A splendid day. The weather was slightly better - no rain at all but also no clouds / clear sky. Just a very low cloud / mist / fog.
A lie in until 9.30 this morning. As my rising time was quite decadent, I decided it would be too much to have a big cooked breakfast (like yesterday) - so I just had cereal and toast. After a quick ablute I was on the road to Haversage by 11pm.
I have to say I put a lot of thought into today’s walking route. I was going to go on another dales walk - 6 miles again but lots of climbs and descents. Given the poor conditions I thought that might be too ambitious. My logic was to get high up on the moors where there would be less running water. Also, once you’re on the moor the gradients tend to be more modest. I also wanted somewhere I hadn’t been before.
I have to say, this logic worked for most of the walk and then it went badly wrong. Although, I did plot a route with a familiar first couple of miles. I parked at Upper Burbage Bridge - about 5 miles NE of the pretty village of Haversage.
I walked Haversage Moor last year. That time I followed The Sheffield Country Walk running below Burbage Rocks before climbing up onto the ridge and doing the east side of the moor. Today I was planning to head off to the west side of the moor.
So the first 2 miles was familiar territory- although the fog was so thick it was a very disappointing view compared to last time. It’s a really good path so I did the first 2.5 miles in about 50 mins. I consulted the OS App to find an extension I could do to add another 45 mins in the walk before turning for home.
I didn’t read the map particularly well so was surprised when I walked through a very pretty wood and then came out at a National Trust Park / Garden - Longshaw Lodge.
There were lots of walks around the grounds - some allowing dogs off the lead! Before picking one, I treated myself to a NT cuppa and a Victoria Sponge - yummy! I had to tie the dogs up outside while I went in to order. They were very well behaved which was even more surprising given the amount of other dogs! Maybe after 11.5 years, Tilly has finally calmed down?!
After the stop for a snack (the dogs had sausage rolls and a Twirl bar - yes my dogs eat and like Cadburys chocolate and with no discernible consequences!) we walked down to a pretty lake and then on to the bottom entrance of the property .
We crossed the road and dropped down to a very fast flowing stream. We walked by the stream for about 20 minutes or so and then crossed the busy A road to Sheffield. Once crossed, we were back on Haversage Moor and the steady flow of walkers around the NT property stopped and we were on our own - on the moor in a thick fog!
I tried to follow the footpath the best I could but it wasn’t easy because the moor us so open and there were other confusing non mapped paths. After a bit I realised I was way off the path I wanted. There was nothing to see other than fog / clouds but luckily I had my App so I headed for the path I thought I wanted. The problem is, I only checked where the path was going - not how it got there. I thought it was going straight to the car park - indeed it was but it went there via the 1,500 feet Higger Tor. Right to the top and back down again!
The Tor loomed out of the mist as I got closer. The path was good until about 200 yards from the top and then it just disappeared into a large rock / boulder field. Gee it was hard walking. On a couple of occasions I had to lift the dogs up over particularly difficult boulders. By the time I got to the top (although I’m not actually sure I reached the top!) I was sweating buckets and starting to panic a little as I hadn’t seen a soul for 45 minutes.
It was nice to finally see some folks and then soon after that I found a big path heading down towards the car park. The path wasn’t easy (lots of irregular sized stones and mud) as it passed over somewhere called “Fiddlers Elbow”. I think we were fairly high up with a nasty drop to the east side (thankfully, or not, the fog meant I couldn’t confirm any of this until towards the end of the walk!).
We got back to the car just short of 6 miles - although rather than avoid a big climb/descent walk, I managed to climb one of the higher peaks in the whole National Park!? 1 out of 10 for my map reading skills!
We headed back to Brunnehilda arriving at about 3.45. A Hartington cheese fest watching an episode of The Tudors before getting washed and brushed up ready for an evening trip to Roston (the other side of Ashbourne).
As always, it was fantastic to see Helen and Karl . Also managed to say hi to Pip before she headed out for a Friday night out in Derby. The company was fab with lots of reminiscing. Karl has never lost his ability to tell a great story. And with Helen’s wonderful homemade Game Pie, it was a smashing evening. Karl had just come back from a weeks shooting in Scotland although I think the contents of the pie came from an earlier expedition.
I left at about 10.15 and back to Brunnehilda by 11. Quite tired tonight so I was straight to bed and a bit of blogging.
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