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Published: July 31st 2017
Looking at the hands on the clock I wonder why time goes so slowly when I am bored or it goes quickly when I am enjoying myself. It is now D - Day minus 70 days and I find the butterflies are on the up again as we try to plan for the September/October trip. Suzy is in need of another clean. I find myself inside opening the first of her cupboards. It is the electric cupboard or at least that is what we affectionately call it. It is full of electrics that keep Suzy working. Electric boxes that are Suzys brain. Boxes of cables that are necessary for everyday life when we are on holiday. I look at the curtains and think that it would not go amiss to have them dry cleaned. I take off the throws and throw them in the wash. Mentally I make a list of all the things that need doing over the next few weeks.
Glenns passport has arrived back from the Passport office and there is apparently some confusion where to sign the new ones. He signed in a box below the line . There seems to be some folks who sign
where he signed and others above the line. Trip Advisor has many complaints about the new system. We wait to see if we get through passport control without comment. Life is rumbling on. The Grenville Tower disaster has hit the headlines. Who knows how many are dead? Who is at fault ? The Tories and austerity or the Labour controlled councils? The housing associations or the builders who replaced the cladding on the tower block?
D Day minus 65 days. Another trip to Suzy. Second cupboard opened. This is the one that holds tea, coffee , dried milk and other essentials. The things that make life normal when we are on the road. I make a list of what we need. We exchange our Tesco vouchers for tunnel vouchers. I ring up and within minutes have booked the train. It has taken a long time to work out a time to travel. We don't want to leave early. In September it will be dark at 7. We plan to leave Saturday morning around 8. The route has not been decided. Do we travel the M1? There won't be the volume of heavy goods vehicles out on a Saturday. Do
we try something different? I think different will win. We book the train for 13.50 which gives us ample time to stop off for breakfast along the way, have some dinner, pick up the Italian toll box from Harbour shipping and board the train. We will even have time to get somewhere . Sadly though we don't know where that somewhere is yet. Time is counting down and we have little idea where to go. We think a bit and then the days I work are changed . We can travel now on the Friday. Too late to do anything about the train we will have to stay somewhere en route . Perhaps Canterbury. How about going to see Hever Castle or even travel via Sussex and take in Bodiam? No doubt over the next week or so things will bottom out.
In the meantime we find ourselves going for doctors reviews, eye tests, picking up prescriptions and going to Wales for a haircut . Really it was an excuse for our furry woolly friend Sion to go and see his best friend Woolly Mammoth. He had not seen Woolly nor Jo or Zoe since October when they were
working on the farm at Tocane. Since October they had been home, had worked on a caravan site in South Wales and were now working at The Plassey Caravan Park near Wrexham. We didn't have long together. Just long enough to catch up on life at the Plassey and to discuss next plans . Jo, Zoe and Woolly will be busy working until November at the Plassey so we can plan more visits. We are off to Italy . There you go - said it . Italy is the holiday destination planned for September . All we have to do now is put something together . Now that could take a few weeks to plan.
D Day minus 60 - We have fallen back into swimming , the gym , planning . Planning is taking up a lot of time. We know we will hang a right out of the terminal and head for the land of de dum , de dum , de dum. That not so gentle rhythmic tune drumming out of the concrete of Belgian roads. We accept we will probably drive through Germany. We will be passed by Audi, BMW and Mercedes Benz drivers who
will make Suzy feel as if she has stopped. We will probably stop somewhere near Munich. Our first proper sightseeing stop will be Trier. Our second attempt will be made to stop at the stellplatz in town and visit the Roman gate. After that well we are slightly vague . We know we will have to get to Italy and equally we appreciate that is little to do or see between Trier and Italy. As we discuss this we digress and take about Greece. Shall we go back? I think the answer to that is yes almost certainly. We start to print off itineries for motorhomes travelling round Emilia Romagna. We find interesting places. Small and off the beaten track. Just the sort of places we like . It is raining outside and we think of the sun in early Autumn in Italy. The holiday is starting to come together .
