Back in July we were due to spend a week in a holiday cottage in the tiny village of Foolow in The Peak District. It didn’t exactly go to plan … with the start of our holiday being delayed by two days because the holiday cottage had no hot water or heating … and coming back a day early because Martin was struck down for most of the week with, what we can only think must have been, food poisoning.
Luckily we took mum away with us so I at least had some company whilst Martin was confined to barracks and we did manage to get out and about a bit.
We arrived on Sunday and by Sunday evening Martin was not feeling well at all. He did risk venturing out on the Monday, but it was pretty much a case of him dropping mum and I off and then picking us up again a bit later.
Our first drop off was at the top end of Padley Gorge ...
... where the plan was for mum and I to walk to Grindleford Station, where Martin would wait for us. As ever the views at the top were just lovely ... 
It so looked like there was someone laying in the river ... but upon closer inspection it was just a couple of boulders ... but it had me fooled for a bit.
I don't think I'll ever tire of the views from the top of the Derwent Dam ... it really is a lovely spot ...
I did have to do a bit of a double take here ...
It was a lovely walk down through the gorge, though we were up away from the river for the last part ...
Eventually we saw evidence that we were still on the right track ...
It was a fairly steep descent down to the station and we were very glad that Martin had dropped us at the top rather then the bottom!
After a bit of a pitstop we took the short drive to Surprise View car park, where the plan was to risk a short walk along Millstone Edge ...
It really was beautiful up there, the heather was just starting to flower ...
... and the views from the footpath were amazing ...
Things didn’t quite go to plan, as the weather soon came in ...
... and we opted to cut our walk short, before we got soaked through ...
We opted for a drive to the Longshaw Estate car park and had some light refreshment and partook of the facilities, whilst waiting for the weather to pass over.
Once the weather had perked up a bit we headed up to the reservoirs, where Martin dropped mum and I in Fairholmes car park. We walked up to the Derwent dam to find it dry as a bone … totally different to when Martin and I visited a couple of years ago ... it was still pretty impressive though ...
We walked up the steps, which are a real killer, to the top of the dam where Martin was picking us up ...
There was time for a few selfies ...
... before jumping in the car and driving right up to the top of the reservoirs, where we managed a quick sandwich with a view ...
The last time Martin and I had been up here there had been lots of rain so it was really strange for us seeing the water levels so low.
We headed back down, with a few photo stops along the way ...
... before passing back over the bridge ...
... to start making our way back to Foolow.
There were two more quick stop offs planned for the way back … the first to see if we could find the Yorkshire Bridge falls which turned out to be very straightforward ...
... and the second to find the stepping stones at Hathersage. We managed to find somewhere to park up just off the main road and we left Martin in the car whilst mum and I headed over the fields to see what we could find.
We weren’t disappointed ...
We made our way back to the car and decided to call it a day ... heading back to Foolow and The Old Dairy 😀
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I was fooled by those boulders in your photo as well. Uncanny resemblance to somebody in the water. Hope poor Martin recovered eventually. X
ReplyDeleteIt was really strange … I was all set to get into rescue mode 😂😂😂. It took a while but Martin is fully recovered now … just in time for an operation on his ankle, so we are hoping he will be a bit more mobile once he’s recovered 🤞🤞🤞
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