Fri 7 Feb saw us move up from Conkers to the Peak District, stopping at the National Trust property at Sudbury Hall, which also contains the National Trust Museum of Childhood. What a fantastic Museum! We could have spent days there. They have everything - a spacehopper, a chopper bike, tiny tears, Scalextric, meccano, mousetrap, a Dalek, even a Bay City Rollers poster!…...absolutely wonderful.
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| Museum of childhood |
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| "I had one of those" |
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| "Exterminate!" |
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| Mousetrap! |
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| Raleigh Chopper |
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| Sudbury Hall |
Happy, we completed our journey, arriving at Beech Croft Farm, Blackwell, Near Buxton. This is a lovely little site, situated on a hillside at about 1100', with lots of hardstandings and an incredibly sumptuous and spotless ablutions block with large shower cubicles and heated floors. The spacious, level, pitches all have water, power and a cable point for digital TV and the reception has a small shop for the vital necessities. Given that we were a little nervous about the upcoming Storm Ciara, with the strongest winds for 7 years anticipated, we were pleased to be able to site the van with the nose pointing into wind ready for the storm. The wind started that night, rocking the van a bit, but it didn't trouble us too much.
On Saturday we decided to walk along the Monsal Trail, a disused railway track that follows the Wye valley to Bakewell. What a stunning route. We want to do it again! 11.5 miles later we arrived at Bakewell, had a nice lunch, bought a Bakewell pudding and some cheese and headed back on the bus to the campsite.
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| Pooh! Bloomin' cows! |
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| Monsal Headstone Viaduct |
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| Bakewell |
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| Bakewell Pudding - yum |
On Saturday night the storm hit. There wasn't much sleep to be had. We was a rockin' and a rollin'! We survived and on Sunday just sat in the van, buffeted by the storm, watching the rugby on the telly.
On Monday the wind continued to blow, but not quite as badly. That said, the snow decided to turn up, so we took the bus into Buxton and explored this nice town with yet another lovely lunch in the Buxton Brewery Tap House and Cellar.
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| The Octagon Hall |
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| Pavilion Gardens |
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| Buxton Opera House |
We were due to leave on Tuesday but decided to stay another night so we could do another long walk, this time to the delightful village of Tideswell (14.75 miles). It was weird weather - in one direction it was white and the other green. In a bit of a blizzard we set out across the muddy fields and down a very steep hill onto the River Wye, which we followed, passing under the Monsal Trail and up another dale into Tideswell, which appeared to be asleep. Stopping for a revitalising pint in the George Inn, we popped into Tindalls Village Bakery for a sample of local delicacies (a fidgety pasty and Thar cakes). Amazing scoff - very tasty indeed. The hill back to the site was a killer. We need to improve our fitness.
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| Two photos from the same spot but in different directions. White..... |
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| ….and green. |
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| Pooh Sticks |
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| St John the Baptist Church Tideswell |
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| Hard climb back |
On Wednesday, with the wind still blowing strongly, we reluctantly packed up and returned home.
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