WALK REPORT

ASHBOURNE, DECEMBER 3rd 2006

We were woken early by the rain and wind on the bedroom window. The overnight storm was blowing through as promised. Wasn’t it a bit silly to go walking in weather like this? 

The bus departed promptly if not quite full. Conversations stilled for a few seconds on the motorway as the bus rocked in the wind. The first group were off the bus before 9.30am. John Bastow’s group descended at 9.45. The bus had climbed the hill out of Cromford to leave us at Black Rock on the High Peak Trail. Our thoughtful leader had spared us the long incline from Cromford. We set off for Middleton Top through cuttings and tunnels pausing at restored industrial workings. Fears about the weather disappeared in a glorious morning; a cold but lively wind, clear blue skies and that milky misty morning light of winter. Superb!

The views from Middleton Top were delightful. We lingered. Some of the group welcomed the public loo. All part of our leader’s careful plan. As we walked the conversation turned to winters when we were young. Was it true that they were colder then? John remembered scraping snow off the inside of his window. Others remembered ice and cold lino. Lino, ‘eh you were lucky! It was one of those conversations. We looked down over the great stretch of Carsington Water in the valley below. 

We paused for coffee before turning south on to the Limestone Way. Through muddy fields and farmyards, across swollen brooks and streams we picked our way carefully to Ballidon emerging on a road awash with concrete dust left by lorries traveling from the quarry hidden behind the hills above the village. We paused waiting for the group to catch up. “We nearly lost you,” they said. “Must try harder next time,” said John.

Lunch was taken sitting on the benches beneath the trees of the village green at Parwich. “When I was getting my kit out last night,” started John. But we never heard the rest, it being mixed company. As we started on dessert, the rain came. The pessimists put on their overtrousers. The optimists waited. In this Test the pessimists won. Overtrousers all out.

There followed a short interval tour, in the rain, of the back gardens of Parwich as we searched for the path to Tissington. It had been moved to accommodate a small housing development and the OS had not caught up. We found the path and climbed out of the village. The sun came out. We stood on the hill and looked back over the village settling in a bowl of hills. A small rainbow reached into the sky.

By 2.30pm we were in Tissington. Early. Those who walk with John know that he is engaged in a long standing study of the toasted teacakes of Derbyshire. He suggested pausing at Tissington Barn but we decided to walk on and take tea in Ashbourne. We set off for the Tissington Trail south. We came to a second public loo. All part of our leader’s careful plan. What an artist. From henceforth, it was suggested, he should be known as TwoLoos Per Trek.

“It’s all downhill from now on,” he said. We believed him, as we always do. “But there is a sting in the tail,” he said. As there always is, we thought. The sting turned out to be the walk uphill through Ashbourne. But for the last mile we ignored the high road and took the low road through the recently restored and reopened Ashbourne tunnel to reach the bus station and the bus.

The whole group ended the day as planned in Spencers Bakery and Teashop on the Market Square. The toasted teacakes were declared to be vastly superior to those last taken at Monyash. A superb days walking with great views and splendid countryside. We were lucky with the weather and, as ever, enjoyed good company and good conversation all the way. Thank you John for yet another great day out.

Chris Hunt