On Saturday we chose to attempt one of the most popular Peak District
Looking out from near the top of Lose Hill
walks, one which takes in Lose Hill, Back Tor, Hollins Cross and, finally, Mam Tor. Much of the land through which the walk passes is now maintained by the National Trust and we were able to do the whole nine miles directly from Bailey without needing to drive anywhere. This was particularly helpful as, unsurprisingly, everywhere was busy on the first Saturday of half term week with a Bank Holiday thrown in too! This was our first walk with lots of people around, we think, ever. It was nice to feel part of 'something' and the majority of walkers exchanged smiles and hellos.
The hardest part of the whole walk was definitely the long, steep ascent
Looking up Lose Hill wondering if
turning round already would be wiser
up Lose Hill from Hope. We both needed to pause a few times to catch our breath although it was encouraging that we didn't look in any more distress than others doing the same ascent. We even overtook a group of teenagers! The uphill had started pretty much from our campsite - all our best walks start with ups - but with a gentler gradient, and then it got steeper and steeper. This photo is of the final incline, presumably paved to help against erosion, and I was considering calling the whole thing off! But, as you can see, Dave (in the white t-shirt) was already ahead of me and I wasn't going to let him beat me to the top! The views once there were outstanding and almost made the effort worthwhile. As you can see, we didn't have a perfect day so I guess we might be able to see even further without the haze. There is an engraved metal 'compass' which gives the distances to other hills and significant local places.
Compass on top of Lose Hill
The walk from Lose Hill to Back Tor was gentle by comparison. We managed to outpace to the toddler who had made up almost entirely under her own steam. The path here is unevenly rocky and sandy again. The descent from Back Tor slowed me down again. It was nowhere near as scarily scree-ey as such paths can be in Spain and I noticed that my feet didn't slide inside my North Face boots in the same way as they had in my worn-out Karrimor ones so I felt far more stable.
It's Dave again!
The Back Tor descent
I don't know why Hollins Cross is called that. There wasn't a cross at the top so maybe it is like Hope Cross and indicates an old crossroads here rather than a religious site. We were being joined my more and more walkers as we continued. Goodness only knows how busy it must get up there in July and August! Mam Tor was our final of the four hills. The name translates as Mother Hill and apparently this is due to one disintegrating edge which has fallen away to create a number of smaller hills at its base.
Mam Tor
When the light is right, we can see this view from our campsite and have been looking up here for a week, looking forward to standing on the top but I forgot to try and see Bailey from up there. I doubt I will return to rectify this! In the ground on the top, I saw what looked like a metal bangle embedded in concrete, but it was so busy I didn't take much notice. On the way down though, I saw this metal reproduction of a pot fragment also embedded in concrete so I think they must be National Trust commemorations of archaeological finds. I don't know if there are any others.
Pot fragment on Mam Tor
We passed Treak Cavern, one we haven't visited yet, on our walk to Castleton. We weren't tempted to stop but I did see this poem inscribed onto a bench seat beside the path just beyond the cavern gift shop. Thwe words are by Judy Meetham, about whom I haven't been able to find out anything, and I think the bench was installed to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Peak District Ranger Service in 2004.
Bench with poem by Judy Meetham
The day trippers in Castleton made the hills feel positively secluded. We joined in the fun by queuing at a shop doing a roaring trade in Bradwell's dairy ice cream. I can recommend the Rum and Raisin flavour and Dave enjoyed his Midnight Mint. The sun had come out by now and it felt like a proper Bank Holiday weekend. Wearily, and with still an hour's walking to go, we wended our way home to Hope for a well-earned Lamb Pie dinner!
I took this final photograph on Dave's proper camera, rather than overtaxing my phone which doesn't cope well with big views. Dave is on top of Lose Hill with our path to the three remaining peaks stretching away into the distance.
We saw a hare yesterday evening nonchalantly running across the
Edwardian footpath signpost
campsite field, under gate and then - sticking to the footpath as signed! - down the neighbouring meadow until we lost sight of it by a stream. I think this was the very first hare I have seen, other than on TV, and Dave remembers seeing one only once before, back in the 1970s. We were both pretty excited, but of course had no cameras at the ready!
