Getting out of the smoke

Gareth    General Outdoor    

Living in London is fairly frustrating as it is the furthest away in Britain you can be from mountains, which for an outdoor person is like living with half a lung. It does however have lots of jobs and I am sure I am not the first person who although dreaming of a life in the Lakes / Snowdonia / Cairngorms, has to put up with the wilds of SE London instead!

Aside from walks around the Capital, the main escape, as well as holiday time, is the weekend away. This usually entails getting up at some god forsaken hour to travel to another part of the country where they have the things I love best – hills. Now I have a sprog on order at the moment which is due for delivery fairly sharpish so I have been trying to cram in as much as I can so far this year. One of our recent jaunts was off to the Peak District.

The Peaks can elicit a bit of a snobby response from some folks who might consider the bumps they have not large enough. At only 3 1/2 hours up the motorway though, for us London dwellers, it’s one of the better alternatives (the best IMHO being the overnight train to Inverness / Fort William). Usually it’s just the lass and me but for our latest trip I pootled off with a group I go walking with down south. As per usual this year, the sun took an absence of leave (Incidentally if anyone does see him remind him it’s JULY) and we were faced with some slightly damp conditions. …

All was not lost however as we were at one of my favourite campsites – Upper booth in the Edale valley. For those of you who have not been, it is an oasis of remoteness located around the start of the Pennine way. Part of a working farm, facilities are very simple but the views are some of the best. Nothing beats watching the peaks fade to purple and the sun sneak off towards Kinder. Unless of course you happen to have a beer in your hand which of course I did

Friday saw us head off for a stroll up on the hills above Derwent reservoir. The weather
forecast had been solid rain for the weekend but although the sun stayed away it didn’t piss it down!

It was however a prelude to the next days trail, walking back along Edale Valley before heading up and over Hollins Cross, Mam Tor & Lords Seat. Even though the weather was dicky we had some fairly stunning views. Towards the end, we got a little shower but all ended up grand as we pootled off to the pub in Edale. I think Duncan tried to do his Borg impression at that stage using nothing but a fork and a petzl…….

Sunday saw us pack up but we still managed to get a wander on Stanton Moor before we headed back to the smoke, knackered but with our heads refreshed. A full weekends walking, and all courtesy of the Peak District. Can’t be bad!

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