Ready to start exploring again

I managed to get a bit of a wildlife fix while I was skiing in France a week or so ago. Asides the amazing scenery, and spotting of animal tracks from the chair lifts (probably mountain hare and fox), we went snowshoeing for an afternoon in Parc National des Ecrins. This started off amazingly well, as the park staff had set up a scope, fixed on a herd of 10 or so ibex grazing on the mountains on the far side of the valley!

Most unexpected, but we were able to watch them scraping the snow to get to vegetation beneath - must be a hard life for them, but as the herd included several kids, they obviously weren't doing too badly. Apparently, ibex are exceedingly easy to hunt, allowing people to approach very close, to the extent that they had to be reintroduced and no hunting is now permitted.

Now, back in the UK, and with the sun shining, do I detect a whiff of spring (probably wishful thinking)? Time to get out there and explore the locality (as I appreciate this is supposed to be all about my local patch and so far I'm not doing too well at that!). I'm thinking somewhere with a nice view...