When did hills turn bouncy?

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One of the best things about the UK is how easy it is to get out of London and spend a weekend in the great outdoors. If I'm not hiking through a national park at least once a month I start to feel a little enclosed. The national parks here are fantastic and vary so much depending on which part of the UK you end up in. I never thought I'd get such a lift from spending hours walking up and down hills, (ok I still prefer the down), but the views are amazing no matter what the English weather throws at you. If the sun is out it's a miracle and if it's overcast you get amazing skies, the heavy rain is not so much fun, but gortex solves anything and there is usually a pub to hide out in when you find a way back to a town.

It is so easy over here to get away for a staycation weekend. Meetup is the best website in the world for finding like minded people to run off and do crazy things with. This last weekend was off to the Peak District with one of my hiking groups. I've been doing trips with these guys for the last year and they are a great group of people where laughs are never in short supply!

The Peaks are such a beautiful part of the UK with such a diverse landscape. We stayed in the North Peaks and our hostel was the highest in the Peaks so you get to wake up on the morning and look down over your typical English green fields, rock walls and a mass of noisy sheep. If that's not amazing enough once we headed out for our full day hike we headed over to Edale for us a trip up (well around Jacobs Ladder) to the Kinder Scout plateau in the Dark Peaks with their amazing peat dunes where the ground is bouncy and deep peat makes for a cushy walk. Lovely day's walk complete with pushy 'devil sheep' who have obviously eaten too many a hikers lunch and feel entitled. The hike ended up down a gorge back into Edale and a chance to quench a well earned thirst with a quiet beer or 2 at The Nag's Head, official start of the Pennine Way.

Sunday was a trip to Speedwell Cavern an old lead mine deep under the hills, flooded and accessible only by lots of steps and a wee little boat ride. After the mine the group split to send the energetic ones off to tackle Mam Tor while the rest of us headed off to Litton for a walk by the river with one rather steep hill thrown in.

Enjoy the pics x

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Photos

Peak plants
no idea what they are

Comments

[anonymous]

Beautiful photos Jane