Up in the Peaks

During my birthday week Mr C and I took a day trip up to the Peak District. For those that don't know, especially those overseas, it's a huge National Park spanning parts of Central and Northern England, an area of natural beauty with moors and rivers, towns and quaint little villages. There's so much to do. For more info click here.

We both really enjoying walking and our aim is to do much more when my shoulder is a little better. 

We walk locally quite a bit locally but Mr C is eager to spread his wings. He completed his first walk in the Lake District a couple of months ago. He walked climbed Haystacks and has now really got the bug for it! I want to do the Lake District too but think I'm going to start small and tackle some of the hills in the Peaks first. The Peak District is beautiful, although Mr C says he can't wait to take me to the Lake District as he says its breathtaking. One step at a time though, if you'll pardon the pun!

We stuffed our trusty picnic basket with goodies because that morning when we stuck our noses out the curtains the sun was out. Ever the optimists, well maybe Mr C, not so much me, we packed up the car and headed off. It doesn't take us that long to get there, around 50 minutes that's all.

It turned out to be a bit of a cloudy day on and off but when we sat down to have our picnic the sun came out for us. 

This yummy scone deserved a larger pic! I'm dribbling as I'm typing this. Scone and a bottle off fizz are a must on a good old British picnic so don't forget that when you're next heading out for yours.

A field full of daisies are optional with your picnic of course!

The views were great and you could see the Blue John Cavern from where we were parked up, another place we want to go back and visit.

Mr C and I were munching away happily when a car pulled up beside us. Black sporty looking thing with go faster stripes down the side, bucket seats, you know the type. Damn, our peace and quiet was about to be shattered. We were waiting for the stereotypical youth to wind down the windows and blast out his tracks for us and the surrounding sheep to enjoy. How wrong we were. After finishing his cuppa and a biscuit or two an elderly gentleman hobbled out of the sports car, brushed off his crumbs and stood holding on to the car door for a few minutes. We got to chatting and I won't go into the whole conversation but it turned out that as a young lad he did some training in Leicestershire and actually not far from where Mr C and I grew up. Small world. After that he moved to Sheffield, I think, sorry if I've got that wrong Ken, trained as a teacher, retired, and now lives in Derbyshire with his wife and his children and grandchildren near by. He was hobbling because he'd had his knee replaced (twice) and it still wasn't right, bless him. We learnt quite a bit of information about our new friend that day, he was very willing to volunteer lots of details about his life, and do you know the funny thing was he extracted quite a bit of info about us that day too. Where we lived, did we have children, do we use our phones all the time, what do we use them for, he doesn't have one by the way, football, and of course about walking and enjoying the Peaks. He then asked if we used a computer at all. Did we use a computer! Mr C kindly informed Ken that I have a computer of some form, be it a laptop, ipad or iphone stuck to my person 24/7. Well, you could have then knocked me down with a feather when he then blurted out that he himself writes a blog and has done for the past 5 years. A bloody blog!! But hey, a man in his seventies (his age is in his blog!) has lots to tell the world doesn't he! The minute he said it, it came to me. I knew I'd read bits of his blog back when I first started thinking about becoming a member of the blogging community. I read my way around quite a few to the get a feel for things and Grumpy Old Ken was one of them. I'm not being rude to an older gentleman, that's the name of his blog. Grumpy Old Ken.com. You really do need to check it out. He writes so eloquently. It's witty, funny and so interesting. It's not the most pleasing on the eye, and lacks a few photos but please, please take a look for yourself, I promise you'll want to read more and more. He's got followers from all around the world and I can see why. His stories had Mr C and I giggling out loud.

Our chat was rudely interrupted by the air, sea, rescue helicopter right above us. We all got excited thinking some poor sod was stuck on the mountain large hill, with broken bones and concussion and needed lifting to safety. Sadly they were just on a training mission. Exciting to watch all the same. 

After Ken had given me some top tips on blogging we said our goodbyes as we wanted to go off for a little walk before the weather turned.

This is the old road that runs near Mam Tor, not sure which road it is, or was, but the road has now fallen away. Ken told us it had been repaired a couple of times but eventually the landslides were too great and the road was closed in the late 70's. I found it really strange and eery walking along this road as it was like an earthquake had happened and torn the roads apart. Even now you can make out the cats eyes and the white road markings that just disappear into massive cracks! It made me feel really strange. 

We had a lovely time in the Peak District and it was made even more memorable by the couple that interrupted our day. We are so glad they did. Ken,with his white hair and white beard (would get away with impersonating Santa extremely well) and his wife rocking trendy bright red hair! And we are so glad that they chose to park next to us and that we had the pleasure of meeting them. I can tell you it made our day. We were chatting about them well into the evening and reading his posts in bed. Grumpy old Ken certainly made an impression! Here's the link to his blog, please click it now and go and say hi, and tell him the lady from the picnic in the peaks with the rescue helicopter sent you!

We're looking forward to going back and we'll be on the look out for the black car with the go faster stripes!

Have you visited the Peak District? Any tips on where we should visit? Please let me know. I'd love to hear from you.