Demon Dogs and Alien Cats

     Despite being easily frightened I love spooky things. Luckily the Dales are purportedly full of monsters, ghosts and other Halloweenish anomalies. Near the village we are living in now is a geographical quirk called Troller's Gill, it's a large gorge carved into the limestone by a small river which is supposedly inhabited by trolls and a demonic dog, known as the barghest, which has glowing eyes the size of saucers. We set out to the gorge on a rare sunny day, which diminished the creepy factor considerably.

    To get to the gorge you hike a short way through fields, and in our case a large group of cows.

     The river was rushing from significant rains the night before, still no demon dogs though.

                                                    The fall colors were stunning.

                                  Following the path of the river took us right to the gorge.

The gorge extends a little bit overhead so at some points you walk directly underneath these large limestone boulders that appear to be clinging precipitously to the ledge. I feel like helmets would have been appropriate.

Our first (and only) evidence of the maleficence of the gorge was the mostly decomposed carcass of a sheep. I would like to believe that it fell victim to the barghest, but it's more likely it was knocked dead by a falling rock from above.

     Fred, being averse to water or anything wet, insisted that Bryan transport him from here to there.

 
  Eventually the canyon narrowed to the point where we wouldn't have been able to continue without waterproof boots and a less cowardly dog, so we turned around and made the scenic hike back.

This is the only demon dog we saw that day.

Another spooky thing they have in our area, aside from the reported poltergeist at the local pub (seriously), is something called ABC's or "alien big cats." "Alien" because they aren't native fauna, not because they're from space. I'd heard of people seeing panthers and pumas and such out on the moors before, but it always seemed kind of ridiculous. Then, the other day when I was watching the bell ringing practice at the church the ladies were chatting about them and one older, respectable looking lady said that just the other night, as she was driving home towards the next village over, a huge black cat (leopard size, not large house cat size) ran in front of her car and made her slam on her brakes. When a well dressed, church-going, English woman tells you in a British accent that she saw a jaguar crossing the road, you believe her.