Hike Norfolk Camping Trip 2021 – Day 3

This is the little story of the Hike Norfolk camping trip, but since it’s a private trip and I’ll get into trouble if I try to give all of the behind the scenes gossip away, I’ll only give a taster of the event. Thirteen of us went on the trip and it was a three night stay in Edale which is in the Peak District in Derbyshire and where I started a walk from last year. Here’s day one and here’s day two.

There was no Richard on the walk (he had gone shopping) so 12 of us took on the walk which went from Edale following a path by the side of the graveyard of Edale church.

The footpath sign taking us towards the direction of Castleton.

I think this is the same stream that runs at the base of the campsite that we’re staying at.

The weather was moderate as we started off, but dark clouds were often on the horizon. I never read the weather forecast as it annoys me, but there was apparently (as others in the group are more assiduous than I am in their following climate issues) very conflicting information from the weather forecasters with some sources predicting rain and some predicting, well, no rain. It transpired there was quite a lot of rain later on in the day.

This landscape might look beautiful, but look closely and there’s an enormous bull in the middle of the field.

At this point I removed myself from being at the front of the group to being right in the middle of it. The bull made lots of noise and started to walk quickly towards the group. Ian, who is ridiculously brave (and frankly perhaps too brave), walked towards it and the bull then rushed off. That’s the sort of person that you need in an emergency…..

We reached the summit of the mountain (technically a hill) that we were climbing and I was delighted to see that they’d paved the section to Mam Tor. I approved of this. The rain picked up quite heavily at this point, a situation that wasn’t entirely ideal.

And the top of Mam Tor, which Wikipedia tells me means “mother hill”. It also tells me that the Mam Tor is alternatively known as Shivering Mountain, which I prefer since it has the word mountain in it and so makes the walk sound more difficult. Incidentally, I’ve only just discovered there’s an abandoned road (the A625) here which dates from the 1800s and was repaired until 1979 when a replacement was built. I want to see this next time I’m visiting the area…..

Not a shop in sight…. BTW, good news about Richard’s shopping, he acquired an expensive bed for his giant tent.

These flagstones fascinated me and I know that means that I really should get out more. But they are reused from cotton mills and many of them have holes in them from where things were attached to them. It really does feel like walking on history and the current property owners are pleased that they’re being reused, as previously they were a nightmare to get rid of. Apparently the stones are placed with care by hand, although goodness knows those big heavy lumps are moved into position. They have also been surfaced to avoid being slippery and I can confirm that I didn’t slip or slide once during the day.

Some more landscape photos from the walk. We descended back down into Edale via a slightly different route to Jacob’s Ladder. We also saw a very brave cyclist pedalling his bike up the hill on a stony and rocky surface. I admired his fortitude.

As we made good time a number of us decided to visit the Swiss Tap in Castleton. I went there last year and I’ll write about it separately again. I think we slightly annoyed the staff member by paying separately, but one person in the group kept ordering the most decadent gin he could afford and we couldn’t incorporate that into rounds.

We then decided to go over the road to the Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Inn. Since I’ve already written about that, I won’t add much more, but I will note that I was able to charge my phone up in both pubs. Having power in my devices is essential to me, and this gave me confidence that I had enough to get me through the entire camping trip, which was a burden lifted from my mind.

Then it was back into Edale to enjoy another pub, which was the Nag’s Head, and I’ll again write that up separately. The beer was though acceptable, and indeed better than I had expected, and so all was well with the world. I have to confess to being quite tired by this stage of the day. Two nights of broken sleep whilst camping and lots of hill walking had rather taken it out of me. I then remembered that I’m not as young as I once was, although I’m still unsure that I always act my age. But there we go, maybe one day.

It was then back to the campsite and it decided at that point to pour down with rain. Fortunately, we had nearly finished the five minute walk to the campsite before it really started to rain hard, so I was firmly ensconced in my tent by the time of the almost Biblical deluge. There’s something rather pleasant and primeval being inside a warm tent (well, a sort of warm tent) though whilst the rain hits the side. I’m also pleased to report that the tent remained intact and undamaged, although another member of our group did spring a leak overnight…..