February 2008, Peak District

On Hazel's inspiration, a few of us (Hazel, Bill, Martin, me, plus Louis, Andrea and Joe on Saturday) spent a gorgeously sunny weekend walking, eating, chatting and chilling out here in the Peak District! The weekend began with a Chinese takeaway and a good catch-up on everyone's adventures over the months. After a leisurely start we met the Glossop contingency at Hayfield and set off up past Kinder reservoir after much coo-ing over baby Joe. Beautiful views over the still waters, and big blue skies above. Sunglasses in February! Up the clough (let it be known that Louis carried the baby-pack all the way onto Kinder!) for lunch-with-a-view followed by a walk along the section of the Pennine Way which skirts the Kinder plateau past Kinder Downfall and Kinder Low. Instead of turning left for Edale via Jacob's Ladder we went right and dropped down past an interesting House (ask Hazel for details...) and back to Hayfield. Saturday night in Buxton began with Bill's slide show - a selection of past walks to reminisce about - followed by Pizza Express and, later, lively rounds of "Uno" fuelled by my sister's home-made sloe gin... Sunday's thick frost gave way to another glorious day, so after finishing off the magic porridge pot we set off for the Roaches. From Gradbach's old mill YHA we walked along the river and through the forest up to Lud's Church - actually a sort of cave, apparently used in olden times by the Luddites to hide stolen machinery. We reached the top of the ridge through knee-high heather and were rewarded by magnificent views and a sunny lunch on the rocks. After some very exciting wallaby-spotting we then dropped down to watch the rock climbers. A quick scramble back up, along the ridge again, and ice creams at the top! It was a really lovely weekend - thanks Hazel for getting it together. Look forward to seeing you all again soon. Catherine