Heavenly Crafts

Well, it promised to be a dry day on Saturday, not necessarily sunny because this is, after all, Britain in the summer, so we decided to go to the Peak District. this is a part of the country we have spent very little time in, shocking when you consider it is only an hour, hour and a half away (two hours if you get stuck in a traffic jam going through Ashbourne!).

DD found a walk in the internet from Milldale down to Dovedale and back. The first part of the walk is along the river, then you cross a bridge and go through Dovedale Wood and come out at Bunster Hill, then walk round to the Stepping Stones and then back along the river to where you started. Of course, if the map and guide is left in my very capable hands, you will end up not crossing the bridge, and effectively do the walk in reverse. Not necessarily a bad thing, apart from the fact that the walk along the river is a gentle meandering walk, whereas the walk through the woods and round Bunster hill is very steep, a real killer when you have to walk up the hill and then down through a steep, narrow,muddy path through the woods when you are already exhausted after walking some 3 miles! We are definitely going to go again, as it was so beautiful as you can see from some of the 101 photos I took!

This is the start of the walk at Milldale standing on the stone bridge across the river:

The path then takes you along the riverbank and winds and curls its way along:

Whilst it was flat along the riverbank, there were some terrific views and heights along the way:

This is Ilam bridge where we were supposed to cross to go up into the woods. DD is actually going back the wrong way here, presumably following directions from me :(!

As you can see, the path follows the river very closely:We spent ages trying to find somewhere quiet and secluded to eat our lunch, but it was actually really busy. there were loads of people around, mainly families with children, but also some serious looking walkers. This looked like being a good spot to eat, but everywhere this close to the river was damp and muddy! Not really surprising in view of all the rainfall last week.

We ended up not crossing over the Stepping Stones, mainly just because it was so busy. There were queues of people both sides waiting to Cross with at least one person on each stepping stone. We walked further round and crossed over at a foot bridge and then started to walk up Bunster Hill - a definite killer as it was just so steep! But the views were worth it!