Well today is the calm before the storm, literally, with Storm Ciara due to hit the UK tomorrow bringing heavy rain and 80mph winds with it. So best to take full advantage of a decent weather forecast for the first half of the weekend.
I was off the the Peak District with good mates Tony, Darrell and Nigel; with both Malcolm and Colin unavailable for our Saturday soiree. Malcolm away for a fancy dress party, and Colin, well probably suffering a hangover.
We met in Hathersage a little before 8am, Tony had requested 7am but there was no way that any of the rest of us had any intention of getting out there that early; I do have an hour's drive you know Tony!
Anyway, the route I had planned was around 8 miles, about 1,200ft of ascent so a fairly steady outing. I'd planned it to start and end in Hathersage in case we fancied a breakfast at our usual haunt Cintra's Tea Rooms. And of course, apart from Tony who had to shoot off when we finished the walk around mid-day, we did take advantage of their lovely all-day breakfast.
The walk took us out of Hathersage in a south-easterly direction, then along beside the Derwent River for a mile or so before we crossed the main Sheffield to Manchester railway line to end up just short of Grindleford Station. It was then uphill for a couple of miles as we headed north up through Bolehill and past the remains of the quarry buildings where a good few years ago the stone for the nearby Derwent & Howden dams was dug from the ground. Lots of history in this area.
Next, after crossing the main road we passed below Millstone Edge, skirted along the western edge of Hathersage Moor before heading back down in a south-westerly direction back into Hathersage. I'd walked a few sections of the walk on numerous occasions, but some parts were new to me, and much of the walk was new to the other guys so it was enjoyable mixing it up a little. Ok, you need to focus on the map a little more when doing a walk like this, so not as much flowing banter as concentration is needed on occasions; not like when you do a walk that you can do with your eyes closed and there's rarely a need to focus on where you are walking.
The drive back home did take me around 1.5hrs, obviously we were now into the meat of the day, and the fine weather had brought out hordes of cyclists clogging up the narrow country lanes. Yes, just as much right to be on them, but it does get a tad frustrating when you are in a long queue of traffic behind a slow moving gaggle of cyclists taking up most of the left hand lane. But, if that's all we hae to complain about then life's not that bad is it?
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