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…
