After many attempts at trying to arrange a walk for colleagues and an ex-colleague from work, at last everyone was available. And given the location constraints; the other 4 guys were all from the Greater Manchester area the location of choice needed to be somewhere in-between. So a Castleton meet was a good option, just over an hour for me and similar for Richard who was the furthest west.
Our meeting time was 9am, and the place was the visitor centre next to the main car-park in the village; so limiting the chance of any sort of mix up. I had left a little early so was there around 8:40am, and over the next 25 minutes the gents arrived, Richard, then Dave, then Peter and of course Matt was the last to arrive as he had decided to go for free parking just up the road. We would also have 'guests' on the walk as both Richard and Matt brought along their hounds and it was a pleasure to meet them both.
Now the only negative aspect for me was the weather, I just don't like warm weather and hardly ever walk if it's too hot, but at around 30c today it was far hotter than I like and therefore made the walk more of a challenge than usual.
Our route took as up through the back of the village through Cave Dale, a high sided dale looked over by the historic ruinous Peveril Castle. Quite a deceiving stretch up the rocky path and one which quickly gets the heart pumping. Given the time of day, and the particular section of the route it was fairly quiet up here, as it was across the top towards Mam Tor.
Then however it all changed, it was now close to 11am and the place was heaving, walkers and people just enjoying the weather were everywhere. I found the relatively short walk up Mam Tor quite tiring but as long as I took my time I would be ok. I was however very pleased to reach the summit and sit down for a drink and an early lunch.
The rest of our route was a well trodden one, across the Great Ridge until just before Back Tor and then the path over to just below Lose Hill where we took the path back across the fields towards Castleton - a walk in total of around 8 miles with over 1,500ft of ascent and 4hrs walked. Before heading back home we paid a visit to a pub in the village where we had a well earned cooling drink. An enjoyable walk, then back home for a freshen up and then a relaxing afternoon and evening.
Our meeting time was 9am, and the place was the visitor centre next to the main car-park in the village; so limiting the chance of any sort of mix up. I had left a little early so was there around 8:40am, and over the next 25 minutes the gents arrived, Richard, then Dave, then Peter and of course Matt was the last to arrive as he had decided to go for free parking just up the road. We would also have 'guests' on the walk as both Richard and Matt brought along their hounds and it was a pleasure to meet them both.
Now the only negative aspect for me was the weather, I just don't like warm weather and hardly ever walk if it's too hot, but at around 30c today it was far hotter than I like and therefore made the walk more of a challenge than usual.
Our route took as up through the back of the village through Cave Dale, a high sided dale looked over by the historic ruinous Peveril Castle. Quite a deceiving stretch up the rocky path and one which quickly gets the heart pumping. Given the time of day, and the particular section of the route it was fairly quiet up here, as it was across the top towards Mam Tor.
Then however it all changed, it was now close to 11am and the place was heaving, walkers and people just enjoying the weather were everywhere. I found the relatively short walk up Mam Tor quite tiring but as long as I took my time I would be ok. I was however very pleased to reach the summit and sit down for a drink and an early lunch.
The rest of our route was a well trodden one, across the Great Ridge until just before Back Tor and then the path over to just below Lose Hill where we took the path back across the fields towards Castleton - a walk in total of around 8 miles with over 1,500ft of ascent and 4hrs walked. Before heading back home we paid a visit to a pub in the village where we had a well earned cooling drink. An enjoyable walk, then back home for a freshen up and then a relaxing afternoon and evening.
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