Poor weather forecast: cooler, heavy cloud with early showers giving way to persistent rain - perhaps not the best to be out & about in the hills but if others were looking at the forecast I thought it could deter them & we might manage a reasonably quiet day in Dovedale itself..... an ambition of mine!
Opposite Gipsy Bank, our route down, is Nettly Knowe; a barrow excavated by Thomas Bateman in 1845
He unearthed a skeleton, burnt flint artefacts, a bronze dagger & pieces of jet
Tee-shirt weather down here in the valley but even the sight of a couple of scantily-clad old fogies didn't startle this keen fisherman - just as on LeJog, Les was convinced this was a plastic heron until it opened its beak & snarled at us for scaring its prey!
The old fogies, by the way, were an elderly pair making their way upstream!
View back up Dovedale from Shining Tor, our first summit of the day. We returned later, albeit from a different direction, when it became our penultimate summit! To the right, towards the top of the picture, are Iron Tors where we joined the river at Coldeaton Bridge - not surprisingly, an old mining area
It sounds like a walk for tourists and I have to say that on our last visit I was so busy avoiding rampant children, dogs, pushchairs, obsessive duck-feeders & photographers walking backwards that it was impossible to stand still long enough to appreciate the splendour of the valley though, in fairness, some of the above were accompanied by adults
If you can, come mid-week!
Second summit of the day - Thorpe Cloud
Ridiculously steep climb for such a small hill but well worth the effort
Dovedale's famous stepping-stones; last time we were here people were queuing to cross whilst the aforementioned dogs & children just splashed through the river
Track behind Les is the deceptively gentle start of the Thorpe Cloud route - I remember well the first time I walked here, in the early 70s I think, when the stones were under water & the riverside path inaccessible!
This was to have been our 3rd summit but the sky was darkening, it looked awfully steep &, besides, we were getting thirsty!
Cut across to the village of Thorpe & the 'Dog & Partridge' where we'd paused when walking the 'Tissington Trail' a couple of years ago..... Closed!
Sign says open 12-3 but they'd closed early; a common occurrence according to the lady in the garage but she was able to supply us with cider & chocolate! These pubs had better watch out!
Highlight of the Day: views in all directions from Thorpe Cloud - we'd been incredibly lucky with the weather & to share the summit with only 4 young men, clearly engaged in a longer trek than us, was a bonus
Thorpe Cloud isn't actually as high as any of the mountains we scaled yesterday but then we were climbing from the relatively high village of Alstonefield instead of scrambling up & hobbling back down to the River Dove!
Looking back up Dovedale from the summit of Thorpe Cloud
Once in Thorpe we were committed to a walk back over the hills to the east of Dovedale which is how we came to climb Shining Tor for the 2nd time! One last big 'up' to go, from Milldale to Alstonefield & the car. I raced ahead to order drinks; Les, arriving 3 or 4 minutes later, was caught in the first tremendous cloudburst of the day!
Beer of the Day: very good pint of Jennings 'Cumberland Ale' - an old favourite which some pubs, somehow, manage to spoil. 'The George', of course, was open because it's Friday! Ironically there were only 4 people in the pub, many fewer than had been turned away from the busy garden when they closed at 3.00 yesterday! Q.E.D!
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