale, so we decided to check one of the walks around Bowlees. I really like this time of the year when there are lots of flowers, and always look forward to visiting the meadows of Swaledale and Teesdale, which IMHO are probably the best in country! The walk starts off in the car park and heads off on the nature trail towards Summerhill Force. You soon come to a large disused quarry, on your right, which is well worth a look round as there are lots of wild flowers in here, just careful where you step! This is also where you can find one of my favourite waterfalls, they aren't named, but its a lovely double fall, just wished there had been a bit more water coming over them today.

Above the falls you enter a shady wooded glen, where you follow the beck up to Summerhill Force. I like this part of the walk as the beck tumbles over a series of small rocky steps, there's plenty of good photo opportunities, just be careful the rocks can be very slippery when wet. Eventually you reach Summerhill Force, there is a small viewing area where you can enjoy the falls, when there's lots of water coming over you may get very wet from the spray coming off it. To the right of the falls is Gibson's Cave, so named according to local folklore after a famous highwayman fugitive, who used to hide out there! The access into the cave is blocked by a small wall, which can be climbed over if you really want to. You'll also be able to walk round right behind the waterfall if you want to, but expect to get really wet, and again be very careful as the rocks are very slippery!

After the visit to Summerhill Force we retraced our route back to the car park. To get to Low Force we headed across the footbridge and past the Visitor Centre, well worth calling in to have a look around, as there's plenty of information about Teesdale in there. It's not very far, probably a quarter of a mile, after crossing the main road there's a path across the couple of meadows, which were just starting to get there carpet of wild flowers, any couple of weeks and they should be great!

You'll hear Low Force before you can see it, especially if there's plenty of water coming down the river. Believe it or not, the river is extremely low at present, the falls are much more impressive when the river is in flood, like it was on this visit in January 2009 To get access to the Pennine way footpath on the south side of the river you can cross the Wynch Bridge, this will also allow you to visit High Force, about a mile further upstream. This wasn't planned for us today, all I wanted to do was to hunt out the Globeflowers, which can be found along the river here.

Here are the photo's of some of the wild flowers we found on the walk. All of these were found on the walk up to Summerhill Force and back, with the exception of the Globeflowers, which were down by Low Force. It was surprising how many we found in such a short distance, and this isn't even the best time of the year for them, July and August been the best months.

Do you fancy joining us for a walk through the wild flower meadows and visiting the famous waterfalls of Teesdale? We are looking at going back up there in a couple of weeks time, probably on a Sunday, to have a very leisurely stroll through the meadows and along the river. I'm also planning to show anyone that's interested how to do those lovely waterfall shots, that everyone likes. I do keep getting people asking me how to do them, so here's your chance to find out and have a go yourself? If you think you may be interested and want to know the full details of the walk, drop me an email