Derbyshire

27 September – 2 October 2018

Happy Trails

Post from John

The summer sort of ran away from us….

As mentioned in the last blog, we had another chunk of house rebuilding coming up (new kitchen). Add to that moving mother-in-law from Bedfordshire to Kent, and it was all a bit much. Anyway, by mid-September we were in in a “Dammit, we’re going to get away for a few days” frame of mind. A spell of good weather was forecast for the end of the month, so we hitched the bikes to the back of Amelia, and headed off to Derbyshire.

Our base was Beech Croft Farm, a campsite a few miles east of Buxton. This proved to be a lovely site, built on terraces in the side of a hill. 

On our first day, we headed off on the bikes to the Monsal Trail. The first half mile or so from the site was along a bridleway and then down a steep hill – not ideal for bikes. However, once on the trail (the track-bed of an old railway) the going was fine. The route took us over the Millers Dale and Monsal viaducts, both very impressive.

We cycled about 7 miles along the trail to the old Hassop Station, where we had lunch in the popular café there. Suitably fortified, we retraced our steps along the trail.

On Saturday we took the bus into the pretty market town of Bakewell. We walked around in the sunshine, along the riverbank with its’ historic bridge and up to the church, passing the old alms houses along the way.

The weather was a bit less promising on Sunday, so we opted to walk over the nearby hill to Chelmorton, where the Church Inn has a good reputation for food. It was rather more exertion than a typical stroll for Sunday lunch, but thankfully the Inn’s reputation proved well deserved.

Another day, another old railway to cycle. We left Beech Croft farm, and parked the van at Parsley Hay, on the Tissington Trail. We cycled off in the direction of Ashbourne, but our objective was Tissington itself, about 10 miles away. Once again we felt we’d earned lunch, so after some tasty soup at the rather nice Herbert’s Tea Rooms, we headed back to the van.

We had phoned ahead and booked a pitch at the Camping and Caravan Club site at Ashbourne (where we stayed back in 2012 on our first trip in a motorhome). It was clearly near the end of the season, as there were only four other units on site! So, a very quiet night before driving back home the next morning.

And that concludes our trips in Amelia for the year - only 18 nights away, the fewest since we started. However, we are determined to rectify that in 2019…