Back to the normal size (overlong!) blog with plenty of walk chat, pictures and self-obsessed reflections - you have been warned!
As someone that is 70% deaf, Ive always thought that a sense of smell is probably the least useful sense. Certainly spending 3 days and nights in a car and small caravan with 2 filthy dirty, wet and smelly dogs - as well as a filthy dirty smelly old man - is something where a heightened sense of smell is an absolute curse!!
Today’s weather lived up to that infamous comment - if you don’t like the weather in the UK, don’t worry, wait 10 minutes and you’ll get something different. We had warm sunshine, wind, drizzle, mist, fog, light rain and heavy rain - what a treat!
The day started off well. A quick walk around the dog walking field and then I treated myself to a breakfast baguette from the on-site cafe - Daisy’s Cafe. Although Daisy was no where to be seen just a couple of friendly middle aged chaps. Benny was rather jealous. He’s now fully dosed up and food scrounging to his usual high standards.
I spent a long time this morning trying to work out the best walk. To avoid the mud I decided it would be best to stick to old railway line routes and then head high and be on the top of the dales not down where the water (and mud) are. It sorta worked! I had a couple of short listed routes from my OS App but went for the one closest to home.
So, after a quick trip into Tideswell to order some Tidsa Puddings to pick up tomorrow am, I headed back to the car back at Millers Dale on the Monsal Trail. NB Tidsa Puddings are like Bakewell Puddings but from Tideswell not Bakewell. I’ve been invited round to Jeannie and Pete’s for dinner on Saturday so this will be the pudding!
When I set off from Millers Dale station on the Monsal Trail the sun was shining and it felt very Spring like. The trade off for keeping out the mud was going to be negotiating a fair amount of dogs (no problem) and cyclists (more of a problem). Generally speaking the dogs were very good - in fact we had a couple of compliments! When a cyclist was coming towards me, I grabbed Tilly and told Benny to lie down. He always does and waits for me to let go of Tilly before he jets off again. It looks like he is focussing on me and waiting for the ok. He’s not - he’s focussing on his beloved Tilly. On the one occasion I didn’t hold Tilly ( I got cocky!), she darted out at the lady cyclist with Benny following close behind. I apologised profusely but she was very nice. The lady cyclist, not Tilly. Tilly is an a*se!
Talking of being an a*se - walking on my own brings out the worse in me. I enjoy having a cheery hello and inane chat about the weather with fellow dog walkers but those bloody cyclists. Only about 3 in 5 bother to say thank you (or smile) for all my shenanigans to keep the dogs from running up to them. The 2 in 5 that cycle by and say nothing are to my petty mind the lowest of the low - probably entitled Tory voters! I end up going all passive aggressive and muttering “you’re welcome” under my breath. Then I’ll start tutting and even shaking my head. None of them take a blind bit of notice and quite right too! They have every right to expect me to control my dogs. It still doesn’t mean I have to like the ignorant knobheads though! Imagine a bird watcher on a bike?!? Their obnoxiousness would be off the scale!!
So the walk consisted of an easy 3 miles on the Monsal Trail through the Litton and Cresswell tunnels to the Monsal Head viaduct. I thought about a refreshing pint at the pub but I’m ashamed to say the very steep steps put me off.
We headed up the side of Monsal Dale onto the top of the dales - somewhere called High Field. We stopped for refreshments when at the top.
While we rested we were treated to some nice views and a rainbow! The weather had taken a turn for the worse as we gained altitude.
Then there was a pleasant walk across the top of Taddington Dale. The views were magnificent and there was no one up there to spoil it - I think I saw one couple in over an hour of walking.
It was then a small drop down to High Dale. I followed this wee Dale (no stream) for a mile or so. At this stage I was really enjoying myself. I was mulling over the walk so far and rating it as one of the nicest, if not the nicest, walk I’d had in Derbyshire so far.
Then it all changed. Within 10 minutes it had gone from the best Dales walk ever to some sort of masochistic Army assault course! Firstly, the heavy rain started. Then Benny did his usual trick, noticed I’d been free of carrying a dog poo bag for an hour, so he pooed and waited for me to pick it up. There was no chance of flicking this one into the hedge - this was more chicken tikka masala than seekh kebab! It then got very very muddy. So I was slipping and sliding all over the place with my walking stick in one hand and the poo bag in the other. Just to finish me off we then had to navigate about 4 or 5 Derbyshire Dales stiles. Impossible for the dogs to get over necessitating me to hoist them onto the top of the wall and letting them jump down. Benny decided to squeal like a pig whenever I lifted him up - thankfully no one was around as they would have assumed I was doing awful things to him.
The rain eventually stopped. We trooped through a lot of very muddy footpaths and then onto a small road that took us through the tiny village of Priestcliffe. It was then I was faced with a dilemma - a gentle descent into Millers Dale and the car park - albeit with a 1/2 mile walk along the main road or a very hairy and steep descent through a forest and pop out right opposite the car park. I chose the later - but then wished I hadn’t!
The track down was incredibly steep and very muddy. There were a lot of steps that made things slightly easier but some patches were just slopes of mud that I had to slide (ski!) down with my stick keeping me upright - just about!
A quick run up the steps to the Monsal Trail and the station car park. It felt good to be “home”. In the end I had been gone just short of 4 hours and completed 8.3 miles.
As with most other walks, the 4 hours were a useful mental cleanse. I didn’t spend the time thinking about the fact Kim wasn’t with me. She would have hated a walk like today and therefore I don’t dwell on the fact she’s not with me. It would have been very different if I was poking around a pretty little town with lots of coffee shops - which is why I stick to walking down muddy dales and not poking around pretty little towns with coffee shops!
I’ve read a lot of Marcus Aurelius lately and find his “stoic” approach to life very helpful in preventing me from spending my time reflecting on things I can’t effect and not dwelling on my life mistakes. His view that we’ve never made a bad decision (it was right for us when we made it) in our entire life is particularly comforting! NB The not bothering about things you don’t control clearly doesn’t work for cyclists and bird watchers!!
Got to say I was absolutely knackered when I got back to Brunnehilda. It was about 4pm as I’d had to pop into Buxton to get some fuel. I then had a wonderful 7 hours slobbing around the van in my underpants! I listened to the radio, ate ready meals, trifle and Cadburys chocolate. Watched 3 episodes of The Tudors and spent an hour or so on the phone. It’s fair to say I’m getting used to my own company and only really missed Kim when it was time for bed!
Off home early tomorrow- the weathers due to be nice! To finish off my short stay here are the “scores on the doors”:
Beech Croft Caravan Park:
Pros:
1) Very clean and tidy
2) Great facilities - including Daisy's Cafe
3) Huge fully serviced pitches
4) Great position for walking
5) Great 5G
6) Friendly staff
Cons:
1) Expensive - about £10 a night more expensive than my normal site.
Post Script. I passed this door on my walk today. I did stop and search my bag for a Sharpie - I couldn’t find it. I had a real desire to write “Hairy” on top of the sign!
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