This time of the year is probably the only time that we can afford to go to the C&MC Site at Chatsworth, and even then the prices rose on Fri 15th to a rather eye watering £25.60 a night, probably the most we've ever spent on a camp site, especially in winter. In France you would pay that for a 5 star site in high season, complete with pool, shop, restaurant and bar! Still, it is a lovely site in a beautiful location, even if the crows are bloody noisy.
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| The Pheasant was there to welcome us |
The weather forecast for the weekend was not particularly good, which was probably one of the reasons why we were able to get onto this popular site. We arrived on Tuesday after a bit of a blustery and wet drive up. We picked our pitch away from overhanging trees as the forecast had a yellow warning of wind, then set out to have a wander around the vicinity of the house and have a mooch around the rather nice shops and cafes they have created in the old stable block.
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| The secret door to the site from Chatsworth House Grounds |
On Wednesday it poured with rain. We wandered into Baslow in the hope of finding a footpath through to the estate's farm shop at Pilsley but the roads were busy and fast and there were no off road paths to get there. Still, we had a good explore of the nice village, retuned to the van to dry off, have lunch, and then set out to explore the village of Edensor.
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| an odd gate, but she looks good behind bars. |
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| Some of Capability Brown's finest work |
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| It struck me as odd that John F Kennedy's sister's grave should be sullied by a brash marker stone announcing that her brother visited |
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| Edensor |
Thursday we were again thwarted in our attempts to navigate a circular route as there is a lot of private, inaccessible, land around the Chatsworth estate. We still managed to cram in quite a few foot miles exploring the extensive grounds of the estate and discovering the creative systems and engineering that supports the famous Chatsworth House Cascade.
On Friday we walked the 3.5 mile route to Bakewell. What we were not told, however, was that there is a pigging great hill between Chatsworth and Bakewell! Still, we soldiered on over the bump and down a muddy bridleway into the pleasant town where we discovered a fantastic sweetshop, a lovely pub (and pub lunch) and the delights of Bakewell Pudding. Fortified, the bump on the way back was much easier to handle, even given a couple of rucksacks worth of shopping (Prosecco is HEAVY!). By the time we arrived back, the site was filling up with lots of shed-draggers, taking forever to plant their wobble-boxes on their pitches.
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| Short cut? It is marked on the map as a bridleway! |
The following day it pee'd down all day, but as it was the final day of the 6 nations we spent the whole day listening to the rain and getting increasingly more disgruntled at the rugby. I don't think that she left the van once all day.
Sunday was bright and clear and a good run back down the M1 and A14 to arrive home before lunch and start the washing and packing ready for the next outing.
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