As the week progressed the weather forecasts got worse and worse, culminating in a call from our Peaks resident member saying ,“ You are surely not coming up at the weekend?!. It’s like the end of the world up here”. This was accompanied by phone calls and texts from prospective participants crying off owing to the predicted storms.
However some are made of sterner stuff, or are just plain silly, but at least two made the early Friday start and were constructing their newly acquired large Vango in the top field at North Lees by mid day. There were no more than six other tents on the entire site. At least it wasn’t raining, and a visit to Hathersage and the Outside tea rooms (which one member felt were not as good as she remembered, details on request), was followed by a visit to Burbage North. Two routes were ascended. The rock was dry and the sun peeked out but complaints due to the cold wind brought the expedition to a conclusion.
A warming meal, prepared in the big top sized porch of the new tent preceded a night of showers which provided a test of the weatherproofing.
This test was passed, but the livestock test proved less successful as in the morning evidence of intrusion by a small creature, in the form of tiny bits of silver paper, and a small hole in a food bag indicated that we had not been alone in the night.
Against all predictions Saturday was sunny and dry, but a chilly wind resulted in a decision to walk rather than climb, Ruth joining a Park Ranger walk, looking for caves and archaeological remains, while I visited several locations with short drives between.
In the evening we had arranged to meet Tony and Helen in the Little John for a meal with the traditional large portions. An interesting item reported was that two weeks ago they had experienced a considerable fall of snow although it did thaw quite quickly.
Sunday involved a visit to the village of Eyam, its history during the attack of the plague in the 1600’s being commemorated with several plaques on houses round the high street. It is now a very picturesque location with at least two tea shops, one of which was sampled before the drive home. Overall a very enjoyable trip proving it sometimes pays to ignore the weather forecasts.
Dick