Today we've been walking from Hope to Bradwell and back. Bradwell has a very different feel to the touristy villages like Hope and Castleton. Several shop fronts were empty and the houses didn't have the same cutesy picturesque quality. It would be interesting to know if Bradwell feels run down because it's not on the main tourist route, so receives less revenue than its neighbours an hour's walk away. It certainly has potential with the centre having lovely old stone bridges and mill streams. We were pleased to watch a Yellow Wagtail on one bridge for a while. Perhaps the inhabitants prefer their peace to having muddy booted tourists everywhere!
Edwardian footpath signpost
The Anavio Roman hill fort remains are near to Brough and the footpaths to the site are still indicated by the elegant Edwardian signposts pictured. Both are from 1909. The hill fort is less well preserved. There's a bit of a slope around the relevant part of a cow field and these stones are lying in the very centre of the raised area.
Roman hill fort ruins
I can tell you're impressed!
After an early tea, we're off to Sheffield this evening, not that we will be wandering around much of it on a Friday night! Chris Smither is playing at The Greystones and, if you're a local fan too, we might see you there? If not, we will be back at the same venue on Tuesday for one of our favourite singer-songwriters, Slaid Cleaves. And the arty culture doesn't end there. Thanks to Gemma's glowing review of the Matthew Bourne production, The Car Man, which she has just seen in Bristol, Dave pootled online and saw that its tour is coming to The Lowry in Manchester next week. We loved his Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake productions and there were still good matinee seats for the Thursday so now we're going to the ballet as well! Woo hoo!
If you'd like to celebrate our good fortune at home, why not take advantage of this new offer from the English Heritage shop: 6 bottles of their wines or meads for the price of 5. I do love a mead! The offer runs until the end of May.
Dave religiously checks the weather forecast every day so we thought today would be overcast and breezy, but with No Rain. As it turns out, now it is, but much of the morning has been brief showers so the duvet cover I washed first thing (ok, second thing!) has certainly had enough rinsing. We did walk into Hope again for shopping - more delicious Boston new potatoes from the Peak Fruits and a half shoulder of lamb from Watson's Farm Shop which we are hoping will be a cut above the previous two disappointing supermarket offerings. I am definitely getting used to this idea of striding out to 'proper' local shops for real food! And I'm not sure that it actually takes much longer to visit a few dedicated specialist shops than to trawl a big supermarket. Of course, there may be a few things we don't find, but I am teaching myself the habit of spotting opportunities as well. The Co-Op in Bakewell yesterday had diddy cans of tonic whereas the Spar in Hope only has large bottles (which go flat!).
While we're talking Bakewell, we have tried the pudding - warmed through and with hot custard. It is nothing like the iced Bakewell tart! I think we both enjoyed the pudding and it was reminiscent of a treacle tart but without the sugar overload, or a larger flatter custard tart. I'm not sure I'd bother with another though. Like several regional specialty cakes we've tried including a Basque cake when in Bayonne, I'm not quite sure why such a fuss!
This afternoon is looking like an indoorsy time which is actually good because I've slowed down significantly on my reading and have quite a backlog to catch up on. The NetGalley Challenge ends at the end of May and I'm hoping to have read about fifteen books for that. I had got to just one NetGalley title left unread, but then went a-browsing when logging in to publish a review so now have another four, plus the 'one left'! I also have books from two independent authors who have approached me offering copies of their new books to read and review. I loved The Brain within its Groove by L.N.Nino and now have his new novel, Shadows of Us. Also, Anne Goodwin has sent over a copy of Sugar And Snails which has a great cover image. Fortunately Sugar And Snails isn't due to be published until mid-July so I have time on that one - time to get lost in the half dozen paperbacks on our little shelf, and goodness knows how many kindle books that Dave's bought. I really should stop blogging so much and read instead!
But before I do, make sure you don't miss out on the Spring Bank Holiday
offer at Whittard: a generous 20% off with the checkout code SPRING20. Not only does Whittard have the best hot chocolate selection in Britain - the Spanish Valor Cao is still my absolute favourite - but I do love their tableware too. Our brightly coloured terracotta and yellow plates are in storage because they are a bit on the heavy side for caravan living, but setting them out again will be a good way to liven up our new home (once we find it!). SPRING20 is valid until the 26th of May.
Dave planned us a great walk for yesterday's glorious sunshine. Starting
Sunken road
from our campsite, we started off with a gentle uphill along the single track road. The road is probably very old as it has now sunk several feet from the surrounding fields. Tree roots of several species can be seen all through the banks and there are bluebells and cow parsley flowering too. We thought the road part of the walk would be dull, but it was one of the highlights! There was practically no motorised traffic, just a few cyclists and a couple of women on horses. I liked how rivulets of water frequently came tumbling down the mossy banks from the ground above and wonder if they are from springs that flow all year round, or if they will dry up when summer comes?
