The morning after the night before, I was just to tired to come upstairs and type anything last night so just nodded off a little watching TV, eventually forcing myself up the stairs at around 1am this morning.
It had been a busy day, we left the house at around 8:45am to head off through the roadworks and up the M1 to Morley for Donna's hair appointment. After returning back 'down south' we detoured over through Sheffield to buy some stuff for the en-suite, then the ASDA, Crystal Peaks, dropped off some birthday gifts, visited my mum and then home for a late lunch; Donna's lovely home-made soup.
So by the time we were able to put our feet up it was 4pm. We 'cosied up' with a warm drink and popped something on TV and settled down; but did we? No, as around 5:15pm Donna just happened to mention the fact that we would be able to see Jupiter again tonight as it was a clear night, and that sparked me into life as for the last 10 minutes I'd been contemplating heading out to look at the stars. I suggested it, and Donna jumped at the chance.
It took us about 20 minutes to get togged up for what would be a cold trip out, pack a picnic and grab my camera gear and torches. Now heading across Sheffield in the rush hour is not great, but, by just before 7pm we had driven the 30 miles or so and were parked up on the pass just below Mam Tor. And by 7:20pm we were perched atop the 1,696ft high monolith. Ok, we hadn't climbed to that height in 20 minutes - thankfully you have the advantage of being able to drive to a point about 400ft short of the summit so just a 20 minute walk up to the top.
There was a guy already up there with his camera when we arrived on the top, we had a quick chat to him then settled down for what ended up being a 2hr stint on a very cold and breezy mountain. It was lovely up there though, so calm and quiet (apart from the already mentioned breeze). I took a few photos, we enjoyed some sandwiches and hot drinks, and just enjoyed looking at the stars. As it was a full moon (or close to it) it was almost impossible to get any photos of the stars as the sky was just too bright, and with the distant orange glow of Sheffield on one side, and Manchester on the other it wasn't exactly a 'dark sky sight' - but never mind it was the adventure and the company that made the night. We were also treated again to the sight of Jupiter just to the south-west of the moon tonight, as it makes it nightly track up past the moon - the biggest planet in the solar system in all it's majesty.
We were quite surprised just as we were about to head back down around 9pm when we saw 4 University students stood near the trig point. After having a quick chat with them we found out that they had just driven all the way from Portsmouth as they were staying in a youth hostel in Edale, and had clambered up the side of Mam Tor in the dark and not knowing about the stone path up there. They were rather pleased when we told them about the path back down as going down a slippery hillside on the dark probably wouldn't have been wise.
So, off back home and a much quieter journey, and by 10:40pm we arrived back in our cosey home.
It had been a busy day, we left the house at around 8:45am to head off through the roadworks and up the M1 to Morley for Donna's hair appointment. After returning back 'down south' we detoured over through Sheffield to buy some stuff for the en-suite, then the ASDA, Crystal Peaks, dropped off some birthday gifts, visited my mum and then home for a late lunch; Donna's lovely home-made soup.
So by the time we were able to put our feet up it was 4pm. We 'cosied up' with a warm drink and popped something on TV and settled down; but did we? No, as around 5:15pm Donna just happened to mention the fact that we would be able to see Jupiter again tonight as it was a clear night, and that sparked me into life as for the last 10 minutes I'd been contemplating heading out to look at the stars. I suggested it, and Donna jumped at the chance.
It took us about 20 minutes to get togged up for what would be a cold trip out, pack a picnic and grab my camera gear and torches. Now heading across Sheffield in the rush hour is not great, but, by just before 7pm we had driven the 30 miles or so and were parked up on the pass just below Mam Tor. And by 7:20pm we were perched atop the 1,696ft high monolith. Ok, we hadn't climbed to that height in 20 minutes - thankfully you have the advantage of being able to drive to a point about 400ft short of the summit so just a 20 minute walk up to the top.
There was a guy already up there with his camera when we arrived on the top, we had a quick chat to him then settled down for what ended up being a 2hr stint on a very cold and breezy mountain. It was lovely up there though, so calm and quiet (apart from the already mentioned breeze). I took a few photos, we enjoyed some sandwiches and hot drinks, and just enjoyed looking at the stars. As it was a full moon (or close to it) it was almost impossible to get any photos of the stars as the sky was just too bright, and with the distant orange glow of Sheffield on one side, and Manchester on the other it wasn't exactly a 'dark sky sight' - but never mind it was the adventure and the company that made the night. We were also treated again to the sight of Jupiter just to the south-west of the moon tonight, as it makes it nightly track up past the moon - the biggest planet in the solar system in all it's majesty.
We were quite surprised just as we were about to head back down around 9pm when we saw 4 University students stood near the trig point. After having a quick chat with them we found out that they had just driven all the way from Portsmouth as they were staying in a youth hostel in Edale, and had clambered up the side of Mam Tor in the dark and not knowing about the stone path up there. They were rather pleased when we told them about the path back down as going down a slippery hillside on the dark probably wouldn't have been wise.
So, off back home and a much quieter journey, and by 10:40pm we arrived back in our cosey home.
Comments
Post a Comment