Leek and the Peaks

It was extremely windy overnight, and neither of us got much sleep, with the ‘van being buffeted and rocked quite violently on occasion.  We got up and had breakfast, then set about packing the ‘van ready for the off.  The drive was straightforward, despite there being some motorway and still some high winds.  On arrival at Blackshaw Moor Caravan Club we found a pitch and set up, then Phil was straight out on his unicycle, challenging himself to get up and down the slopes on the site. 

The caravan site is on the southern border of the Peak District National Park, so is great for walking from the site:  After a brief spell on the main road we were soon crossing into the National Park and setting off on footpaths, and a bit of mud plugging got us up to the amazing rock formations called The Roaches.  These huge rock outcrops that seem to break out of the ground reach up to the sky provide some amazing views and are very popular with climbers and walkers. We managed to find a secluded spot to have our lunch out of the wind, and shelter from the masses of walkers!  We moved up to one of the outcrops called Hen Cloud where we got a fantastic view over to the south east, we could see for miles and got a glimpse of the Wrekin for the first time in months, a sure sign that we are nearly home. The views up there were framed in places by the huge rocks and on occasion you felt like you were looking out of a huge natural window.  We ventured on to Five Clouds, a long set of outcrops which was very busy with walkers, climbers and even a large group of photographers!  We sidetracked past them all and followed footpaths over to Ramshaw Rocks, another craggy outcrop which runs along the side of the A53 Leek to Buxton road, it was great to be up on the rocks enjoying the view and not in one of the cars whizzing along!  The return to the ‘van took us along some more muddy footpaths, and we found a ford where we tried to clean Prince off, but it wasn’t deep enough so he remained muddy and happy!

Cold and misty the next morning, we drove into Leek and had a walk into the town centre. There was a remembrance service at the war memorial, so we stopped there for a while and watched the end of the service. We had a walk around the town centre, and then found a park where we could let the dogs have a run, nice big park with not many people in it but loads of autumn leaves on the ground.  Prince loves these piles of leaves and goes frantic when you kick them around, so much so that he gets shouted at by Phil when he bites his feet by mistake! 

The next day was lovely and sunny, so we set out to do a 7 mile walk just north of Buxton which we found in Country Walking magazine.  We parked up by Errwood Reservoir, with the start of the walk taking us over the dam. The sun was out and it was a lovely crisp day so the views back over the dam across the water were stunning.  We then headed through woodland down the Goyt Valley following the side of the Fernilee Reservoir and then the course of the river Goyt. Eventually we crossed some fields and came onto a farm track where there was a bench perfect for lunch, nice and dry and with a good view.  The halfway point of the walk was the village of Taxal, with its small church which has a huge graveyard.  Some of the memorials include the Jodrell family (of Jodrell Bank, the space observatory) and a memorial to the “Yeoman of the Mouth” which was the grand title for King George II’s food taster!  We crossed the river and then headed back up the other side where Prince had loads of fun playing in a deep pile of leaves and then throwing himself in the freezing river!  We crossed over the smaller Fernilee dam (the two reservoirs are linked) and back to the car.  We were all very tired, but pleased that we had a flask of coffee in the car to finish off!  We then headed over to Buxton where we left the dogs in the car to go for a wander round. Buxton is a historic spa town which has been made famous by its water, the geothermal spring rises at a constant temperature of 28 degrees and can be obtained free from St Ann’s Well if you don’t fancy buying a bottle! The town has some fantastic architecture, and in places makes you feel like you are in a city.  We passed The Crescent, built in 1784 it is modelled on Bath’s Royal Crescent, then we continued up to the Opera House and the Pavillion Gardens and Arts Centre where we had a look around the galleries and went into the very impressive conservatory with a wide array of exotic plants.  We also passed the Devonshire Dome, formerly the great stables it is now home to the University of Derby, and must have been an incredibly grand home for the horses!  

Luckily it was lovely and sunny morning the next morning, so we set off on the 7.5 mile walk, first heading down the lane that took us to the Tissesworth Reservoir Visitor Centre.  We went inside and had a look at all the goodies for sale (we can’t afford to buy them!)   We then had a wander round the back of the centre and spotted what looked to be a film crew near the lake, it turned out to be the Countryfile crew filming a piece on Pine Martens.  We though it was great that we got to see the filming of one of the programmes that inspired our trip, and waited around a bit while they were doing their stuff and then asked Matt (Baker) if he would mind posing for a photo, which he happily obliged!  After that excitement we carried on along the edge of the lake following the lakeside path all the way to the huge dam.  We had a sit on the wall and ate our  lunch before picking up one of the footpaths across the fields which would take us back.  A bit of muddy trudging later and a number of styles for the dogs to negotiate we were soon back on the lane we started on.  Tired, and glad to be back at the ‘van, the kettle went on and we had coffee and cake to warm up.