Walk: 11:15am to 2:15 pm, 5.8 miles and 540ft of ascent
The rota at work that I'm currently on means that I have 1 week off in 3; ok the downside is that I work 1 weekend in 3 but that's a small price to pay for the amount of leisure time that I get, and therefore the opportunities for getting out and about. So, as we didn't get out yesterday as planned as Donna was feeling a little under the weather, today we would head out into the Peak District and get to see how much snow was still around out there.
We left home around 10am, cut across Sheffield and out the other side on the A57; the infamous Snake Pass. And yes it was closed which is the norm this time of year when we've had some snow, but thankfully even though the 'road closed' sign was planted just before the bridge at the junction in the reservoir, local access was still possible.
The road that takes you up the western side of the reservoir up to Fairholmes car-park had been cleared so thankfully we had no problems getting up to the top of Ladybower for the start of our walk. We paid the £4.70 for a day's parking and set off on our way. It always frustrates me when I see cars parked a short distance from the main car-park (it happens all over) just so that they don't have to pay to park, do these people not realise that they wouldn't have these sort of places to visit if everybody did what they do?
Our route today would take us around the top of Ladybower just beneath the dam at the southern end of Derwent Reservoir, then south along the eastern side of the reservoir and lastly back up the western side to our starting point at the car-park. The track on the eastern side of the water had been cleared in places, but it was treacherous in part. You really had to keep your eyes on the ground in front of you to make sure that you didn't walk on an icy patch, and there were many. Thankfully though clear patches on the track were plentiful so it was quite easy to pick your way along a 'safe route'
About 400m from Ashopton we found a seat beside the reservoir which made a great place for a sit-down. And therefore time to break out the flask full of home-made Leek & Potato soup; absolutely delicious. Donna really does make gorgeous soup. A couple of Ducks had befriended us as we sat there, but to their disappointment we had no scraps of food that we could share.
On our route back up the western side of the reservoir we spent much of the time on the road as the footpath down near the water didn't look that appealing; lots of compacted snow. It was only as we neared then end of our walk did we brave the path nearer the water for about 15 minutes, and boy was I glad that we hadn't been tempted earlier in the walk as I just couldn't get any purchase on the hard snow, so spent most of the time walking along the edges of the path in the deeper snow as you could get some grip there.
It wasn't long before we arrived back at the car-park where we treated ourselves to a hot chocolate and a piece of cake, accompanied by about 100 ducks desperate for some of our cake; but I don't need to tell you that they didn't get any!
The rota at work that I'm currently on means that I have 1 week off in 3; ok the downside is that I work 1 weekend in 3 but that's a small price to pay for the amount of leisure time that I get, and therefore the opportunities for getting out and about. So, as we didn't get out yesterday as planned as Donna was feeling a little under the weather, today we would head out into the Peak District and get to see how much snow was still around out there.
We left home around 10am, cut across Sheffield and out the other side on the A57; the infamous Snake Pass. And yes it was closed which is the norm this time of year when we've had some snow, but thankfully even though the 'road closed' sign was planted just before the bridge at the junction in the reservoir, local access was still possible.
The road that takes you up the western side of the reservoir up to Fairholmes car-park had been cleared so thankfully we had no problems getting up to the top of Ladybower for the start of our walk. We paid the £4.70 for a day's parking and set off on our way. It always frustrates me when I see cars parked a short distance from the main car-park (it happens all over) just so that they don't have to pay to park, do these people not realise that they wouldn't have these sort of places to visit if everybody did what they do?
Our route today would take us around the top of Ladybower just beneath the dam at the southern end of Derwent Reservoir, then south along the eastern side of the reservoir and lastly back up the western side to our starting point at the car-park. The track on the eastern side of the water had been cleared in places, but it was treacherous in part. You really had to keep your eyes on the ground in front of you to make sure that you didn't walk on an icy patch, and there were many. Thankfully though clear patches on the track were plentiful so it was quite easy to pick your way along a 'safe route'
About 400m from Ashopton we found a seat beside the reservoir which made a great place for a sit-down. And therefore time to break out the flask full of home-made Leek & Potato soup; absolutely delicious. Donna really does make gorgeous soup. A couple of Ducks had befriended us as we sat there, but to their disappointment we had no scraps of food that we could share.
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