You know in all the years of walking this terrain (Close to 25 years) I can only think of one nasty paw injury on the slate and that was Louis. Louis cut his stop pad on a walk, it was quite a mess and he needed staples and laser treatment to help it heal. I'm not saying there haven't been others but none come to mind, and as anyone can surely see they are huge lumps of slate and not fine sharp pieces.
If you start thinking too much about it then where would you walk your dogs in Snowdonia? Down the high street or on the cycle track? Are the slates too sharp on the mountain and the drops in the quarrys too steep? Is the river too wild or the lake too deep? Is there palm oil or jellyfish on the beach? Or worse still people and their disgraceful rubbish? Are there free roaming cattle and sheep on the the common land? Is the long grass dangerous to their eyes or will they get ticks from the reeds? The "what ifs" are just endless here, if you choose to consider them all then you'll just stay indoors and watch telly, you won't see the natural beauty of this place that we are blessed to live in.
Of course you can have some hairy moments. An old Tali not considering her age and swimming into the middle of the lake, or jumping into a fast flowing river and Ross running into a rock sticking out of the snow come to mind. But you take care, you look ahead and always consider the safety of the dogs, but they are intelligent well trained animals and you must also give them credit for common sense whilst allowing them to enjoy their freedom. I worry more about seeing irresponsible dog walkers than I do about any of this country's natural beauty. Of course accidents happen to all of us, well some more than others eh Ross! And I may as well confess that I involuntarily came down those slates on my bottom and also fell onto it in Cwm Dulyn yesterday. Was I hurt? Hell no just my pride and I would never let that stop me going back there or exploring further and deeper into rural Snowdonia. Just think if I avoided the mountains, the quarrys, the rivers and lakes then I would be missing out on so much, and worse still so would my dogs!
The Quarrys
The Lake
The River
The Beach