We followed footpaths signposted towards Yorkshire Bridge and joined
the Thornhill Trail which is a traffic-free walking/cycling route alongside Ladybower Reservoir. The Trail is popular and was busy compared to the rest of our walk. I liked this (pictured) sculpture but am not sure what it is commemorating. I am not sure if the woodland is big enough to be forest, but it was wonderful to be walking with a great expanse of water one side, and trees as far as we could see up the hill the other side. Building began on the reservoir in 1935 and apparently it took eight years to complete and then another two years to fill. The bridge across is especially elegant and the reservoir has two huge stepped plugholes which are overflows to be used in times of heavy rain. I am not sure if the Ladybower dam was one used for training by the Dambusters squadron in the Second World War but it looked similar to those in the film! The even trail surface makes for fast walking so we actually extended our planned walk and continued to the far end of the reservoir where we ate our picnic lunch on a grassy bank by a much smaller metal bridge. The spot had been recently vacated by a couple of pairs of Canada geese with their goslings.
Suitably refreshed and refuelled, our footpath then took a steep uphill course for a hundred metres or so, completely changing our environment again. Now we climbed through dense pine wood which was actually much darker and eerier than the photograph suggests.
Our footsteps were completely muffled by a thick carpet of dropped pine needles and these needles coloured everything pale brown except for where vivid green moss grew on exposed rocks. The contrast resulted in an otherworldly effect and, at first sight, the rocks did appear to have been painted!
Gasping a bit at the top of the hill, we were greeted with the sight of Hope Cross - which isn't actually a cross shape, but marks a crossroads. The ancient waymarker has a different town name on each face - Hope, Glossop, Edale and Shefield (sic). The pillar is dated 1737, but the marker is believed to have stood here since at least medieval times and indicates the old packhorse routes. We took the Roman Road back in the direction of Hope. It's not quite dead straight but nicely level and wound around Win Hill giving us gorgeous views across the valley. The goods train from the cement works looked like a toy set from this height! I'm not used to seeing long goods trains at all. I don't think there were any on the line through Polegate - I certainly never saw any in the hours I spent waiting at Polegate level crossing. However, the line here passes close to our campsite and it seems there are almost as many goods trains as passenger trains.
Again, on this walk, I was glad of my North Face boots which didn't allow a single drop of water to get to my feet! I am considering buying another pair of walking trousers though. My Berghaus ones are ok, but are getting a bit thin in places and there's a small hole in the back, ripped when falling on scree in Spain. Hathersage, nearby, has a branch of Go Outdoors and I like the look of these Craghoppers trousers. They can convert into shorts too which I always find very useful. Perhaps I should wait until we have walked more first though. We have both put on some weight over the past couple of months and there is No Way I am buying a size 18!
This morning we went on a journey of a different kind - boat trip underground at Speedwell Cavern just outside Castleton. A former leadmine which was first worked in 1771, it is now a tourist attraction and quite a different experience to the Vall d'Uixo in Spain. For a start, we were issued with hard hats here, and there wasn't any gaudy lighting! I didn't get vertigo, but was a little claustrophobic at times. Our guide-boatman gave an interesting talk and both Dave and I are sure we would have been hopeless lead miners. I enjoyed the visit, but was glad to get back to daylight again. We did get a good deal on the tickets: by ordering advance joint tickets online yesterday afternoon (access to a printer needed) and choosing the earlybird offer, we got the Speedwell Cavern boat trip and a visit to Peak Cavern at-any-time-in-the-next-six-months for £24.20 for us both.
And this evening, we have another treat lined up. We are going to the NTlive broadcast of Man And Superman which is being screened by Tideswell Cinema at The George Inn in Tideswell.
Hope, where we are currently camped, is only a couple of miles from
neighbouring Castleton which was recommended to us as a beautiful village by another caravanner on our Lincoln campsite. Braving sporadic drizzle and winds that were a bit blowy, we donned waterproofs this afternoon and set out for a looksee.
