As a rule when I go walking with friends, it is literally friends, but for various reasons most were unavailable today so there was just myself and Tony. One advantage of there just being the two of us was that we both had our DSLR's, so there was a little more freedom to take photos as when you're with a group, the majority of whom have no interest in photography, it is literally point and shoot as you hike.
We met in Heatherdene car-park not far from the dam at the bottom of Ladybower Reservoir, the plan had been to meet on the main road but by 8:30am on a nice day there's very little chance of finding somewhere to park. However, at only £3 for a day's parking you can't really complain.
Our route took as over the dam and then around the bottom of the reservoir for a few miles, over to the small bridge where you can cross over to the A57. From there, there's a steep hike up the hill through the woodland until you emerge out in the open near Hope Cross, right on the old Roman Road.
The next section skirts along the edge of the woodland for a mile or so before you take the path past Thornhill Brink and up to Win Hill. It's a steady but constant walk uphill but once you get to the craggy top, the views are stupendous in this weather. Whichever way you look, there's so much to see, and given the time of the year and the areas of purple heather on the vista it just adds something a little special.
From here you are only about a mile from arriving back down at the side of the reservoir, but it is a steep drop back down. Not great when your 3 week old broken toe is really reminding you that it is not happy!
We arrived back at the car at 1:30pm, so we had walked for 5hrs, well our 'moving time' was actually just over 4hrs to take account of a couple of food stops and quite a few photos that we both took along the way. If Carlsberg made hikes...
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