Walking Wanders
Upper Derwent Reservoir / Ladybower Reservoir
Who: A motley crew of wedding-goers; Myself, Richard VdB and Florence, united by Becky and Pete
Why: Becky and Pete got married! Then we had some time to kill in the beautiful Peak District, and as it was a sunny day sandwiched by rainy ones what better way to spend it than outdoors (who cares if we were in wedding-party attire?)
The Walk: (see the beautiful map below)
Due to our attire, the walk was a sedate one, but it was the perfect place for a slow wander.
Part 1 - the little purple bit, we walked from car to reservoir edge to find a picnic spot. We had a view of this incredible hill that was a mix of green grass, purple heather and jaggedy rocks. All the aspects of the British countryside rolled into one. Deciding we'd better not cross the reservoir on the tempting, and easily accessible pipeline (which imo should be a bridge), we return to the car and drove 50m down the road to begin..
Part 2 - Following the road round, through the Ladybower carpark, and past the toe of the Derwent dam we headed right along the eastern edge of Ladybower reservoir before we headed uphill through the yard of Old House Farm (which oddly is a National Trust property). At this point we were very close as the crow flies from where we had lunch, but there was a large body of water in the way. We were on our way when we heard a loud plane flying nearby. I looked up and saw nothing and then realised it was just to the side of us through the trees, very close. It was a Lancaster bomber! This didn't mean much to me at the time, but I now know there are only two working models in the world, one in Canada and one in England, and at this moment they are both in England and have just done their last tandem flight. So I don't know which of the two we saw. Onwards and upwards we headed into proper countryside. Despite its name the peak district is not very peaky, more moory, and being August it was a beautiful sea of purple as all the heather was in flower.
As we continued along the past, we got a great view down the reservoir..
We were contemplating our route back down when we bumped into a couple coming the other way, somewhat bemused by our non-hiking attire. They were very happy about having seen the Lancaster, apparently it doesn't fly along the reservoir often, we were lucky to see it. They warned us about the steepness of our proposed route and recommended a longer, but still a bit steep alternative. Obviously, we ignored their advice! The path was fairly steep, and probably would have been easier with hiking boots rather than smart shoes, but slowly does it and we made it down in one piece, no problem.
As we were walking back along the boring gravel path we were tempted closer to the water by the beach that the summer had produced. It was formed of soft sandstone which is nice underfoot and good progress was made.
As we continued further along we realised the path we had left was higher and higher above us, making us hope rather than expect that there would be way off this beach further along. I have had this happen before on a beach in Alderney which ended with some cliff climbing to avoid backtracking. However I wasn't wearing a dress then! Luckily we came across a steep grass slope leading back up to the track that was gratefully climbed. From there is was past the east tower of the dam before rejoining the road route back to the car.
All in all the Peak District is a beautiful place despite its misnomer of a name. If you ever end up in Sheffield, just head that little bit further east, so worth it. I can't believe I've never been there before (at least that I can remember) and hope that I will be able to return one day with walking boots this time.
No comments:
Post a Comment