We had already walked into Hope this morning for a spot of shopping and found the greengrocer, Spar, and the farm shop. There's a post office and a deli too and we will definitely be visiting the farm shop again! This afternoon we turned left by the church, out into sheep fields and along by Peakshole Water, a pretty and winding stream. The well-worn footpath followed the stream initially before heading away through more sheep fields. There are adorable lambs everywhere at the moment so I apologise for including another sheep photo - there will probably be one in each post for a while! Here, just outside Castleton, five lambs were trying to all stand on a tree stump that was only big enough for four so they kept tumbling off in various ungainly leaps.
Room for one more?
Castleton is indeed pretty and has an inordinate number of pubs. I guess this is a sign of how busy the area gets in the high season. We enjoyed a wander around and spent some time in their Visitor Centre which has an informative little museum alongside the usual display of regional products, leaflets and Ordnance Survey maps. We learned about local geology and saw a thousand-year-old stone representation of the goddess Brigantia. Outside the centre were several concrete squares indented with the
Judy Leden stone outside
Castleton Visitor Centre
name and footprint of a famous person linked to the area. I'm not sure the footprints were genuine as a couple dated back hundreds of years, but I did discover today's inspirational woman among them: Judy Leden MBE is a hang glider and paraglider pilot who has won three world championships and also crossed the English Channel in a hang glider!
After the (obligatory, surely?) purchase of what later turned out to be lovely Lemon Drizzle Cake for me and a huge Malteser Slice for Dave - I forget the name, but that's another shop we will return to - we started homewards on a different path around the other side of the village. Stone step stiles are a feature here, as well as many little wooden gates. These steps were actually on the edge of Eyam Moor, photographed on Monday's walk but we went over others today.
Stone step stile on Eyam Moor
The walk back was dry with warm sunshine trying to get the better of blustery winds. I've got a few more photographs to post here ending with how our lovely Farfield Farm CL looked on our return this afternoon. It doesn't get much better than this!
Apple blossom buds
Oak apples - there's a local Oak Apple Festival day
We're both very excited about arriving at Hope. Walking in the Peak
A footpath from the campsite leads under
the railway line and into Hope village
District has been on our joint bucket list for at least half a decade and it feels great to have finally made it! We are pitched up on a Caravan Club CL called Farfield Farm, just over the road and up a lane from a much bigger campsite, and with our best UK campsite views yet. Again basic facilities - water, waste and electricity - but surprisingly our Osprey internet doodad is working well with 3G so I can blog at speed! We are on the single hard hardstanding pitch, so hard that I couldn't get any pegs in, so we are awningless for the next three weeks. The sun has been out practically all day today though and fingers crossed that it continues, so we might not need the extra space for wet coats and boots. As well as one sewn up door, I did notice a small hole in the roof when we tried to erect it here. Maybe we will have to get another before autumn?
Bailey at Farfield Farm campsite
Today we set out on our first proper Peak District walk, a local stroll yesterday not making the grade! For anyone following along at home, we are using Ordnance Survey Explorer map OL1 and also Explorer map OL24 - Hope is near the edge of OL1. We crossed some of Eyam Moor and went down to Stony Ford. I was glad of my new North Face boots through the boggy bits and the muddy bits, and was surprised by quite a lot of sandy bits. We saw lots of sheep and young lambs as well as
The locals are unimpressed!
greenfinches, blue tits, skylarks and a small pale brown bird of prey that might have been a kestrel. We heard a cuckoo too. Walking through heather was reminiscent of some Spanish walks, but here the stems are soft and flexible, not brittle and scratchy as they are there. Also soft was a great swathe of cotton grass plants. I had to look this one up because I hadn't seen it before! I love how tiny streams flow unexpectedly across the paths. We saw several little waterfalls and were serenaded by babbling brooks!
Babbling brook!
We are looking forward to lots more walking over the next three weeks here. I need to get my fitness levels back up a bit before attempting the iconic walks in places like Kinder Scout and Edale which I'm very much looking forward to having heard the names so often! Dave suggested I bake more of the Seed and Sultana Flapjack bars I used to have for breakfast when I was working. They would be be ideal for a mid-route snack!
Cotton grass
We are hoping to visit a few cultural attractions as well. Chatsworth is probably out because they want £38 to get in and the tram museum looked fun but that's £25 which is equivalent to two nights pitch fees! Instead I've been researching local art and crafts online as this seems a particularly vibrant area. There are two arts festivals underway right now. I like Chick With Chainsaw, based in Sheffield and working with Peak District beech and laurel wood. And I would love to try a flavour of the BirdHouse Tea Company's Peak District teas!
