Day 48: The Fox House Pub to Bakewell (The Manners Inn Pub)
? 17.94km
?275m
Once we were filled up on breakfast, our hosts Mary and Paul dropped us back at the pub, and we resumed where we left off yesterday, walking through the National Trust estate of Longshaw Lodge. The trail was made for NT visitors, and flat, so we zoomed along and soon started a short climb up to Froggatt Edge, then Curbar Edge, and finally Baslow Edge . The views across the valley were great and we stopped a few times for pics on the way. Otherwise we continued to make good progress on a clear, but rocky, path.
We passed through Baslow, and entered the Chatsworth House estate finding groomed flat trails once again. We had made better progress than we thought, and having planned to lunch at Chatsworth, did so at around 1100. A cracking lunch too – Mary’s honey roast ham in homemade bread. As we were eating lunch there was a splash in the river followed by some baa’ing. A lamb had decided to go for a swim and we watched as it did some pretty good sheep paddle and tried to find a spot to get out. In the end it was clear it needed some help. Every now and again, it’s ‘baa’ sound gurgled, imagine baa’ing whilst blowing bubbles in water. We made our way over to the bank and the little lamb was just hanging on to the side, clearly exhausted from its efforts so far. I clambered down the bank and managed to grab a front leg and the scruff of its neck and haul it half way out the water. Katie grabbed it’s front legs and we heaved it out on to flat ground. The lamb didn’t make an effort to help during this, just lay arms and legs out on its belly! It lay still for a couple of minutes before springing up and running off to join it’s buddies and shaking the water from its wool. Katie gave it a 20m swimming badge and some words of wisdom “use the bridge next time mate” and off we went, onwards to Bakewell.
We followed a path up the hill opposite Chatsworth House, with good views back to it, the route then took us through a wood to descend down a steep rocky path, passing over the Monsail Trail, past a sheep auction, and in to Bakewell. It was busy with a capital B so we grabbed what we needed in Co-Op, a pastie and Bakewell pudding from a deli shop and then sat down with a decent coffee. It had been a much easier day in terms of distance, time and ascent, so we couldn’t check in at the pub we had a room booked in, but we made our way there anyway, booked a table for dinner, and grabbed a drink whilst we did some catching up on journals.
We checked in and cleaned up then returned for dinner. Katie’s hanging kebab was great as was my beef pie. A Laguanitas Session IPA and a Little Creatures Pale Ale washed it down well and a white chocolate pannacotta with rhubarb compote finished me off. What a tough day! ?
Day 49: Bakewell (The Manners Inn Pub) to Common End Farm, Swinscoe (a few km past Thorpe)
? 36.25km
?775m
The pub breakfast wasn’t until 0830 so we missed out on a cooked breakfast as we had a big day and wanted to get going early. Thankfully, the pub were really good and put some cereal, fruit, yoghurt and pastries in a fridge for us so we had that just before we left at 0730. As Bakewell wasn’t on the end to end route, we followed footpaths to find our way back to the main route at Youlgreave and it was only a few minutes out of Bakewell before we had to put full waterproofs on, which stayed on almost all day.
From Youlgreave we followed the River Bradford, then through pasture fields and Gratton Dale. In general it was muddy and shitty, literally, particularly through a couple of farm yards. It rained on an off, but more on than off. The best part of the first half of our day was our first crop field, a waving sea of barley, and we also saw a little stoat playing around in the crops. We reached the village of Biggin and sheltered from a heavier shower whilst eating our lunch in a bus shelter.
The scenery and underfoot conditions improved after leaving Biggin and following footpaths through National Trust areas of Biggin Dale and Dove Dale. We had been tipped off that we may pass some other northbound end to end hikers today and it was great to meet Tony & Julia who have just re-located to the UK from Hong Kong, and the first thing they are doing here is walking from Lands End to John O’Groats! Kudos!
Much to our relief the weather also finally started to improve as we got close to Thorpe, leaving Dove Dale to climb up through Lin Dale and pass through the pretty village. We still had a few km to go to our campsite at Common End Farm, initially following a good track down into a valley and back up a hill on the other side, then the same down and up, this time across pasture fields, reaching the busy A52. Relieved to nearly be at camp, and find a pavement, we were soon checked in and pitched in the dry. I grabbed a shower and as I did there was another rain shower.
Day 50: Common End Farm, Swinscoe (a few km past Thorpe) to Uttoxeter Services
? 20km
?149m
We got an early start because we needed to get to Uttoxeter services by 1300 to be picked up by our chauffeur Bob (Katie’s Dad). We set off about 0610 and retraced our steps, continued along the road for a little bit and re-joined the Limestone Way. We crossed a few fields of long grass and meadow flowers and the grass was so wet it was like wading through water. And it took a similar amount of effort! It wasn’t the most fun walking we’ve had so far, but it wasn’t the worst either and we plodded on through the fields and past farms.
Midway through the days walking we left the Limestone Way for the Staffordshire Way. Occasionally, wheat and barley fields mixed things up a bit and provided some nice photo opportunities in the gloomy conditions. The rain was holding off thankfully but we still had full waterproofs on the whole day because of the long, wet grass, which at one point along a river did reach above the waist! The sun did make a bit of an appearance mid morning but just as Uttoxeter Services were in sight, and we were trying to navigate our way across a field of knee high grass, the skies darkened and the heavens opened, drenching us in the few minutes it lasted.
We reached the services at Uttoxeter and headed to Starbucks in the hope of a seat, but they were drive-thru only. Plan B was Burger King as we could sit in. We were over an hour early so I ordered some things, which were as unsatisfying as I hoped they wouldn’t be, and of course our chauffeur then turned up (Jackie had been watching on the tracker and dispatched Bob earlier than planned).
Our chauffeur whisked us back to our country retreat (Katie’s parents house) where we washed all of our gear first, washed clothes, had an epsom salts bath, then later that evening, collected an Indian takeaway, which I’d been looking forward to, and watched the England Vs Denmark semi-final.
We are taking a few days out here to get vaccines (my second, Katie’s first) and just sort a few things out. We’ll be back on the trail soon and expect to reach Lands End around mid-August.
Leave a Reply