My thoughts for the day say that we should not take the surface details of life so seriously and ask me why I do it? It tells me in no certain terms that I must get drunk with the inner peace of divine realisation whatever my earthly lot
.
My earthly lot today involves a lot more planning , a bit more cleaning of Suzy - only 56 days to go , another cupboard needs emptying . This time the tin cupboard . The one filled with beans , soup, rice pudding. The sort of thing you shove to the back of the cupboard for a rainy day. You feel glad of that store when everything else is eaten and the cupboard apart from these few items is bare.
We are off for a walk to High Peak Junction. Are you joining us? After a short car journey we can park up on a free car park ready for a rather short walk along the canal. I need to pay for parking £1.40 for the first hour. The machine however is broken . It is taped up and looks as if it has been vandalised rather a long time ago looking at all the rust on it . So where are we? We are still in Derbyshire . We are close to Cromford. High Peak Junction is the name now used to describe the site where the former Cromford and High Peak Railway. It marks the
southern end of the High Peak Trail which meanders along the canal.
We are deep in the Derwent Valley an area of great interest to anyone interested in industrial archaeology and history. The River Derwent was the key to the area and the town of Cromford was built to service this industrial phenomenon. The town built up around the mills . Large, dark and satanic as they loom over the river . The local people would have both been happy and disappointed at the growth of the mill. It would mean work but they would have been governed and owned by the millowners from the moment they wok to the moment they went to bed. The work offered probably would have outweighed any of the disappointments they felt at the changes happening to their village. They had a place to live and money to spend. Even if it was to be spent in the local shop owned by the mill.
The town was given a large open square complete with a public house /inn, shops and housing. The houses built of the local stone are dark and gloomy. Three stories high with small windows they have no gardens
to the front of the properties. Some pre-date the Arkwrights but most were built to house the mill workers. Chapels were built to service the religious needs of the mill workers and a school was opened to help educate the young. The Greyhound Hotel was built by Richard Arkwright in 1778 for the use of businessmen visiting the mills.
Our walk took us to the old railway buildings. Old sheds that once serviced the wagons that used the railway lines. A small cafe served coffee . The tracks led up to the incline. Wa walked alongside the canal. Knapweed and pink Valerian were growing alongside the pretty canal. Ducks swam between the green leaves that covered the water. Along the way were small buildings all relating to both the canal and the old railway . The line of which we were walking along. A large wharf stood in the middle of nowhere. One side the barges from down stream came to unload their cargoes which in turn were transferred to the railway wagons for the onward journey.
Over the bridge we walked passing empty derelict cottages which once housed workers on the canal or workers from the railway. Over a wall we could see Leawood Pump House . Also known as the High Peak Pump House it was built in 1849 to supply water to the Cromford Canal from the Derwent below . It stands at an height of 45 feet on the right bank of the river. Inside was a Watt Type Beam engine erected by the Graham Company of Elsecar. You will have to take my word for it - the beam length is 33 feet , the piston diameter 50 inches , the stroke of 10 feet and the engine works at 7 strokes per minute. The boilers, replaced in 1900, have a pressure of 40 p.s.i. Sadly we were not able to visit as today the building was closed. The pumphouse worked continuously from 1849 until 1944 when the canal closed. It was restored in 1979 by the Cromford Canal Society and is run periodically. Sadly today it was closed. We did not get the opportunity to see the mighty engine doing its work .
To complete our day out we finished with a meal at the Kelstedge Inn. A pork Sunday roast made a perfect end to what was a fascinating walk in an area rich in industrial history. A bonus too - it cost us nothing apart from the meal. Now that is a bonus whichever way you look at it.
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Katherine Clune
non-member comment
Discovering Derbyshire
We went to Derbyshire for 5 days last summer ... liked it so much, we stayed 3.5 weeks. Superb walking and cycling: rolling hills and vistas, but not too challenging. We managed to catch some well dressing. An amazing mill with lots of working machinery ... think it was National Trust. For our planning, I had a notebook with categories, such as Finances, Insurance, Country Info etc ... all a bit anal. But we did not leave anything important undone. How long will you be away for? We're heading to the Balkans and Greece from October and will probably take about a year.