There was rain here overnight and this morning, plus strong winds that
Bluebells and bracken curls at
Foxley Wood
made the taking down of our awning quite entertaining. We only nearly had it blow away once! Both the zips on one of the doors are completely knackered though so I spent an hour or so yesterday evening sewing the door panels closed on one side. The rest of it is ok, so we still have three more doors to wear out before we will have to splash out on a new one. Hopefully it will last until summer's end because I have a theory that new ones will be discounted more significantly in September.
Yesterday morning was bright and sunny so we cycled out from our campsite on a pretty route, devised by Dave, which took in several local villages, a short stretch of National Cycle Route 1 and finished up by returning along The Marriott's Way practically to our gate. This photograph shows a view of our campsite, The Siding, from The Marriott's Way just at the point where we left it. Chatting to owner Tim a couple of days ago, we were both interested to learn that his father had been the Station Master here in the 1960s before the Beeching cuts closed the line. Tim can remember exactly how the station used to be and it sounded like it had taken a lot of work - and hardcore - to transform The Siding into the beautiful place it now is.
The Siding from The Marriott's Way
I finally got around to taking a couple of nice photographs of rape fields yesterday. There are so many around here that are in full flower at the moment that I think those bright yellow expanses will be my abiding memory of North Norfolk.
Beautiful yellow rape flowers in North Norfolk
Lunch over, we decided to visit another of the Norfolk Wildlife Trust nature reserves, this one being the closest to us and very different from Hickling Broad. Foxley Wood is an ancient - 6000 year old - deciduous woodland that covers 123 hectares. There are small car parks off the entrance road, but it looked like everyone else had chosen yesterday to visit as well because we had to join lots of other cars out on the roadside. Once parked up, several paths lead around so the site wasn't crowded and we were able to appreciate our peaceful environment.
Bluebells are the main attraction at this time year and the carpets between the trees are unbelievably beautiful, almost ethereal. There is a delicate aroma in the air too and butterflies attracted to the flowers. This cabbage white stooped to drink nectar close enough to my camera. We also saw tortoiseshells, peacocks and orange tips.
Cabbage white butterfly on a bluebell
We could hear birdsong almost continuously, but didn't see any birds closely enough to identify them. Several different flowers caught our eyes though including swathes of yellow celandine, white wood anemones and these gorgeous purple plants which look like a type of hyacinth to me but I haven't identified them yet.
The bracken curls pictured at the very beginning of this post gave the area a primordial feel. I think I know that they are one of the earliest plants? Triffids sprang to my mind and we joked that they might suddenly uncurl to grab us!
We are moving on again on Thursday. A few days exploring Lincoln will be followed by the rest of May in Hope in the Peak District. Hope-related puns will probably be mostly directed at the weather because Dave has printed lots of pages of Ordnance Survey walking maps from his special software. We have also lined ourselves up with no less than three cultural nights one - a play and two Americana gigs. NTlive emailed about their next broadcast which is Ralph Fiennes in Man And Superman by George Bernard Shaw. Coincidentally, we recently saw him in a very different role when we watched The Grand Budapest Hotel in Stratford. Our nearest Man And Superman broadcast is Tideswell Cinema which looks to be in the upstairs room of The George Hotel in Tideswell. Possibly a bring-your-own-cushion type venue? Then two gigs within four days, both at The Greystones in Sheffield. Our Chris Smither tickets have been booked for a while, then yesterday we saw that Slaid Cleaves is playing there too. And he's bringing Scrappy Jud Newcomb who we saw playing at the Saxon Pub last time we visited Austin. I whinged on Slaid's facebook page a year or so ago that he was touring the US with Scrappy Jud but not bringing him to Europe. Now he is!
After Hope, we have a few nights booked just outside York and then two weeks on the North York Moors. York's Railway Museum has been highly recommended to us and we'll no doubt spend hours just walking the city. Other 'must-see' tips welcome so please comment below if you know the area! In the meantime, I'll leave you with some more bluebells ...
Bluebell fairy path leads away through Foxley Wood
in the same way as they had in my worn-out Karrimor ones so I felt far more stable.
by 
. Also, 
which didn't allow a single drop of water to get to my feet! I am considering buying another pair of walking trousers though. My 
in Stratford. Our nearest Man And Superman broadcast is 
