Stalybridge - Day 2 (Day trip to Bakewell)

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Bernie washed some clothes this morning. It was safer for Bernie to do battle with Kath’s washing machine. It has been playing up a bit lately, refusing to finish its cycle, so I didn’t dare touch it with my history with household electrical items!! I did not want to be held responsible for finishing it off completely. As per usual, Bernie proved to have the magic touch and the machine completed its entire cycle without any problems.

With the weather looking promising for drying clothes the clothes were hung out on the line. Albert collected Kath from the hairdresser and we packed the car to head over to Bakewell. Bernie was talking about Bakewell tarts a couple of days ago so we decided that seemed like a good enough excuse to driver over to Bakewell … to buy a Bakewell tart.

Bernie used the SatNav to guide us to Bakewell and took us on a route that Kath and Albert found surprising. They have lived near Manchester all of their lives and have driven over to Bakewell many times, but never using the route that we travelled today. I had the road atlas on my lap in the back seat and even I am a bit unclear about some of the roads that we were taken on. When Syri starts taking you on named roads without mentioning A or B numbers you know that you are driving on truly local roads.

We bypassed Glossop which Albert says is what he would have done, but after than Albert had no idea where we were being taken. We seemed to take some small roads before rejoining the A624 at Hayfield. South of Chapel-en-le-Frith we turned onto the A623 where Albert would have continued on the A6 to Buxton. There was some beautiful Peak District scenery as we drove along the A623 and even more spectacular views when we turned onto the B6465 through Wardlow and Little Longstone. We joined the A6 at Ashford in the Water just before arriving in Bakewell.

We had a couple of goes at finding a car park. Initially we drove around to the big car park near the saleyards, but after parking decided it seemed too far out of town so we re-traced our steps and found a pay and display car park quite near the River Wye.

The four of us took a walk around the town looking for a good café to eat lunch at. We eventually settled on the Tiroler Stuberl a quirky restaurant specializing in Austrian fare. Bernie opted for the debrecener sausage in a roll while the rest of us decided on toasties. In addition to its Austrian sausages the café boasts a list of 20 coffees, including Komi luwak (the exotic coffee made from beans that have been through a civet cat!) and 15 teas to choose from.

After lunch we collected the folding chairs from the boot of the car and took them down to the river so that Kath and Albert could enjoy sitting in the sunshine by the river while we had a bit more of a walk around town. We walked up to the All Saints’ Parish Church. This is yet another incredibly old church dating to the 1100s when King John made a grant of the church and lands to the diocese. The church was originally Norman in style, but today has an octagonal tower and spire that was rebuilt in the 1840s.

Walking back down into the town centre we browsed in a couple of shops. We found another outdoor store stocking a different style of Craghopper pants. I tried these ones and found them to be much more like the pants that I bought in 2018 so I made my one and only clothing purchase of the holiday so far. Bernie still hasn’t had any luck finding a new pair of Teva sandals. Hopefully he will find some before we head home.

Next we had to track down some Bakewell tarts to take back to Stalybridge with us. The trouble was choosing between all of the ‘Original’ Bakewell Tart stores! We purchased three iced tarts and one original Bakewell square/slice for me. I thought that looked more appetising than the ones covered with white icing with a cherry on top.

We bought ice-cream as we wandered back towards the river to collect Kath and Albert. When we found them (they had moved from where we left them!) they had also enjoyed ice-creams, but had paid quite a bit more for theirs. Because you bought them closer to the river we told them!

As we drove back to Stalybridge we stopped at a viewpoint on the B6465 to properly admire the spectacular scenery. We were looking out over an old railway viaduct that seems to now be used only as a pedestrian and cycling path. It looked very picturesque crossing the valley below us. Albert was very taken with the scenery never having driven this route to Bakewell before.

Once again I’m not very clear exactly how we travelled between Hayfield and Stalybridge. What I do know for sure is that the SatNav didn’t take us home exactly the same way she had brought us this morning! We certainly drove along some very small local roads in order to avoid congestion on the more popular route(s).

We were going to drive down into Stalybridge on our way back to Kath and Albert’s but the traffic was horrendous. Instead we dropped Kath and Albert at home and we drove down into ‘the bridge’ the back way on Old Mottram Road and parked near the bottom of the hill before walking along the canal to Tesco. We had thought about walking all the way from Kath and Albert’s but that means a very long walk back up the hill. Doing it this way was much easier!

As we walked back along the canal to return to the car we saw a man out walking his dog … and his ferret! We had a bit of a chat with him about how misunderstood ferrets are and then he picked him up and offered me a pat telling me just as I start stroking his back that he does bite! Fortunately I didn’t get bitten.

At dinner time Bernie and Albert went out to pick up fish and chips for dinner. It was a very popular choice for Friday night with the two of them having quite a wait before they were able to bring dinner home. Bernie sent me a text to explain the delay telling me that they were going to be a while as they had to catch their own fish, ha, ha. Fortunately the fish and chips were worth the wait.

Colin, Lucy and Adam joined us for cards after dinner. Two crazy games of seven-handed Jo with Albert ‘I NEVER Win At This Game’ actually winning a huge pot in the first game! Colin enjoyed a dream run in the second game winning multiple hands AND the game. Two games of Jo with seven people took ages to play so it ended up being a very late night.

As we played Adam shared some breaking news with us - OMG Hugh and Deborra-Lee have split!! I thought they were going to be together forever???



Steps: 11,208 (7.34 kms)

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