Saturday 8 April 2017 7 miles
Hilary + Jane
Lovely and sunny.
As we reached the lane Hilary zipped off the trouser legs, tea shirt and shorts weather for Hilary. A group of walkers passed us.
From the lane we climbed shortly to a gate, then off to the right to another gate, it was a wrought iron gate a little incongruous out in the countryside. There was a slope to the left going upwards we decided to go to the top to see the view. The group of walkers were on the other side of the wall. We then needed to look for a tree with a big yellow arrow on it, but we couldn't see them. When we went to the bottom by the stone walls there was a yellow arrow sign tucked into the wall, presumably the tree doesn't exist anymore. We went around the walls and into the woodland. The path wasn't very clear, the gradual slope upwards brought us to another path, where a gentleman from the walking group was trying to have a pee behind a wall.
There was a bit of a climb up to Taxal Edge, but the view from the top was lovely. As we stood and looked at the view the walking group passed us, one lady had decided to turn back she was fed up of being at the back and never being given the chance to get her breathe before the front walkers started again.
People were climbing the Windgather Rocks, there were plenty of cars parked on the road below.
We walked along the ridge, the walking group had stopped in the shelter of a wall to have their lunch. We continued looking for somewhere to stop and eat. The area was more exposed as we got to the car park, so we continued down a steep bit of road, with cyclists challenging themselves to stay on the bike.
We went through a gate and sat at the edge of the field and had our lunch overlooking the valley. There was a bit o a cool breeze coming through the gate but there was a lovely view, rather then sitting by the road.
By Jenkins Church we met an Australian couple who live in Derby. One of them was born in the UK and the other in Australia. They were doing a 12 mile walk. They were very chatty and told us they vote to leave Europe.
In places it was not easy to follow the directions. We started across a field because the arrow was pointing that way but in the end had to walk through a gate across that field and onto the lane (we could have been on the lane from the beginning!)
We crossed a stream then passed by a variety of barns and up to the farmhouse, then the instructions said to follow some steps, but these hardly existed and the hedge was in the way. We crossed the stream again but a tree had fallen at the end of it, but a path had been made through the branches.
Also met an American man who has settled in the Peak District after travelling the world. We mainly got to chat with him because his dog kept following us.
Went to the Swan Inn in Kettleshulme, I had tea and raspberry pavlova ice cream, and Hilary had coke and a bowl of chips!
