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Published: January 2nd 2008
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Funny sign
We found this on the first day and thought a photo was a necessity So a little tipsy chat on boxing day evening with my cousin led us to plan a trip to the Peak District sometime in the next few days, in the hope that we might get some snow or at least experience camping at low temperatures! We parked the car in Hartington in the White Peak - this is the limestone area of the Peak District - somehow managed to cram all our gear into limited sized packs, and headed off in a more or less south westerly direction. The weather was a little dull, with a temperature around 2 or 3 degrees Celsius on average for the day, which wasn't conducing to spectacular views, but it felt good be be out in the country again with our homes on our backs after not really having done so for several months. The walking was fairly steady, and the worst bit was navigating around or through large patches, or paths, of mud, which I suppose are an inevitable consequence of winter in the countryside, with the added bonus of cows and sheep trampling everywhere. We found our traversing small hills and valleys, with nothing too steep until the very last ascent up to
Trig Point
My cousin Will at the trig point. It was incredibly cold up here, so much so that water had condensed inside the lenses... a small village called Butterton. Along the way we conquered another trig point; my cousin is resolved to see, and be pictured standing by, every trig point in the peaks. He currently has about 12 out of 47, or so he tells me.
We were following the OS map's indication of a campsite just outside the village to the north-east. We arrived at a medium sized farmhouse with a small outhouse behind, a barn, and a small camping field adjacent to the barn, and then followed the instruction to sign in at the main house before pitching. The wind was starting to pick up at this time, the temperature was dropping with the light, and we knew rain was on its way... There was no-one in the main house, or the outhouse, which was obviously where someone lived, and so we decided to pitch anyway. We crammed in my small one/two man tent with all our equipment, and immediately fell to sleep in our bags. We woke extremely hungry, in the dark and pouring rain, and dehydrated. We quickly got the stove running, and put on the chilli (dangerously hot chilli), while i went to the taps to fill
Our neighbours
The chickens were sleeping with us in the barn and the cocks have that uncanny ability of crowing just as you're falling to sleep... our water bottles. The cut a long story short, it turned out the campsite had been shut off for winter, as, it turned out, had the other campsites in the area, and so the toilets were locked and the water turned off. We found ourselves gasping for water after eating the dangerously hot chilli, and so I resolved to find water from SOMEWHERE! Luckily as I went round the back of the main house in the hope of finding an external tap, I saw lights on in the outhouse. A very generous, talktative, somewhat senile and immobile old woman offered me water, and, if the weather got really bad, a spot in the roof of the chicked barn next to pitch. So, although wet from all the time outside, we were in good spirits, and decided that, due to the deteriorating weather, we should at least check out the barn. We found around a dozen very large chickens, but plenty of comfy hay and good spot just down from where all the chickens were.
We duly shifted all necessary sleeping gear into the barn, took lots of photos, pissed of the side of the loft into the smelly, sillaged
In the barn
This is Will and I about to go the sleep in the chicken barn, Little did we know we'd about approximately no sleep. barn below, and drank our small supply of whisky. Our night was broken up by the cockrels which crowed at, seemingly, random times during the early hours, and by the time we woke, I think we thought sleeping with them (after finding ourselves surrounded by them when we woke) was only just justifiable by the fact that the wind and rain had be wild in the night, and would have most certainly been very wet had we stayed in the tent. The old woman offered us more water and some milk and eggs in the morning, and also the opportunity to wash up in her sink, with, get this, WARM water! For these gifts we were most grateful, and said we would pop in if we were ever in the area again.
So, we decided to head back to the car that day because we thought we wouldn't be so lucky in finding a place to stay as we had been that night. The day was much brighter, and slightly warmer out of the shade. The route we took was such that it completed a loop walk from yesterday, back to Hartington. The walking was slightly more strenuous, although
Chicken Barn
This is where we slept the night! overall much more pleasant in terms of views and weather. We found a most appropriate ditch in which we cooked our usual lunch of super noodles, with a side of ham and cheese; lovely! The last mile stretch was in Beresford Dale, a popular walking route, and so we saw about 10 times the number the number of walkers on this stretch than we had for the rest of the two days walking. We surged back to the car, as one always can on the last few steps, and felt we had completed an adventure and a half...
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